August 5. Algrarve



Moment later someone will

appear at the end of the bushes



First we had our breakfast at the apartment. Next we had our second breakfast at the little coffee shop in town with amazing views of the beach. We noticed runners around the paths running through the cliffs. And then we noticed a lady doing a number two at the end of the large grassy area below the coffee shop. There were bushes behind her so she apparently thought she would be safe. Instead, she was in the broad view from the coffee shop. It was too funny.

So the fortress it was, as per the information guy. Actually it was awesome. Starting from the view of amazing cliffs on all the sides. It was like being in a grand canyon with water all around as a bonus. The fortress had excellent infrastructure for visiting – there was a long path bounded by some proper railing that runs around the entire perimeter out to the edge of the cliff. You can run around it or cycle aroud it.

Falling of the cliffs breaks hearts

We saw some local fishing enthusiasts fish from the cliff. I don’t know how it works – it is over a 75 meter drop.

There were also buxom beauties in different colors lying around. Kids wanted to pose on all of them. We must have spent two hours there and really enjoyed it.

The next stop was the Cape of Saint Vincent. The pictures are actually as it is. The coolest thing about this location is that from the same point you get to see both Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean. The actual place was less interesting than Sagres point because they do not let you walk over to the lighthouse. But we enjoyed the frontier look with several food and goodies trucks. We stopped by to have lunch.

Next we drove to Vila de Bispo to take a look at their church. Very interesting and different design. The ceiling is not an arch but rather a series of angles. There was a town event going on and church was filled with kids and adults. A girl was speaking from the pulprit.

Next was Praia do Amado (Amado Beach). The parking lot was bursting. There were regular vehicles but also a lot RVs. It also seemed to be a very surf-centric type of place with lots of surfers in wet suits dragging their surf boards around. The beach was even nicer than the one in Sagres. In addition to also being bounded by the cliffs it was possibly three or four times longer. There was a very wide path of wet sand – very convenient to take the stroller around because Isabella went to sleep.

Georgia splashed around and we followed to the right and left edges of the beach picking shells and colored rocks. The cliffs on the beach came in a rainbow of colors: we saw bright green, red, yellow, black and any combination of that. We got treated to the view of a naked guy playing ping pong with his topless female counterpart. Not a prime specimen but a first naked guy at the beach for me to see so as far as dubious checkmarks are concerned that counts. There were plenty of topless women here too. I am thinking back to the more Portuguese beaches up North and it was rare to see that, and I also did not see any kids Georgia’s age without the top for their bathing suit. Here it was far more common. Possibly it does show heavier foreigner presence.  

We woke up Isabella hoping she will get out to play in the water as well but she did not want to. So we went back to the parking lot to get in the car. We noticed that some people in the RVs are getting together for some meals – some had portable grills going, others were already working on their meals. We wondered why, if you have an RV would you eat at a dusty parking lot. But this seems to be more of a local custom. We sometimes notice families who got out of their cars to have a meal at a table set up by the edge of the road. There are also local camp grounds which resemble more gated trailer park communities. These could be setup next to some shallow muddy river, half a mile from a really lovely place, and people would have hanging out there – having barbeques and all. Maybe you are not allowed to congregate and eat at the nice places?

On second thought you do see this a lot in the States at the games. And also you may not want to pop the camping ground right in the middle of the most beautiful site. So it makes sense.

We drove to Aljezur next. We were not planning to drive up to the castle but accidentally got on the one way road and had to take it forward and upward. I’ll have to check online what is the maximum grade to safely scale with your car. Because I think we hit it. The castle was not as interesting as some of the others we had seen but it was a nice diversion from the beach.

By that time it was already 6pm and we did not get to go on Henk’s boat but we were busy enough J And, at that point we were starving mad. We stopped at the Marche hypermarket to get something quick for the kids and food for tomorrow. Just like yesterday, there were crowds of people inside buying their food and supplies for their stay. In that sense this area resembles Poconos or Miami.

We had dinner at Lagos again. Indian seems to be our favorite recently. At least Georgia can eat everything and Isabella can have Nan, rice and mango lassi and that is better than French fries.

Green pimple mountain

Georgia and Isabella spend so much time together that sometimes they act like and old couple. On the way home Isabella ran up the stairs first, screaming “I am first.” And then Georgia said that she was first. Isabella said “You are a nagging old wife.” Not something she hears a lot at home. So my mouth dropped. There is a lot more of that throughout the day. Most of the time it is really funny.

We had a great day and are very happy we stayed. If we had to make plans again we would choose to stay in Lagos and take day trips from there. Like one day trip :)

Onto Sevilla tomorrow.