LUZ TO SESMARIAS VIA PORTIMEO: DAY 10

We hadn't very far to drive to the new location, so we spent a little while looking around the town of Portimeo. We took our farewell of the Luz apartment which we had so enjoyed.

The apartment at Luz, the glass roof covered the indoor swimming pool

Portimeo had a very attractive front with the usual line of palm trees.


There are a selection of boat trips available and the hustlers greeted us on the front. The boats travel upstream to the town of Silves, which we visited later by car, and also out along the coastline. Many use a typical Portuguese boat of the type in the photograph.


We have mentioned the famous Portugeuse sardine before and it was time to try them for lunch. The town had built a row of modern sardine lunch outlets which contrasted with the older buildings in the town. They weren't very busy we were sorry to see. A typical grilled sardine lunch contains eight plump sardines, plenty to share between two. They are quite a bit larger than the type we know in a tin. As part of the meal there is the standard couvert. This consists of a small tin of sardine paste, bread, butter and soft cheese. If you aren't careful you get charged for it even if you don't eat any of it but we had been made aware of this and only got caught out once, in Portimeo.

Our sardine lunch.

We continued our journey east to Sesmarias, a little town with no real centre just inland from the coast at Carvoeiro. The apartments were either separate quadraplexes or in a row of six on two floors. We were in a single bedroom unit on the lower level that gave us a view inland to the hills at Monchique. Everyday we could see Picota, the hill we had climbed earlier. Although of a very good standard, it didn't quite match up the the one we had in Luz, but that was really exceptional. It had one bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. It was set in very pleasant grounds.

The apartment at Sesmarias, we were on the lower level

There was a beach nearby and we set out on the short walk, which turned out to be quite along walk. The beach at Caneiros had the usual clean soft sand and a single restaurant. No other commercial businesses, which was the norm we found.


On our return, the sun was about to set and we were treated to a wonderful red sky, which means shepherds or sailors delight.