After the best shower so far, we left the campsite at Olhão and drove along to Faro. The big car-park near the old quarter was almost completely full, and yet there seemed to be no-one around…? We meandered along to the Marina, back to the old sector and then paid a visit to the cathedral. The instructions on the leaflet told us that were not allowed to use a megaphone inside, so we didn’t, and we did comply with the rule to ‘ensure the cleanliness of the place’, at least I think we did. The steep steps up to the top of the bell tower were worth the effort for a nice view out to the sandbanks spread out along the coast. We also inspected some old bones, relics of a couple of saints which were displayed in a rather strange way.
Most of Faro however, didn’t seem too clean, more tatty and sad; so many derelict buildings, empty shops and graffiti everywhere. The only appealing bit seemed to us to be the pavements. So many of them are ‘empedrado’; stones of various types and colours laid out to create a lovely variety of patterns and designs, apparently it’s quite common in Portugal and I rather like it.
So we had a drink and then drove on further west and north to find a good lunch spot. From here on, we will be heading north as we can’t go any further south without setting out to sea. At Quartiera it was so windy on the promenade, that most of the restaurants looked closed. The wind was really strong; we tried to stand upright on the beach, but it was really difficult, and every bit of our bodies got sandblasted. So we found a nice fish restaurant tucked down a side street and ate inside, whist on the television we noted a report that it was snowing in the centre of Portugal, in the Sierra de Estrella, so we were very glad we weren’t there!
Nothing grabbed us about the town, so we continued further west, past Albufeira to Armação de Pêra where we checked in to a campsite and then went for a stroll down to Praia dos Pescadores (Fishermans Beach) and a short promenade along the promenade. We didn’t last very long as the wind was really starting to wear us out and we opted instead for an early night tucked up inside Eileen.
We switched off completely on Thursday. We were in a corner of the world famous for its beautiful beaches, but with the chilly, strong wind, we just couldn’t sprawl out on one. So we found a sheltered corner by the campsite’s crowded swimming pool, read our books and snored.
At 5:30pm we found the energy to frock up and walk down to the Palhota Café, right on the sand at Praia dos Pescadores. With a force 5 wind still blowing (as assessed by my personal Master Mariner), we sat inside and watched the wind flattening the tops of the waves being pushed on to shore. One daiquiri later, I needed dinner, so we nipped across to ‘Bollywood Indian Restaurant’; no sorry it said ‘Bollyood’ on the window. There was an Indian Italian Turkish restaurant nearby, but for some reason that didn’t seem like a good idea; a doner kebab in a curry sauce on pasta just didn’t seem like a gourmet arrangement! At Bollyood we had a brilliant meal; tender meat, good sauces, lovely service, we couldn’t fault anything apart from the spelling of Bollywood. As the sun set, we dashed back across the promenade to the café to finish our evening with a yummy, thick, Italian, hot chocolate before being blown back to Eileen.
Then there was Albufeira. Hmmmm. What can I say? To all of you who have been there and loved the place, we apologise. We were both hoping for somewhere picturesque, we were begging for anything but what we found. Yes, the beach is a good one, even on a cloudy day, but the town is ugly and we have never seen so many ‘gift shops’ selling everything you could buy in a $2 shop, or Poundstretcher, back home. Why you would want to buy a boomerang as a souvenir in Portugal is beyond me! Almost every sign, menu and person was English and despite our intentions to eat lunch in Albufeira, we honestly couldn’t wait to get out of there. “Let’s head for the hills” we both decided; Blackpool with better weather is not our cup of tea.
We drove inland up to Silves, the ancient city of Xelb. Eileen rested up in a car-park full of campervans and we strolled up the hill through the narrow streets to find a lunch spot. We picked the restaurant that seemed to be the busiest and then tried to understand the English menu. We asked for an explanation of Rodney’s choice ‘Steak Portuguese’; “it is served demi gloss” to which we both nodded knowingly, goodness knows why. My choice of ‘Steak Chef Style’ was described as “it has a sauce”, “what sort of sauce, tomato, piri-piri, cream?”, “ah no, pepper sauce”. Both sounded fine, so we stuck with those choices. There’s obviously little communication between the chef and the waiters, because Rodney’s was a flat bowl with a large beef schnitzel smothered in ham and cheese then lashings of thin gravy poured over it. The whole lot was then completely covered with potato crisps. I think I giggled when it arrived. Then my ‘Chef Style’ arrived. Same bowl, same steak schnitzel style, covered in thin slices of mushrooms, slivers of carrots and ……bean sprouts?!!!! It was then smothered in the same thin gravy and mine was completely hidden under skinny French fries. Surprisingly, they both tasted okay and we may serve them up at a future dinner party, one day……. maybe. We did however decline eating a dessert there, just in case it turned out to be apple tart covered in gravy and crisps….
To burn off the calories, we climbed further uphill to the old ruined castle on the top. There are lovely district views, but it’s a bit of a sad place, because the Crusaders slaughtered all the Moors who lived there, after they had agreed a truce and opened the gates to them. That’s a completely tragic case of miscommunication.
From Silves, we drove back to the coast through Carvoeiro, a much smarter, vibrant seaside town. We tucked Eileen in to a lay-by, had a chat with the English chap who was parked in front of us and then left him jealously admiring Eileen and strolled across to the top of the cliffs. At last, a stunning view! We could see the lighthouse to the right of us and below a massive natural arch with the sea pushing in and out through it. There are blow-holes and sink-holes, stacks and magnificent, enormous caves all along this section of coastline.
We walked along the cliff top until we found ourselves above a gorgeous beach, but by now it was 5:30pm and so no time left to gather up our swimmers and towels to finally laze on some sand. We took photos, drank in the views and then dragged ourselves away from the beautiful spot to drive to a supermarket and find a campsite.
We pulled in to The Orbitur campsite near Luz, just before reception closed and spent the evening scouring the maps and guidebooks to find more of what we seem to be looking for. We’ll check out Luz and Lagos while we stay here, and fingers crossed, we’ll get to a beautiful beach on a non-windy day……
