{"id":2961,"date":"2014-05-23T12:56:44","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T11:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2961"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:53:26","slug":"food-reviews-on-the-algarve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2014\/05\/23\/food-reviews-on-the-algarve\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Reviews On The Algarve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No
No comment in Faro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the best shower so far, we left the campsite at Olh\u00e3o and drove along to Faro.\u00a0 The big car-park near the old quarter was almost completely full, and yet there seemed to be no-one around\u2026? We meandered along to the Marina, back to the old sector and then paid a visit to the cathedral.\u00a0 The instructions on the leaflet told us that were not allowed to use a megaphone inside, so we didn\u2019t, and we did comply with the rule to \u2018ensure the cleanliness of the place\u2019, at least I think we did.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We also inspected some old bones, relics of a couple of saints which were displayed in a rather strange way.<\/p>\n

\"The
The belltower of Faro Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
A view from the belltower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most of Faro however, didn\u2019t seem too clean, more tatty and sad; so many derelict buildings, empty shops and graffiti everywhere.\u00a0 The only appealing bit seemed to us to be the pavements.\u00a0 So many of them are \u2018empedrado\u2019; stones of various types and colours laid out to create a lovely variety of patterns and designs, apparently it\u2019s quite common in Portugal and I rather like it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Empedrado
Empedrado pavement in Faro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

So we had a drink and then drove on further west and north to find a good lunch spot.\u00a0 From here on, we will be heading north as we can\u2019t go any further south without setting out to sea.\u00a0 At Quartiera it was so windy on the promenade, that most of the restaurants looked closed.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t there!<\/p>\n

\"On
On the windy beach at Quarteira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nothing grabbed us about the town, so we continued further west, past Albufeira to Arma\u00e7\u00e3o de P\u00eara 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.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Praia
Praia dos Pescadores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We switched off completely on Thursday.\u00a0 We were in a corner of the world famous for its beautiful beaches, but with the chilly, strong wind, we just couldn\u2019t sprawl out on one.\u00a0 So we found a sheltered corner by the campsite\u2019s crowded swimming pool, read our books and snored.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"All
All alone on the diving board<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At 5:30pm we found the energy to frock up and walk down to the Palhota Caf\u00e9, right on the sand at Praia dos Pescadores.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 One daiquiri later, I needed dinner, so we nipped across to \u2018Bollywood Indian Restaurant\u2019; no sorry it said \u2018Bollyood\u2019 on the window.\u00a0 There was an Indian Italian Turkish restaurant nearby, but for some reason that didn\u2019t seem like a good idea; a doner kebab in a curry sauce on pasta just didn\u2019t seem like a gourmet arrangement! \u00a0At Bollyood we had a brilliant meal; tender meat, good sauces, lovely service, we couldn\u2019t fault anything apart from the spelling of Bollywood.\u00a0 As the sun set, we dashed back across the promenade to the caf\u00e9 to finish our evening with a yummy, thick, Italian, hot chocolate before being blown back to Eileen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Albufeira
Albufeira beaches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then there was Albufeira.\u00a0 Hmmmm.\u00a0 What can I say?\u00a0 To all of you who have been there and loved the place, we apologise.\u00a0 We were both hoping for somewhere picturesque, we were begging for anything but what we found.\u00a0 Yes, the beach is a good one, even on a cloudy day, but the town is ugly and we have never seen so many \u2018gift shops\u2019 selling everything you could buy in a $2 shop, or Poundstretcher, back home.\u00a0 Why you would want to buy a boomerang as a souvenir in Portugal is beyond me!\u00a0 Almost every sign, menu and person was English and despite our intentions to eat lunch in Albufeira, we honestly couldn\u2019t wait to get out of there.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s head for the hills\u201d we both decided; Blackpool with better weather is not our cup of tea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Albufeira rooftops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We drove inland up to Silves, the ancient city of Xelb.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We picked the restaurant that seemed to be the busiest and then tried to understand the English menu.\u00a0 We asked for an explanation of Rodney\u2019s choice \u2018Steak Portuguese\u2019; \u201cit is served demi gloss\u201d to which we both nodded knowingly, goodness knows why.\u00a0 My choice of \u2018Steak Chef Style\u2019 was described as \u201cit has a sauce\u201d, \u201cwhat sort of sauce, tomato, piri-piri, cream?\u201d, \u201cah no, pepper sauce\u201d.\u00a0 Both sounded fine, so we stuck with those choices.\u00a0 There\u2019s obviously little communication between the chef and the waiters, because Rodney\u2019s was a flat bowl with a large beef schnitzel smothered in ham and cheese then lashings of thin gravy poured over it.\u00a0 The whole lot was then completely covered with potato crisps.\u00a0 I think I giggled when it arrived.\u00a0 Then my \u2018Chef Style\u2019 arrived.\u00a0 Same bowl, same steak schnitzel style, covered in thin slices of mushrooms, slivers of carrots and \u2026\u2026bean sprouts?!!!!\u00a0 It was then smothered in the same thin gravy and mine was completely hidden under skinny French fries. \u00a0Surprisingly, they both tasted okay and we may serve them up at a future dinner party, one day……. maybe.\u00a0 We did however decline eating a dessert there, just in case it turned out to be apple tart covered in gravy and crisps\u2026.<\/p>\n

To burn off the calories, we climbed further uphill to the old ruined castle on the top.\u00a0 There are lovely district views, but it\u2019s 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.\u00a0 That\u2019s a completely tragic case of miscommunication.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Silves\"
Silves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Silves, we drove back to the coast through Carvoeiro, a much smarter, vibrant seaside town.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 At last, a stunning view!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There are blow-holes and sink-holes, stacks and magnificent, enormous caves all along this section of coastline.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cabo
Cabo Carvoeira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Stunning
Stunning rock formations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Strolling the clifftops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 We\u2019ll check out Luz and Lagos while we stay here, and fingers crossed, we\u2019ll get to a beautiful beach on a non-windy day\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One
One tucked-away beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  After the best shower so far, we left the campsite at Olh\u00e3o and drove along to Faro.\u00a0 The big car-park near the old quarter was almost completely full, and yet there seemed to be no-one around\u2026? We meandered along to the Marina, back to the old sector and then paid a visit to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8332,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961\/revisions\/8332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}