Through The Eye Of A Lens......

We have had such a fun day of exploring Tavira's Castelo (castle) and the city's panoramic view through the eye of a sun lens!! We are sooooo in love with this place!!! Here is how our day unfolded to make it a perfect day!.....

We enjoyed a slow morning and breakfast in our apartment....then our walk to the market to gather our daily fresh food supplies....then we went to our favourite padaria for coffee and a treat! We soooo enjoyed the sounds of children playing in a school yard directly across the street from the outdoor cafe of the padaria.....pure joy ......making both of us smile with the pleasure of experiencing the common thread of 'children having fun' in two very different countries/continents!

We started our days' exploration with a place called, ' Pousada Convento da Graca'. This is a restored convent and it is one of many rejuvenated historical sites throughout Europe. Basically, they took this historically important and stunning building/site (which stands on the castle hill right beside a humongous church) and they transformed it into an amazing, posh guest house. It now houses 36 guest rooms, a swimming pool, stunning grounds, a restaurant, a museum zone, a family games room and a beautiful lounge. Our Scottish friends hosted their family Christmas celebration there, one year and said it was a very classy place! Here are a few pictures to capture its opulence.....

From there, we went to explore the Castle ruins. A tower of the Castelo de Tavira actually overlooks our apartment building!! When we look out our balcony window/doors and we see the top of it! ........

Our apartment is the narrow, newer looking, light coloured roof, with the 2 white chimneys and the solar panel facing the darker, more challenged looking roof tops. The 2 doors, with balconies, are our 2 doors! This is a photo taken from the castle.

Here, you can see the tip of the castle tower, just above this roof line, which is where we took the previous picture from... This picture was taken from our balcony doors.

 

We had alot of fun exploring the nooks, crannies, stairwells and towers of the old castle ruins!!Here are some pictures from our exploration, including the beautiful garden court yard.....

The view, in all directions, was spectacular!!! See below.......

We also went to a really fascinating place called ' Torre de Tavira - Camara Obscura'. Here we experienced a magical ( in the current moment) voyage over the city of Tavira! The man who designed this optical tour and who actually gives the tour is a British Ex-Pat, engineer who has lived in Tavira for 20+ years. By using a mirror and 2 lenses, which are installed on top of the old water tower, a live image of Tavira, in the moment, is projected onto a large circular screen, providing a 360 degree panoramic view of Tavira!!! Soooo much cooler than Google Map!!! Here is the best I can do for pictures of this....

The tower lens site.

The large screen where the image is projected.

The room is darkened and the image is projected....then with pulls of ropes, the angle is adjusted for a new view.....Absolutely fascinating!!

After all of these spectacular camera lens views of beautiful Tavira, we returned to ground level and went for a drink at a sidewalk cafe/bar, then came home for tapas! (Chips, cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, pesto & wine)

Tonight, we had a wonderful evening.....we went for supper to a family run restaurant called Xicos (Cheekos), which is a very popular eating place for locals. I had delicious lamb chops and Lawrence had very tasty pork chops......with appetizers, a way-too-large pitcher of wine, a salad and our meals, the cost was 17.50 euros!!! We did not have the iPad with us so we could not take pictures of the place, but it is an interesting one! We met a Canadian family, from Hamilton, Ontario, who are hear visiting the man's brothers. We had a great visit with all, of them and then we carried on.

This afternoon, we had met a young couple, who are here, vacationing, for 5 days. They currently live in London, England, but are from Australia. We had a great visit, with them, this PM in the castle and then, tonight, we met up with them again, on the street, as we were both, strolling about! We had another great visit! We then, went to one of our favourite street cafes for tea and a dessert and had a VERY nice time visiting with the young Brazillian couple who own it.....laughing alot and sharing our lives! We loved hearing about their 2 yr old son and their dreams to run a successful business! Here they are......

Tomorrow is a big National holiday so, today & tonight, this city is buzzing with preparations for the celebrations that will start tomorrow and last until Sunday. Tonight, civic workers were setting up a stage area, and artisan/craters were setting up their booths....it felt like the night before the Weyburn Fair, from years back!!! We're looking forward to the festivities!

 

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