VACATION IN PORTUGAL: DAY 1

We decided to take a two week vacation in the Algarve region of Southern Portugal. The following pages will hopefully give you an idea of what we did and what we saw.

We left Comox very early and travelled via Vancouver to Toronto. This was a day before we were due to fly from Toronto to Faro as that flight only goes once week and to miss it by trying to do the whole journey in one day was a bit too risky we felt. It also gave us the opportunity to do something interesting while in Toronto.

TORONTO TO THE ALGARVE: DAY 2/3

The flight for Faro left in the early evening giving us most of the day to explore Toronto. We decided to visit the Royal Ontario Museum which recently had a major and controversial addition made to it - the Crystal. This is a unusual glass and steel front added to an old building. There were a couple of special exhibitions on while we were there, one on Diamonds and the other on Wedgwood china. There were the usual regular galleries. We hadn't been here before and enjoyed that visit. It was then time to collect our belongings and head to the airport. We flew with Air Transat, a Canadian airline specializing in vacation traffic. They use Airbus 310 and Airbus 330 aircraft, the former being fairly old but we found the plane in very good condition considering it was 21 years old. In the interest of turning a profit they pack nine seats across in a 3-3-3 configuration which means everybody is a bit squished but the pitch wasn't too bad. The airline reviews aren't particularly complimentary but we found the service quite good and had no complaints. We left the gate at on time but came to a halt on the taxiway as the captain wasn't happy about number 1 engine. He kept everybody well informed for the next two hours as was we made our way back to the gate and various mechanics did their thing until the captain decided he was satisfied, which satisfied everybody else we think. Once airborne we made good time and arrived in Faro a little late but in one piece. As is common on vacation flights there was a round of applause on landing!

We had a package that gave us two weeks in two separate locations in the Algarve and a car for the whole period so the first action was to collect the vehicle, a Citroen C2, quite small but nippy and extremely economical on fuel. Since we weren't due to check into our first accommodation until early afternoon we spent a while looking around Faro.

This is a typical Portuguese town with an old section and a lot of development tailored to the vacation industry. We had our first pastry and coffee enjoying the local scene and a temperature somewhat greater than we had left behind. That augured well.

Faro Harbour

Entrance to Old Faro


The Bell Tower at the Taberna da Se - the Cathedral in Faro

Note the stork on the right hand side

Off to build a new nest


And here is where the stork was going to join his/her mate

In Old Faro

It was time to move on and we drove to the West to our first apartment in Luz. Luz is a smaller town just West of Lagos and about a hour if you take the freeway. We were staying at the Ocean Club Palm Bay and we were given a two bedroom apartment on the third floor. This overlooked the front and gave us a splendid view of the coast. The apartment was very well equipped, everything you might need. It had a good kitchen, a large living and dining room, a bathroom and the two bedrooms.

Ocean Club Palm Bay - our unit was in the back of the complex on the top floor

The view over the coast from the balcony

The kitchen

The living/dining room

ALONG THE CLIFFS FROM LUZ TO BURGAU: DAY 4

We had brought with us a book of walks in the Algarve, some 20 in all and we managed to use 7 of them during the two weeks. The first was along the coast from Luz to the next fishing village to the West - Burgau. The weather at the start of our stay was a bit patchy but we set off in moderately warm temperatures. Leaving Luz we passed a wall with a nautical touch.

This walk was just 9.5 km there and back right along the cliffs.

We reached Burgau and had a good look round. The village had been a busy fishing port but those days seemed to be over. It began to rain a little so we made that an excuse to have coffee and a pastry. However, it cleared enough for us to make the return journey on foot.

TO CAPE ST. VINCENT AND ALJEZUR: DAY 5

The most westerly point in Europe is Cape St. Vincent. The fishing village of Sagres sits nearby. There is an active fishing industry there and we had fish from Sagres during the vacation. Sagres is the site of the Fortaleza where Henry the Navigator established his school in the mid 1700's. The Fortaleza is a large castle on the promontory entered through a rock tunnel. It was really windy that day and sometimes it was hard to stay upright. Just inside was a huge pebble wind compass unearthed in 1921 under a church. Nobody is quite sure when this was constructed.

The Rose Compass at the Fortaleza, Sagres

Out at the Cape is was even more windy!

The Lighthouse at Cape St. Vincent

The coast at the Cape, next stop the Americas

Everywhere we went there were always lovely flowers to enjoy. Here are a few from the region of the Cape.

We then traveled up the West coast where there are a succession of lovely sandy practically empty beaches. The one below is the beach at Bordeira, a popular surfing beach.



We reached the town of Aljezur, which has the remains of a 10th century Moorish a castle to explore up a long winding hill.

View over Aljezur from the castle.

A typical cobbled street in Aljezur

ALONG THE COAST FROM LAGOS TO LUZ: DAY 6

The next day we tackled another of the walks from our book. To do this we first took the local bus into the nearby town of Lagos (pronounced Lahgosh). This is the largest town in the Western region of the Algarve. Lagos became the administrative centre of the Algarve until it was very badly damaged in the earthquake of 1755, an earthquake that destroyed much of Southern Portugal. Re-established, it remains a working fishing port and market centre as well as a thriving resort.

The front at Lagos

To prove that at least one of us was actually there

An orange tree and Bird of Paradise flowers

Our first port of call was the local Regional Museum. According to the guide book this features, among other things, busts of the Roman Emperor Galiano, Visigothic stone coffins, jars containing misshapen foetuses(!), models of Algarvian chimneys, stuffed goats and some frightening surgical instruments. On the way out you pass into the Ingreja (Church) of Santo Antonio built in 1715. After I had taken a few photographs I was strongly reminded of the no photograph signs that I had not seen, by a rather severe attendant.

Inside the Igreja de Santo Antonio

Next stop was the local market where fishing was still clearly a dominant activity for the local population. Some fish we could recognize, many were strangers. They came in all shapes and sizes, friendly looking and ferocious.

Sardines and Horse Mackerel

Cuttlefish and Squid

Scabbard fish -these looked as if they were made of aluminium

A nice selection

A colourful abundance of vegetables and fruits

We had lunch, grilled sardines for one and grilled horse mackerel for the other. As the guidebook said, the Portuguese sardine in Portugal is much larger and more succulent than the version we all know from those in the tins we buy. Plenty of bones to challenge the diner.

We then set off to follow the coastline back to Luz. These photographs are fairly typical of the more rugged cliffs that dominate the Western region of the Algarve.

You can get to some grottos if you climb down about a million steps

The beach at Porto de Mos, the largest cove West of Lagos

The town of Luz from the cliffs above

LUZ AND A CIRCULAR WALK FROM FIGUERA: DAY 7

We started the day in Luz along the sea front.

The sea front at Luz

Luz was a very pleasant moderately sized town which had been a busy fishing village in earlier times. Many of the old fishing villages have switched their interests to tourism. Half the population are outsiders who have bought properties there, mainly the British. There was evidence of the Romans and we looked over some diggings of a Roman bath, behind the wall.

At the centre of the town was the church interestingly shared by the Roman Catholics and the expat Anglicans. It was in the typical style of the country, white and yellow

The church at Luz

We then set off the the West to the small town of Figuera where we started out on a long walk towards the coast. The route wandered around through two small villages and along semi-overgrown tracks but we didn't get too lost en route. There were two coves on the way and one had a pleasant restaurant for a morning break.



As was always the case there were beautiful flowers everywhere.


There were may isolated properties on the way and the last photograph shows a typical residence. In the background you can see some wind turbines. There were many of these on top of many of the surrounding hills.

MONCHIQUE AND THE CLIMB OF PICOTA: DAY 8

We haven't said much about the weather to date. We started off in coolish temperatures but as the first week went by it became warmer and more settled. There was the windy day at Cape St. Vincent but by the end of the week the winds were calm and we were beginning to enjoy the sun more and more. The second half of the week saw the weather move from warm to hot and we had blue skies for the rest of our stay. We had been watching the weather forecasts carefully and there was a large high pressure region building out in the Atlantic. As a result we became more adventurous and we traveled inland into the area of Monchique which sits between some 3,000 ft hills. In clear weather the walks book said we would be able to see all along the coastline.

We chose the walk to the top of Picota.

On the way there we took a small diversion to see a new Formula 1 capable race track that had recently been built in the foothills. A very large amount of money had been spent to set this up and the approach roads were worth seeing on their own. To date the track had attracted many of the Formula 1 teams for testing on February and, although they have yet to get the circus to come for an actual race, there were many other events on the calendar.

The whole set up was very impressive. At the time we arrived there were a bunch of motorcycles speeding around the track. There was a great deal of spectator accommodation including a very long grandstand along the main straight. We couldn't get in but got a good idea from the outside looking in.

The main grandstand at the new Portimeo race track

Next stop was the town of Monchique. There was a sausage festival on at the time and after parking the car in a tiny street, rather like the one in the photograph


we stopped for the usual morning coffee break.

Anyone you know?

Then we started our walk to Picota passing though the marquee where the festival was being held. There were sausages of all shapes and sizes, many looking to have a lot of blood in them.






There were plenty of other interesting things for sale including some lovely looking pastries.


and the local village band was there to entertain the crowd.


Our walk took us downhill at first which we weren't too impressed about as we were trying to climb up to the top of Picota. The road ran through a cork oak forest. Cork is still an important product for the wine industry.


There were many small properties with their land in terraces.


and everywhere we went we saw oranges in abundance and many lemon trees loaded with fruit.


We passed a cork pile awaiting collection. The cork is stripped off to about twelve feet and it regrows back in eight to ten years.

A cork tree stripped of the outer cork layer

Almond blossom - Algarve snow

A Bread Oven

The town of Monchique

The view from the top showing the coast in the background

The grandstand at the Portimeo track

Further proof one of us was really there

Coming down from the peak at Picota

We made it down after what was quite a strenuous day in hot weather. The sun stayed with us for the rest of the trip.