Are we really staying there? -Portugal Road Trip Part 10

 Last stop Tavira, Algarve!


Praça da República

This is what we learnt...a really important lesson...older travellers get on the road quickly in the morning! It would seem there is competition for places and they know it and are determined to get to the next site as soon as possible. Now it was our turn to join the rush as we were heading to the Algarve, a particularly pretty part, almost in Spain, in fact about 39 kms from the border. We were on our way to Tavira, allegedly the prettiest town on the Algarve, we didn't see any other part so it's impossible to offer an opinion, but this was the kind of town we like. No high-rise buildings, lots of history, easy going and with delicious food.

 However, the motorhome park I had chosen and had been watching fill up (it shows the number of spaces available in real time on the website) was a shock when we arrived. We stopped outside and I said to Pi we cannot go in there, it looked like a trailer park and nothing like most of the lovely campsites we had been in. It was getting later though, as we had taken all day to get here and our only other option would be a drive back into Tavira as it was further away, whereas this was a walk. Swallowing pride I changed my mind and we drove in. First impressions couldn't have been more wrong, it was fantastic. Tavira Motorhome Park  was so clean, so new and so cheap. The ladies running it were super friendly and made us feel welcome the second we were through the gate. It was 11 euros for the night with one euro each for showers and 50 cents for the toilet, which is slightly odd. This was the second time Daisy has been dwarfed by the vehicles around her, but we set up camp and relaxed and the initial fears disappeared. Walking into town after dinner we decided we would stay for 3 nights! How's that for a turn around?



Across the Rio Gilão to the old market

Staying the extra days meant we could catch up on washing and resting. The sun was out and although not a typical layout of a campsite, we copied others and got the hammocks out and chilled, whilst spending the day rotating washing and drying…the less glamorous side of travelling life. 

A date night


Horse Mackerel 
That evening we actually got ‘dressed up’ and went out…on a date…smart clothes, well as smart as we can muster with limited packing, and if I recall, a little bit of lip gloss! We headed for a sushi place, Bartô, that was raved about on Trip Advisor; it is known for its fusion of Portuguese and Japanese; it was so worth it, delicious food and great value for the amount we had. 
The owner was really helpful and persuaded me to eat my first ever soft shell crab, I really wasn’t sure, so he said he would give me it for free if I really didn’t like it. It came in sushi form, so it was less intimidating and it was ok, taste wise great, once you got over the crunch. However, because we enjoyed it, he then gave us a desert for free.


Praça da Republica from the amphitheatre 


The next morning we couldn’t wait to explore, although we went out for breakfast first, it felt like the kind of place to keep treating ourselves; not that the whole adventure hadn’t been a treat anyway, but this made us feel in a holiday mood. 

 The walk from the motorhome park took 20 minutes, the breakfast detour took us to a part of town that was quiet with no other tourists, essentially we got a little lost and ended up in a housing estate, still we got to see a lovely couple of squares off the beaten track.



Today was about people watching from the lovely modern amphitheatre created in the main square, right by the river, and wandering the streets; there is a lot to see here but it was sunny day and we were quite happy simply strolling around the cobbled streets. We toyed with the idea of a boat trip to the nearby island but our timing was not good as they stopped for lunch. We have deliberately kept things to do for next time, when we know we need to plan a longer stay. 


 Another steep walk up the hill to the castle ruins, which gave us great views across the roof tiles to the salt flats that meet the sea, and to see the grounds of the ruin that have been turned into a lovely little garden. Deciding to walk back down for an ice cream was about as much as we could cope with. Disappointingly this was the worst ice cream we had in Portugal, mine didn’t taste of mint choc and Pi’s didn’t taste of banoffee, vowing to make sure they were not our last we headed back to the site…it was wine and beer o’clock!

All that remained was to pack most things away, colour in my Portugal/Spain map to update the route we have travelled and grab some supplies to to get us into Spain, we wanted to make sure we had anything Portuguese that we had loved along the way…we did forget to get green wine which we had said we would buy before we left rather than carry it from the north. Another lesson learned!

 
Ponte International crossing Rio Guadiana into Spain
It felt terribly sad leaving, we had fully explored as much as we could in the time we had, but we definitely knew of places we wanted to return to. Spain was now the going home part of the journey, however, it was important not to think like that and consider it simply the next installment of what was turning into a fabulous trip.

Cadiz here we come.



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