Portugal

August 17th-19th

PORTUGAL!!

Loule and Faro, Portugal

We left Madrid with the culture of Spain at our doorsteps, but was eager to get to the south, out of the cities and soaking up the rays on the beach! We trained to Huelva, Spain and rented a car for 3 days to explore the southern coast of Portugal!  Up until this point we have travelled by plane, train, tram, bus, subway, and now car!  Although we have been quite satisfied with the convenience of train up until this point, there is nothing like having the freedom of a car!

Entering into Portugal!

The southern region of Portugal is known as the Algarve.  So much beach, european tourists and surfers!

Gorgeous hibiscus flowers along our travels

Enjoying the freedom of the car!

The first beach we stopped at...so much SAND!!! Soft between the toes.

We stayed in a place called Loule, Portugal.  It was about a 10 minute drive to the beach.  We figured since we had a car we could find a cute town to stay at with more reasonable prices!  Apparently ocean view hotels are expensive?

In this cute walking street of Loule, heading to get some local cuisine for lunch.  We love how the canopies above made a quaint shaded shopping alley!

We found a nice restaurant full of locals!  The restaurant gets its main delicacy, fish, fresh from the market each morning.  In the picture below we were served deep fried sardine, a local favourite, complementary of the owner.

They actually tasted good...even Jenna agreed (to all of those who don't believe she tried it, she actually did...who knew if only took taking her to Europe for her to try foreign foods)

The fresh catch of the day!

Portugal's infamous dessert wine, Port, grown and fermented in Northern Portugal.

THE BEACH!  We were eager to experience all of the beaches in southern portugal.  We started with this gem with miles of white sand, gorgeous iron enriched sandstone bluffs along the Atlantic Ocean.

Steven eager to dive in the water!

Interspersed along the beach are sections you can rent out a palapa, chairs and towels for the day.  We were too cheap and soon you will find out our own setup!

Steven climbing the sandstone.

The funky trees of Portugal

We were not convinced that the beach we were at was the best and busiest, so we walked about an hour, just to realize that there is a lot of sand, water and people all along the waterfront!  Very enjoyable though!

August 18th - Portimao, Portugal

Our second day in Portugal, we decided to drive about an hour to Portimao, Portugal.  

Small car, small spaces...if there is no room on the street, park on the sidewalk!

The amazing view we encountered before heading down to the beach

Our awesome Beach Setup!!  We bought a blanket and umbrella for 10 euros (which was half the price of the palapa for only one day) and we were able to use ours for a few beach trips!

Explore the beach in Portimao

Loving the Beach Life!

Steven enjoying the water

On our way home we found a community of all orange houses...of course we had to detour and check it out

August 19th

Today we had to go to the train station to see if we could reserve a train for our travels in Spain (apparently you cannot reserve trains in Spain, unless you are in Spain...it can be quite a frustrating process!)  But anyways, on our way to the train station we came across a few interesting sites that we stopped and observed.

The national park of Faro...not exactly what we expected, since we were prepared to hike it

Anyone want to go boating?

 

Some sweet graffiti we found!

After the train station we decided to enjoy our last day in Portugal on the beach!  We went back to the original beach we found the first day and just soaked in the rays!

August 20th - Heading to Valencia, Spain!

High speed trains - 300 km/h...outside temperature 37 degrees Celsius! 

Architectural Highlight - Portugal

We found this gorgeous house in Portmiao, Portugal.  We really liked the materials used, the different elevations the house offered and they also had a well landscaped property.