Our 2nd Sunday in Tavira and it proved to be just as quiet as our first one!! The temp was a bit cooler than we've had....about 20 degrees with a breeze. After a very slow morning, spent in the apartment, we decided to go out for a walk, to explore a different area of the city and stop for coffee along the way. Our jaunt developed into a 3 hour walk into the country and through the Ria Formosa (the natural park on the outskirts of Tavira), to a costal resort community called 'Cabanas'.....kind of a bedroom community of Tavira. We passed through farming operations, salt pans (they harvest some very fine, gourmet-type salt here) and very interesting, diverse and amazing vegetation.
There were rows and rows of these covered greenhouse-tents filled with giant raspberries, that workers were harvesting this afternoon. The raspberry bushes were grown in buckets (vs. in the ground) and the berries were up high in clear rows making them easy to pick.
Some other types of agricultural operations.....we could not figure out what was growing in these fields. The soil is very reddish-brown and looks very clay-ish.
The 'salt pans', which we will write more about in another blog post as we have lots we want to learn about this local industry.
(I think these might be olive trees but I don't know for sure)
Cabanas is 'okay' but it did not grab us like Tavira does. It is more touristy and it lacks the authentic, historical charm that is characteristic of Tavira. Here are a few pictures......
After all that walking, we stopped for a drink and ordered some good, old, comforting fries,,,,,.
I was a bit of a 'noik' because my knee was hurting me with the many kilometres of walking, but it turned out to be a very interesting adventure! We decided to take the train back to Tavira and what had taken us 3 hours to walk there, took us 5 minutes to get us back!! Such an appreciated bonus!!!.....
We have settled into a quiet evening of reading at 'home' on our return.....laziness has set in as well as, for me, my usual Sunday evening melancholy......missing phone visits with our kids, Orion, our siblings and Lawrence's mom & dad.
We are looking forward to the buzz of activity outside our window, tomorrow morning, when beautiful Tavira will, once again, come alive!!
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I sooooo look forward to your posts The cacti with the red buds look like what we have seen in Arizona. I suppose that would make sense as Portugal is in the southern part of Europe. Must go check what the latitude is. I had never given much thought to what the vegetation would be like there other than I knew it would have olives, figs, oranges and of course vineyards for their wine industry. Tavira sounds wonderful . .. I prefer authentic charm as well.
ReplyDeleteMiss you! Hope your knee settles down. j
ReplyDeleteThe agricultural stuff there looks very interesting. Three hour walk...!!! ... good for you!
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