Blog Archives - Wandering With William

A 2 1/2 Hour Cruise

2/28/2019

Today is the day for our 2 1/2 half hour boat cruise. We walk to the marina for our 12:30 departure. I am surprised that the boat is almost fully booked. The XRide boat captain organizes the group onshore then seats us on the boat. We are soon underway, clearing the marina and moving parallel to the shore.

We leave the bluffs behind and reach the Praia dos Salgados Nature Reserve and it's beautiful beach. Then we reach Armacão de Péra, small fishing village just 5 years ago, now filled with condos.

We continue cruising along looking at the beaches, cliffs, caves and natural arches formed by the sea and wind. Our boat is small enough to go into some of the caves, the most noted is Benagil Cave. We're happy we chose the XRide and not the larger catamarans that cannot get as close or go into the caves. The boat continues a little past the city of Lagos to Ponta da Piedade with it's lighthouse.

After an hour and a half it is time to start the dolphin watching while heading back to Albufeira. William and I have predicted that we will not see dolphins and our prediction comes true. But we do have a good boat ride and a chance to see a fishing boat.

After we get back to the marina we are very hungry. We opt for a Portuguese-Mexican restaurant. (What can I say)? We order a Portuguese appetizer and Mexican enchiladas. The food is okay, very filling.

Albufeira Museums

2/27/2019

Our "adventure" today starts with a walk to Museu de Arte Sacra de Albufeira, just ten minutes from our apartment. It is also known as Saint Sebastian Chapel. It was built in 1740, and is now dedicated to a martyr born here in 1590, Saint Vincent of Albufeira. In 1617 he became a priest, traveled to Mexico, 5 years later to Manila, Philippines, and another year later to Japan. This was at a time when Christians were being persecuted in Japan. He was sent to prison six years later and in 1632 he was martyred by fire. Since 1965 he has been the Patron Saint of Albufeira. Seeing this small chapel takes 20 minutes, with it's beautiful alter and artifacts.

Our planned second venue of the day is Museu Municipal de Arquelogia. We walk ten minutes up the road, only to find the Museu is closed for remodeling. Oye! Message: If you come to Albuferia, don't come for it's history.

We return to the apartment then later go out for a late lunch. We walk along the upper beach promenade to the Beach Basket Restaurant. I have at least a 12 oz portion of fresh salmon grilled and plated with butter sauce, while William has a huge piece of cod. Both are perfectly prepared. Delicious!

Investigating Boats and Busses

2/26/2019

It's Tuesday, February 26th. We start the day by sending a Happy Birthday messages our wonderful friend Lois.

Late morning we walk to Albufeira's marina. It's a pleasant 20 minute stroll in the other direction of the old town square. The weather is a little cool, but with the sun we soon find ourselves unzipping or shedding our jackets. The marina is cute, with multi-colored condos as part of the development. Our first order of business is to arrange for a boat tour. We check out the tour boats in the marina then walk between the small booths for each tour operator. We decide on the XRide caves and dolphin watching tour. The saleswoman convinces us that the weather should be good on Thursday so, we pay our deposit.

A second reason for going to the marina is to learn about it's restaurants and the offerings at it's grocery store.  We start at Jack's Irish Bar with a Guinness and glass of wine, relaxing and chatting.   Then we walk along the row 20 or so restaurants, shops and small businesses.  They look pleasant, but nothing awesome.  We stop in the grocery store at the end and pick up a few items we haven't found at the InterMarche market near us.  I reflect that one of our AirBnB options was a condo here at the marina.  I'm glad we chose the one closer to the square.

We have read about the Loulé Saturday Market and we are also considering going to Seville, Spain for a few days.  Both mean bus trips.  I've done some research online, but I think the best way to learn about the busses is to go to the bus station, a two kilometer uphill walk along busy streets from our apartment.  William is not excited.  His proposal is that we take a taxi from the marina to the bus station and then walk downhill to our apartment if we feel up to it.  Sounds good to me!

The 7€ taxi ride to the bus station is very much worth it.  The woman selling tickets behind the glass window is not very friendly, but we do get the needed information, including the departure options on the days we wish to travel.  We will have to buy our tickets to Loulé on Saturday, but Seville tickets can be purchased in advance.

By now we are getting a little tired and I am planning to make dinner today.  We wimp out and hail a taxi for a ride home.

Settling into Albufeira

2/25/2019

We spend our Saturday evening huddled under blankets watching Netflix using the ChromeCast Reinaldo has provided. Evenings in Albufeira at this time the year are 7-10C (45-50F), while daytime temperatures are 16-21C (62-70F).  The apartment does not have heat (nor air conditioning), although a small space heater is in the bedroom.  Sleeping is no issue with the heater and abundant blankets provided.

We are enjoying our tea and coffee on Sunday morning when we hear cleaning in the upstairs apartment then someone downstairs by the electric panel.  Our electricity goes off then on again quickly.  The person leaves.  Ten minutes later we realize that the internet is out.  We can't find a router in the apartment and without wifi I can't contact Reinaldo via WhatsApp unless I turn on international data roaming on my phone and pay the big bucks.  Hmmm.... our solution is to out go for breakfast and use their wifi!  I explain the situation to Reinaldo via WhatsApp and also mention to him that we were cold watching TV last night.  He volunteers to resolve the internet issue and also bring another space heater within the next 15 minutes.  When we finish our breakfast and walk home Reinaldo is there as promised.  He cautions us not to turn on both space heaters at the same time or we'll trip the circuit breakers.

We spend the afternoon getting to know the nearby area, doing grocery shopping, and spending time by the beach.  It is almost 21C (70F) and with the clear skies and bright sun it feels much warmer.  Some surfers take advantage of the waves, which are nothing like what we saw in Costa Rica.  The beach is wonderful, well-groomed and so picturesque with the huge bluffs as the backdrop. This will be a nice place to spend four weeks.

Monday we explore Albufeira some more. We walk through the town center and up a large hill to Pau Bandeira viewpoint. We stare out to the Atlantic and also watch the antics of those on the beach. We return from Pau Bandeira via the much more civilized escalators - wish we would have realized they were there sooner!

We spend a bit of time in the town square people watching as we enjoy some beverages and a small pizza. Most of the visitors are people in their 60's to mid-70's. They are predominantly Canadians, Brits, French and German, with a smattering of people from the US. We even spot a gent wearing a Green Bay Packers sweater. Everyone is seemingly escaping their home locations for somewhat warmer weather. It's not unusual to see especially the Brits in short sleeves and shorts, despite an air temperature of 18C (64F). I guess it is the same as their summer temps.

On to Albufeira!

2/23/2019

We have tickets on the 10 am train from Lisbon's Oriente station to Albufeira-Ferreiras.  I've been checking out Uber car availability in the area and our plan is to try ordering an Uber and if that doesn't work try hailing a taxi or walk to a nearby Metro station where there is a cab line.  Given the plan, we target a 8:15 am departure to give us tons of time should we have issues. (OK - so we're more than a little over-cautious).

At 8:15am I order the Uber and it arrives in literally one minute.  The driver has to wait a couple of minutes for us to walk down the pedestrian-only street from our apartment to the pick-up spot.  We arrive at the station shortly after 8:30 am.  We spend a little too much time in an unheated train station for me, but we don't stress about missing our train!  We fill some of the time having coffee and pastry at one of the cafe's.

We watch the board and see that our train will depart from Track 7 so we are waiting there as the train before ours departs the station.  Our train pulls in and a gentleman helps us find our car - it turns out to be the other half of the bar car.  As we settle into our first class seats we find them comfortable.  We can only speculate if they are worth the extra 8€ each that we paid for the comfort as we did not have a chance to see a second class car.

The train ride is smooth as we pass through the western portion of Alentejo.  As in the eastern area we see umbrella pines and oak trees.  We pass from Alentejo to the Algarve region, arriving at Albufeira-Ferreiras station.  We catch a taxi at the station and within 15 minutes we are greeted by Reinaldo, the owner of the AirBnB that we are renting for the next four weeks.

Reinaldo shows us around the apartment and answers our questions.  We confirm that the wifi works and that we have each other's WhatsApp numbers.

The apartment is within Albufeira's central /Old Town area, just a few blocks from the beach and 6-7 blocks to the town square. Our first order of business is to find a place for a late lunch.  We Google "restaurants near me", pick one and start walking the 4-5 blocks.  When we arrive we find a sign posted on the door to Restaurante Rossi.  It is closed for "holidays".  Then we notice a similar sign on the restaurant across the street saying they will open in March.  Oh oh - we knew we were coming off-season but we  didn't expect the shops and restaurants to be closed.

We walk along the road leading between beach viewpoints.  I spot a couple coming toward us who are speaking in English and ask for their restaurant recommendations.  They gladly suggest a few, indicating that many of the the restaurants closer to the square are open.  We stop at Restaurant 54 and have a delicious meal of grilled salmon and grilled cod.

Friday

2/22/2019

We have a slow start to Friday, our last full day in Lisbon.  We relax with coffee and tea, then William makes breakfast.  We spend a few hours working on photos and blogs as well as doing a final load of laundry.

Around 2 pm we are ready to get out of the apartment.  Since we're hungry we try one of the nearby restaurants whose hawkers have for days been trying to pull us in.  Lunch is good, but not awesome.

After lunch we walk to Santa Apolina Station.  I noticed a couple of days ago that the train tickets on Sunday for Albufeira have an error - the tickets for March 23rd only go to Lisbon and we need to go to Porto.  I explain the situation to the attendant and he sells us tickets on the same train, in the same car and and seats for the Lisbon-Porto leg of the trip.  Yeah!  That's off our minds.

We spend the afternoon reading then doing the majority of our packing (which now takes us less than 45 minutes).  By evening we are a little hungry and decide our last dinner in Lisbon will be at the same restaurant as our first, tapas at Lisboa Tu e Eu.  We are happy with our decision.

Cork Forest & Évora

2/21/2019

We have scheduled a private 4x4 tour through the cork forest and the city of Évora. Our guide, Lídia, picks us up promptly at 8 am. She talks with us about the tour as well as the areas of Lisbon we are driving through the city. In about 20 minutes we reach Ponte Vasco de Gamma. This extensive bridge over the Targus is 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) long with another 5 kilometers (3 miles) of dedicated roadway leading to/from the bridge. It seems to go on forever.

We are driving south and then east, to the east plains of Portugal's Alentejo region. We stop for a coffee and breakfast sweet at a cafe, then Lídia takes us off-roading through the cork forest. We occasionally pass by small communities of just a few buildings, but otherwise it is just forest and us. We learn that cork is harvested every nine years once the tree reaches maturity and that the year of the last harvest is written on the tree after the cork is peeled off. In addition to the cork oak trees we see umbrella pines and the oaks that produce sweet acorns so desired by pigs.

At the edge of one of the cork forests lies the megaliths of Évora. Almedres is one of the oldest and largest stone circles in Europe. It is believed to have been occupied over the past 20,000 years. Due to it's latitude, some nights of the year it gets the moon at it's full height (similar to Stonehedge).

After walking through the area and contemplating the ancients who used the site, Lídia returns the vehicle to the main road leading to Èvora. It's a little too early for lunch, so we start our walking tour of the city. We walk through the walls of the old town and follow the aqueduct built in the 1500's, learning that in ancient times the city was ruled by the Romans and then much later by the Moors. In the 14th through 16th Centuries it was a center of the arts and education.

Lídia takes us to the Church of St. Francis where we take some time to walk through both the church and then the upper galleries, which house hundreds of nativity scenes.

Next we go next door to the somewhat macabre Chapel of Bones. It is the largest of it's type in Portugal. I have to admit, we have seen other chapels of bones in other countries and all cause a bit of reflection.

A few block walk gives us time to clear our minds and takes us to Rua dos Mercadores and our lunch at Restaurante a Choupana. This is a very small restaurant- much, much better than the tourist cafe's we have passed by. Everyone else in the restaurant is a local, some in suits, some in workman's shirts. William and I enjoy appetizers, bread, olives, two entrees popular in the region, beer, sparkling water, and a shared dessert for 30€. Awesome.

We could nap, but Lídia has more sight-seeing in mind for us. We continue our walk and make a stop in the Cathedral, located on the highest point of the city. It is built like a small fortress and one of it's distinguishing features is the blue Lantern tower. We also enjoy walking through the cloister.

Our last stop in the city of Évora is the Temple of Diana. It is a Roman Corinthian-style temple built in 1 B.C. Continuing the Roman heritage, Lídia drives us 20 minutes to the site of some Roman Baths. A dam in a small river has created a nearby lake and the landscape is very pretty.

Following the Roman Baths we take a winding single-lane road through the countryside, seeing storks and sheep. Then Lídia rejoins major roads for our two hour trip back to Lisbon and our apartment. We arrive home a little before 7 pm tired and a little hungry.

It has been a very rewarding day.

Igreja and Monastery of São Vicente de Fora

2/20/2019

This afternoon's adventure is to visit the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora and to discover the streets around it. We begin by walking through small streets which feel like we are going straight uphill, giving our hamstrings a workout. As we have only had breakfast today, we stop in a little Restaurant for what we think is going to be a small bite to eat. We order one of the sausages flamed tableside, a cheese plate, bread and olives. When we are done we look at each other and agree it was not a small amount. Oh well, we'll hope for a light dinner.

More wandering up through the winding streets to brings us to an artesian chocolate shop. We restrain ourselves and only buy one piece each. The chocolate is delicious.

The chocolate shop is in the shadows of Santa Engrecia, a church which was converted into the National Pantheon in the 20th Century. It is an impressive building, but we save going inside for another time and continue our upward climb. Shortly we're rewarded by arriving at the entrance of São Vicente.

The Igreja (church) was built in the 17th Century while the other buildings of the Monastery were completed in the 18th Century. We sit and absorb the beauty of the church then proceed to the Monastery.

The walls are full of blue tiles telling the story of the Monastery and upstairs in the cloister there is what feels like an endless display of tiles telling the Fables of La Fontaine.

The Monastery also contains the pantheon of the kings of the House of Braganza. Very notable are the twin tombs of King Carlos I and Prince Líuz Felipe who died in 1908 at the hand of assassins sympathetic to forming a republic.

Throughout the afternoon we practice some of the photographic techniques that we learned yesterday from Miguel. 😊

Discover Lisbon with a Photographer

2/19/2019

We're recovering from our walk yesterday, but need to be ready for this afternoon's tour - "Discover Lisbon with a Photographer". We relax in the morning and have lunch at a nearby restaurant.

We take the Metro blue line, transfer to the green line and get off at Intendente Station then meet our guide, Miguel, in front of the 1908 Lisboa Hotel. Once again due to the off-season and scheduling during the week William are the only participants of the tour. Miguel explains his background as a professional photographer then we talk about our cameras and some photo basics. We set our cameras to A (aperture priority), make appropriate adjustments and we begin strolling the streets of the Mouraria area of Lisbon. It is some of the same streets as we saw yesterday, but today our eyes take priority over our stomachs. Miguel provides helpful coaching and recommendations along the way and we enjoy talking with him. The quality of our photos improve as a result.

We proceed to meander the streets of the Mouraria, Castelo, Alfama, and Garcia neighborhoods taking photographs over the next three hours.  We finish our tour at a miradouro overlooking the city including Castelo S. Jorge and the Ponte 25 de April, which resembles the Golden Gate Bridge.

We're starving and Miguel offers to walk us to a well-known seafood restaurant.  When we arrive the line is long and no one gives a hint as to how long we will need to wait.  We decide to take the Metro back home and find a  local restaurant.  We find a real winner, a family place where the salmon is so good I would almost give up my first-born for another portion (sorry Paul).

When I crash on the couch in our apartment after dinner I look at my pedometer application.  We did 13,500 steps this afternoon!

1001 Flavors of Lisbon

2/18/2019

At 11:30 on Monday we are scheduled to meet Kathe, the tour guide for "1001 Flavors of Lisbon".  We take the Metro to the Martin Moniz station, then walk a few blocks to our meeting point. (Ok, more than a few blocks, but if I would have paid attention to the location details it would have only been a few blocks).  We are in the Mouraria area of Lisbon, an area where the immigrants have stettled over the centuries.  Kathe arrives and we find out we are the only people on today's tour.  Great for us, we now have a private tour!

As we walk to our first restaurant Kathe tells us a little about herself then discusses the area.  We pop into a very small restaurant where we have bread, cheese, alheira, wine/beer.  Alheira is chicken sausage that became a popular food of Jews and Muslims who settled in the area, both those who forcibly converted to Catholicism and those who didn't.  The sausage helped them to fit in as if they were consuming pork sausage and hopefully avoid the Inquisition.  The sausage has a more mushy texture than many we've tasted but is very good.

As we walk through Mouraria we talk about azulejos, the famous Portuguese tiles.  The early style of tile originated in Moorish Spain and was brought to Portugal in the 15th Century.  Portuguese artisans then improved the technique and styles, making it their own.  Kathe also discusses the Great Lisbon Earthquake which occurred on All Saints Day in 1755.  Half the population was lost, it took one year to clean up and 100 years to rebuild.

We enter an area of Mouraria where Fado is said to have originated in the brothels of the early 19th Century. In the area there are photographs and paintings on the walls of famous people as well as local residents. Around the corner from the house where Fado is said to have originated we stop for some tapas - white port and tonic cocktail, cod & beans salad, ham & sausage plate, olives, and of course bread. Fun!

We continue the tour walking to the Alfama area. We see the convent of St. Vincent in the distance and the statue of St. Vincent near Miradouro das Portas do Sol - a large terrace looking toward the Tagus River.

Our next stop is again a small, family owner restaurant. Here we have a cup of sparkling "green" wine, cheese, bread, and a chorizo barbecued on a ceramic dish in front of us. Very memorable (and good).

Less than 100 feet away we stop at an open doorway to a small house. A woman who appears to be in her late 70's is selling shots of Ginjinha, the local liquor made from sour cherries, clear liquor and sugar. Kathe explains that many of the older residents of the area have trouble making ends meet and several sell Ginjinha to tourists and locals to supplement their income. How could we say no? Ginjinha is too sweet for William, but goes down easily for me.

Our last stop is for dessert. Lisbon is famous for Pastel de Nata (custard tart), which can be found everywhere. But Kathe has found Pastel Feijão. It's described as bean cake....which sounds gross. But it is a delicious combination of white beans, grated almonds and sugar. The top is crispy like the caramelized top on creme brûlée. Wow!

It's a little after 4 pm when we make it back to our apartment, tired, full and very happy we signed up for the tour.