August 4. Sagres

We drove South for about three hours. Kids fought in the back and so it made it seem longer. Towards the end of the trip the landscape gets grassy and the vegetation somewhat sparse. There are huge areas featuring the old olive trees. The South seems sparsely populated too.

Our first stop was Lados. Algarve is the summer vacation area for Portuguese and also many other Europeans. It is less overdeveloped and has lots of nice sports activities: surfing, swimming, cycling, and more. It is also relatively cheaper than corresponding areas in Italy and France. Don’t know about Spain.

After being in a couple of other resort towns in the North,  Lagos did not seem overwhelming. It is a nice little town filled with restaurants and souvenir shops. We heard a lot of British English and locals we spoke with also speak with the British accent.

After lunch we walked around a bit and then drove on to Sagres. I picked Sagres because it close to the most South-West point in Europe, and Henry the Navigator picked that place over Lagos. And also I assumed that Lagos will be too touristy. I was wrong about the last one. In comparison, Sagres was plain dead.

The attack of the snails

But let me start from the beginning. We checked into an apartment hotel Sagres Time – lovely one bedroom, brand new furniture and equipment, great place. After kids took a swim at the pool on premises we headed out to find the beach. Incidentally, there was a thermometer floating around - it showed fifteen degrees, it did feel like it. It was also very windy.

We passed a large plot of undeveloped land with some intense snail colonies, a few abandoned hotels, a few “Point-Pleasant in winter” looking houses and after some more circling did find the beach. The beach, surrounded by the beautiful cliffs was very nice. Only the kids, again, braved splashing around in icy water and cold wind.

There were a few people at the beach here and there, and mostly RVs parked in the parking lot. It did not look particularly inviting for a two day trip. We felt sorry for the French family who checked in until next Saturday.  

I went to the tourist information office and a very bored attendant who was watching a movie, took a second break to say that we can check out the fortress, Amado, and Vila do Bispo. He did not look excited about those either.

At the hotel, the lady at the reception said, no, we cannot cancel our stay tomorrow night. She suggested to hire a guide with a 4x4 to take us around some beaches. I did not see Isabella being very excited about that.

On top of that we could not find anything open for dinner and drove back to Lagos to eat.

The food makes everything better. First off we had the most amazing tapas at 2 Irmaos Tapas and Wine bar. The best so far. Second we found this guy Henk who takes people around on a small sailboat. And so we decided to give it a try and stay.