Our fall break was spent in Portugal! I've had Portugal on my list of places to visit since we moved to Europe. I knew this wasn't a trip I would make from the US, so it had to be done while we were here. We left first thing Saturday morning from Brussels and arrived in Lisbon by 9:30 am. We rented a car and drove straight to the Algarve, which is the southernmost region of mainland Portugal.
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| Leaving Lisbon |
We stayed at A Maré in Salema, Portugal. The four bedroom apartment was rented, so we opted for two separate rooms. It wasn't ideal, but the price and location were great!
The temperature was hovering around 23 degrees Celsius (about 73 degrees Fahrenheit), and for Brussels residents in October, that is certainly warm enough for a dip in the ocean.
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| These are beach people! |
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| The rocky cliffs along the coastline are stunning…as you'll see in this post. |
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| Thomas was having so much fun he had no idea there was sand actually coming out of his nose. |
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| Never too old for sand castles. |
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| The tide was high, so we would have to check out that part of the beach later… |
Sunday
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| Each morning, we walked a few meters down into town and enjoyed a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon…and THIS cappuccino. Ridiculously good! |
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| Thomas enjoyed playing up behind our apartment, and the views from there were fantastic. |
Our first adventure away from Salema was to Praia de Benagil in Lagoa, Portugal. I'm a big fan of Pinterest. I found this shot of Portugal while doing my research and knew I had to find it. I was disheartened in my research to find out this image was photoshopped big time! That is actually the dome of the Pantheon photoshopped onto a cave in the Algarve. Anyway, finding this cave was on my "to do" list.
I think we found it!!
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| The cave is only accessible by boat, so we booked our boat cruise and had lunch, hiked, and played on the beach while we waited. |
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| Someone wasn't so fond of the hiking. He preferred his place along the wall. |
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| Still hugging that wall. Poor guy! |
Our captain took us inside 20+ caves. I couldn't believe how small some of them were. I would not have thought it possible. The waters were rough, and with my camera in hand, I had to hold on for dear life when we were out in the open water. Poor Allison was in the middle with nothing to hold on to. But it was, by far, the best thing we did on our trip, and we would HIGHLY recommend it.
Finally! Pinterest in real life. How lucky are we?!?!
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| It was gorgeous! The pictures do not do it justice. |
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| It's a heart! |
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| This is the beach we visited the following day. |
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| Okay, that's a lot of boating pictures. You get the idea of how amazing it was! |
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| "I love this bench. Can I get a shot of the two of you here?"……her reaction(s). |
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| Faking their excitement about this shot. Thanks kids! |
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Just magnificent!!!
No Thomas. He was safely behind me away from the edge. |
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| Back to Salema |
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| This is the local cat they name Noir. They could have skipped touring and stayed at the room playing with him all day. |
We met a family at lunch, on our first day, that recommended we go to Sagres to watch the sunset. It looked like this would be one of the clearest nights, so we drove the quick 17 km to Sagres to watch the sunset over the Atlantic.
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| Deliriously tired. |
Monday
Rick Steeves claimed that when the tide was out, you could find dinosaur prints in Salema. You just had to walk past the big pipe and look for the big, flat yellow rock. Ha! Okay….chances were probably slim we would see them. But look what we found!!! Thomas was so excited you would have thought he was the first one to discover them.
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| We love morning walks on the beach. |
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| It's tradition! |
Monday's beach trip was to Praia de Marinha which is also in Lagoa. This beach is famous for the steep cliffs and rock formations. Unfortnately, the tide was high, so we were not able to explore the coves like we wanted to. No biggie. It was still beautiful!
After a few hours on the beach, we went for a hike. These are the cliffs we saw from our boat the day before.
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| Breathtaking! |
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| Standing on top of the arches the boat passed through. |
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| Pirates! Just kidding…it's a tour. |
Tuesday
Our last breakfast in Salema, and we had to get a shot with the lovely family who made our meal each morning. They were lovely!
Sagres Fortress
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| The construction of the fortress was commissioned by Prince Henry the Navigator in the 15th century. It was really quite amazing to look out over the ocean and think about those who have sailed these waters and the impact it has had on our lives today. |
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| We stopped at the lighthouse at Cape St. Vincent which is actually the southernmost point of Europe! |
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| Our brave girl! To say this part of Portugal was windy would be quite an understatement. |
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| We stopped to have a look at some pottery. The pumpkin pieces were gorgeous, but they just weren't going to fit into my Ryan Air sized suitcase. |
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| Our last stop was Lagos. Unfortunately, the weather just wasn't cooperating. We really wanted to hang out on the beach, but it was just too cold, cloudy, and windy. Even on this dismal day, it was still beautiful! |
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| The tide was high and crazy. No walking through here! |
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| My friend Andrea questioned the safety standards in Europe. How about this staircase?? Who needs a railing, right?! |
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| Allison, Thomas, and Noir. |
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| Our last dinner in Salema. |
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So long Salema and the Algarve. You were amazing!
Next up…Lisbon!
Until next time,
Wendy |
