It’s been a busy couple of days. Yesterday we drove over to Tavira which is about an hour east along the Algarve coast. It is an old fishing town and it was interesting but it wasn’t quite what we were looking for. We did find an interesting marketplace and the produce, fish and meat doesn’t come any fresher!
After we spent a little time in Tavira, we headed back to Lagos but decided to stop and check out Faro which is also on the coast. There is an airport in Faro with flights to Lisbon, Porto, the UK and Madrid which makes it a convenient transportation hub for the Algarve. We did find the center of town in Faro and wandered around a bit. It was interesting but again, didn’t seem to have the vibe we are looking for.
Once we parked the car, we had to wind our way through all kinds of little alleyways and streets to find the center of the city we were looking for. A while back we decided to leave an Apple Air Tag in the car and it worked like a champ to guide us back to our vehicle. Otherwise, we might still be wandering around Faro!!
This morning we decided to go out to the iconic Ponta da Piedade which is a series of caves, arches and coastal structures that are iconic to the Algarve in Portugal. The best way to see them is from the water but we just walked around the paths on top. I have scheduled a boat trip for next Friday to take a look from the sea. It is really beautiful scenery.
From there we decided to head over to the city of Portimao which is only 8 miles away as the crow flies and you can see it from our balcony but it is a 20 mile, 30 minute drive to actually get there. We found our way down to one of the marinas which was very nice and then walked a little ways into the center of town. Portimao is a very nice city and would be easily livable. It is probably on our short list.
We came back to Lagos and spent the afternoon just relaxing on our balcony, enjoying the sound of the waves and eating our lunch while watching the tourists on the beach below. We’re beginning to think that Lagos is the place we will focus our search for a place to park long term. It checks most of the boxes on our list and is truly a gorgeous place. We will just have to figure out how to deal with the hordes of tourists in the summer!!
Tomorrow I will be driving Barb back to Lisbon so she can catch her flight back to Phoenix (via London) early Monday morning. She has some work commitments so she needs to get back. I will return to Lagos Monday and remain here for another few days until I head for New York City for Thanksgiving next Saturday.
We have covered a lot of ground while we’ve been here. I’ll have to look and see what the total mileage driven is when I finally turn the car in next week. Not to mention the hundreds of roundabouts that we have navigated during this adventure. Portugal is a great country and it is easy to see why people flock here to visit and to live.