More of Lagos

 This is our 7th day in Lagos (pronounced “ largosh “) There are a lot of “sh” sounds in the Portuguese language.   We have 2 more days here before moving on to the other end of the Algarve district. We will take the regional train to Tavira on Wednesday. We are staying in the village of Santa Luzia, which is located 3k west of Tavira.

We are enjoying Lagos.  It is a  nice size, not too big, not too small but with all the conveniences and activities that we enjoy.  There is a great selection of restaurants and cafes both in the tourist areas and in the residential areas. If you like to walk, run, bike, swim, paddle, sail or just relax and read in a park or on the beach, this place might be for you.

Transportation to and from Lagos is great. Both buses and trains service the whole Algarve area and there is a fast train to Lisbon. The Lisbon station is conveniently close to the airport as well.

We rented a couple of ebikes for the last 3 days and made good use of them.  We rode a little over 130k exploring the area around Tavira. We visited several towns along the coast and we rode inland one day. We picked lesser used paved roads for most of the riding. The main 2 lane highway (N125) that runs the length of the Algarve has wide paved shoulders that cyclists can use. It is comfortable riding on this highway as well.

Above is photo or some cyclists who passed me when I stopped to take some photos.  There are some very steep hills. 

Above is photo of a popular surfing beach. Praia Furnas. It is located about 25 k west of Lagos on winding narrow roads. It was a very scenic ride.  

This morning we were out for an early morning walk. Being a Sunday it was quiet. Not many people were out and about. It was a nice cool clear morning. Great for photos. 

I took the next 4 photo while exploring the town.

A couple of nights ago we met up with some friends from Kaslo, Tom and Georgie, who had just completed a week long cycling trip with their daughter, Kelley.  We went to a popular Italian restaurant. Linda and I had noticed that there was a line up every night. The restaurant is run by an Italian family who makes and sell their own pasta.  It is very unassuming and authentic. The food and friendly service was great.  So was the company…

Below is a sign post in front of a restaurant in Burgau.

  

This afternoon we walked to Praia de Porto Mos, a beach located about a 20 minute walk from our condo accommodation. Our condo has a good selection of beach chairs, toys etc. in the garage for renter use. We carried a couple of small folding chairs and an umbrella to the beach and relaxed for a few hour, listing to Radio Paradise.  We had lunch at one of the restaurants (Campimar) at the beach. A nice goat cheese and walnut salad.

There are some interesting eco art installations beside the restaurant. The containers in the photo below are filled with cigarette buts, recovered from the beach.  There are two other. Pyramids contains parts of nets and items fished for the ocean and plastic and aluminum containers left on the beach.

This is a good sign.  I saw it this morning in a café 

Lagos

 We have been in Lagos now for 3 days.  It is a popular tourist area. At this time of year, we are in the mid period between the high and low tourist times.   The weather has been great.  Daytime highs around 26 degrees and pleasant evenings.  There has been a bit of cloud hang over the hills and a couple of evening thunderstorms.  

The night before last there we experienced a very close lighting strike. We were our apartment when a lighting strike hit our apartment building (or just missed). When you see the bright flash and hear the crack of thunder immediately, it is close!  We were watching TV.  The Tv signal was lost.  It returned fairly quickly but now there is a permanent blank horizontal line across the screen. Almost like one line of  pixels(leds) have burned out.

We have a very nice two bedroom apartment in a residential area about a 15 minute walk from the old town centre.  It is very well appointed and also comes with a garage, which is convenient because we have some rented bikes for a few days.

Below are a few photos of the area around Lagos.  I’m using my iPad to write this blog and it is difficult to format the presentation.  So I’ll keep it basic.

We did a very nice 40k bike ride today through several villages along the coastal area west of Lagos. We visited Burgau, Praia da Luz, Salema and Figueira.  We stopped for a while at each place. In Salema we had a great Greek pizza for lunch.  The best pizza I’ve had in a while.

We are finding the restaurant prices quite reasonable.  Generally speaking they are about half the price of current Canadian prices. When you factor in that there is no additional tax nor tip added.  Tipping here is optional and only occurs when the service is exceptional.  For example… Linda and I had deluxe burger at a nice beach restaurant. The burger came with bacon and cheese, fries, plus two large glasses of apple cider .  We shared the burger.    It was plenty. The price was just over 12€   ($16)   

Ponta da Piedade natural park

Media Praia. A very long beach. +6k

The port entry with the old town to the left side

Another photo of  Ponta de Piedade

A cute little coffee stop

Our rented bikes at Praia da Luz.  A stop on our bike ride west of  Lagos

Cool art on an underpass wall 

Portimão

A nice park with a cafe near the waterfront 

 Portimao is the main shopping town for the western Algarve. There is definitely some tourism but the city feel more local than other coastal towns. 

We stayed in a nice little hotel in the centre of town, only a couple of hundred metres from the rail station.  The hotel, called The Made Inn, was in an older renovated building (2019.  The rooms are small but with modern appointments. It was a very comfortable and inexpensive place to stay.  

After arriving we wandered downhill toward the waterfront, found a nice little cafe and enjoyed some sangria.  We were up early the next morning and went out looking for breakfast. Only a few cafes were open with limited menus.  Coffee and nata was breakfast.  after breakfast we checked out, we left our luggage with the staff for a few hours while we explored the town until our train departed at 1550. 

We will be staying in Lagos for the next 9 nights.

Along the waterfront 

A government building in a main

Some interesting architecture 

Waiting at the station for the train to Lagos

Faro

Our BA flight to Faro was delayed slightly but it gave us time for a nice lunch at Nando's resturant in the boarding area. Good food at a reasonable price. Would recommend it.

Entry into Portugal was straight forward. Masks were required on the flight but not in the airport. Immigration passport check was easy and customs clearance amounted to a walk though the "nothing to declare" door. We opted to take the bus to downtown Faro. We might opt for a taxi next time. The bus service is not too convenient. The bus only runs once an hour. It was jam packed. We were lucky to get on. A taxi to the train station downtown costs about 11€

While waiting for the bus we met a woman who happend to be staying at the same hotel as us. We had both chosen the hotel because of it's location not far from he train station. It is general knowledge that hotels close to the train or bus station are often not the best choice. Our hotel (Hotel Alfonso III) was definitely in this catagory. The staffs were friendly and helpfull, the room was clean but the location was not great. There were several abandonded buildings around the hotel and there was a lot of noisy traffic all night on the narrow street. Having said this, we never felt uncomfortable or in the lease bit threatened in this area.

After checking in we metup with Shirley and went out for a nice supper. We shared some appies and an octopus plate. The octopus was quite tasty. The next day, after checking out of the hotel, we left most of our luggage with the hotel staff and spent the day exploring Faro.

The rustic neighborhood From hotel balcony 

Interesting paint job. 

The pigeons were super aggressive waiting for crumbs

Cafes  along the port. 

Later in the afternoon we took the train from Faro to Portimao, about an hour and 45 mins, west along the coast. The train which only has 4 cars runs reglarly from Faro to Lagos to the west and from Faro to the Spanish border to the east. It is comfortable and inexpensive. 

We spent most of  the day  exploring Portimao and we are just about to board the train to Lagos    

More later…

Waiting in LGW

We arrived in the UK around noon yesterday. It was a reasonably painlesss trip on WestJet from Cranbrook to Gatwck via a short stopover in Calgary. We flew on a new Boing 787 from Calgary. Like most economy seats, they were narrow but the seat spacing was reasonble. meals and a free glass of wine was served.

We stayed in a guest house in the town of Horley, a few kilometres north of the Gatwick airport. We took the train from the south terminal. Just one stop, and then walked to the guesthouse, about 8 miutes. The guesthouse, Gatwick Turret House, was quite nice. It was clean and the owner was very friendly We had a nice breakfast before we left. I booked this place through booking.com back in April, when I was planning this trip. Inerestingly, the owner commented on the rate we were paying. She mentioned that she got a lot of bookings through booking.com and that the rates always fluctuate. At this moment they are charging 150 pounds without breakfast. We paid 77 pounds with breakfast. This seems to be the way pricing is going

Prior to the flight I had purchaced two sets of blutooth noise cancelling earbuds. Anker Life P3 They worked really well on the flight. Both the noise canceling and audio quality is very good. If you don't want to listen to music you can select varios relaxing sounds through the app.

Our flight for Faro, Portugal has been delayed slightly. At his moment I'm in coffee shop in the departure zone of the Gatwick airport. We arrived early for our flight. When we entered the departure terminal there was a long queue, so long that it was impossible to see either end or to know where it was going. After some investigation I thought that it was the lineup for security. Linda asked somone in the queue if it was. The individual replied "No, it's to see the queen". Of course, it was the queue to enter the security check. We had to follow the queue back to it's beginning in a hallway into the departure area. It was several hundred metres long. No kidding! Luckily, It moved fairly quickly and everyone was patient. One definitely need to arrive early for your flight!

Getting ready to go again.

After returning from Spain in April we spent the spring and summer in BC. We divided our time (as usual) between Fernie and Kaslo, except for a 10 day trip to Vancouver Island. The spring and early summer weather in BC was wet and cool. Toward the end of June the weather warmed to more normal temperatures... but only for a week or so. Then the hot weather arrived! Nearly all of July and August, the high temeratures exceeded 30 degrees, often above 35. This hot spell persisted into early September.

The wet spring weather kept the forest fire risk low but with the arrival of the hot weather it didn't take long for the forest to dry and fires to start. There was one large fire within a few kilometers of Kaslo but luckly it burned in a direction away from the village. Many days have been quite smokey and the air quality poor.

Our trip to Vancouver island was very nice. Several friends from Fernie had recently (with the last 6 year) moved to the island. Our trip was exploratory in nature. It had been over 20 years since we had visited the island. We were interested to see what was the alure. We spent a couple of days with friends in various parts of the island.Then 4 days in Victoria visiting Lindas brother and his partner.

The main lure to Vancouver Island is the weather. It has the mildest climate of any Canadian location. Cherry trees bloooming in February is not something you see anywhere else in Canada. It very seldom snows in winter and temperature close to freezing are uncommon. However, it does get its fair share of rain. Particularly in the northen part of the island. Our friends tell us that the rain is not a big problem. After all, you don't have to shovel it!

We are now ready to begin another trip. In two days we are heading for Portugal for 3 weeks before returing to Olvera, Spain until mid-November.

Stay tuned for the updates....

Bernie & Linda