Albufeira, Portugal, Country 8, Stop 23

August 14 ct’d.

After Bletchley, returning the car and flying to Faro is uneventful. That is until we arrive at Immigration. There is a long, long, long line and we wait. And wait. And wait. It’s a new country for all four of us and we are trying to be excited about that, but the line is not moving at all. When we finally get through the line and find our driver he tells us that there is a strike going on.

We walk outside and, oh boy, is it hot! We have arrived in Portugal at the same time as the “Lucifer” heat cyclone. https://www.google.com/search?q=heat+cyclone+lucifer&oq=heat+cyclone+lucifer&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160.5121j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

***Dmitri--Lucifer? This is like the scene in V for Vendetta where the newscasters keep upping the fear ante and eventually the viewers start saying “whatever.” Don’t get me wrong, I think climate change is the challenge of our era and we’re basically fucked, but I mean c’mon. It’s just like 90 degrees and hot. If they want to start talking about hell, it would need to be like the first chapter of “Ministry for the Future.” If you want to get a sense of our climate future, read that one…

That said, wow, it’s hot!***

This Russian blue, the neighborhood cat, is the Portuguese Bali. The clipped ear means he or she is neutered/spayed.

August 15

We sleep in today and stay in and try to avoid the heat of the day. I catch up on blogs. We eat lunch out at a restaurant by the beach. Mia and I take a dip in the ocean while Dmitri and Jack go to pick up food. It’s a mellow day, but that’s part of the reason we have a week in Portugal. It’s time to catch up on some things and sleep in and not rush around to see everything.

***Jack-- Our stop in Portugal was mostly just to catch up on work and chill out, but going out and doing things was still a main goal.***

***Dmitri--We are staying in a region of Portugal on the south coast called the Algarve. It’s stupidly beautiful, and dotted with towns and cities of all types, but with tourists nearly everywhere. Our town is called Albufeira, and it’s kind of middle of the road. We had wanted to stay in Lagos, which is a little farther west, but most of it was booked up. Planning only a week or two out is a challenge, especially when everyone in Britain is dying to fly to the Mediterranean after years of lockdown.

We have rented a flat in the supposedly more family-centric west side of Albufeira rather than the party spot of eastern Albufeira. And, based on the wildness of where we are, we are officially too old to be near any party spot because wow, this place is loud and a bit much. Our place is about a block from the edge of the main area and it’s loud until about 2 or 3 am.

This makes a lot of sense because all of the Algarve is shifted from the rest of the world by about 3 hours. They don’t siesta, and they just get up late and stay out late. I’m out walking to a grocery store at 9:30 and it’s a ghost town. The delivery trucks are out, which is what, a 5 or 6am thing at home? Anyway, we start shifting ourselves to match.***

***Mia-- I am a huge fan of this lifestyle. If nothing in the Algarve opens until around 10 or 11, I don't have to wake up early. ***

This cute place is right outside our back door.

Just around the corner from our airbnb

Is it in Albufeira that we discover sparkling sangria. It is every bit as good as you think it is. Might have to start making that at home.

***Jack-- Our airbnb was right in the center of the city. There were shops, bars, restaurants and so much more around our airbnb just a few hundred feet away.***

Aug 16

We sleep in again. We need to, as we are in an area that is very lively at night. It’s so loud that it’s difficult to sleep, even with the windows closed and the air con running. We find a larger grocery store and walk around a bit and yeah, it’s hot. Did I mention that it's hot?? We eat cataplana for lunch, a Portuguese dish from the Algarve, where a kind of fish stew is cooked in this pot, which is also called cataplana.

***Dmitri: When we stay somewhere for more than a couple of days, it’s best to scope out the grocery stores and try to get a little more local. This is our first longer stop and so we’re buying breakfast foods, beer, etc., and trying to eat out once a day. Eating out can get old really fast, and having something, anything, made at “home” starts to feel special.***

Aug 17

***Dmitri: It’s time for us to hit one of the more picturesque spots in the Algarve, and that’s the Benagil Cave. The entire Algarve coastline is worn away into fantastic shapes and the contrast of the rocks, beach and water makes the region one postcard after another.

One of the best spots of all is a big cave that you can only boat or kayak to, and although it’s somewhat busy with other tourists, it’s totally worth it. The roof of the cave has collapsed long ago, leaving a natural skylight, and the elements combine to make it pretty special. We take video on our phones because, yeah, I’ll leave someone else to explain that part.***

Benagil is one of the places I was most looking forward to. When you google Algarve it's pretty much the stock photo that's used on all the websites. We take an uber about 30 minutes from Albufeira and are left off just outside our kayaking place. We are maybe in the kayaks for 8-10 minutes when Dmitri and I get motioned back to where the kids are kayaking. Mia looks sick to her stomach and tells us that the Insta 360 has slipped from her wrist into the ocean. Ugh. The insta is her go to for recording things. I have the go pro in the parent kayak and it will have to do. We tell her that it's a thing that can be replaced and it would be a shame to let it ruin our kayak outing. Before heading into the Benagil cave, the guides take us along the coast and in and out of various other caves. The air is the PERFECT temperature and we are enjoying ourselves immensely.

***Mia-- This was a devastating day. While my YouTube videos aren't highly professional, I will say that the quality of the Insta360 is very good, especially for a camera the size of my thumb (which also makes it sooo convenient to carry around)! 95% of my video clips were shot with the Insta360. I can make do with the GoPro and my phone until we can get a new one, but a part of my soul fell into the ocean that day. Not to be overdramatic or anything.***

***Jack--I was there to witness the tragedy of the Insta360 camera. I heard a bump behind me and the camera sank into the ocean. It was a sad moment, but the beauty of the cave made up for it in full.***

Dinner that night is at Urban Pizza and it's incredibly fun. There is live bossa nova music and the atmosphere is upbeat, with the waiters dancing around the restaurant. We enjoy the music, but are too full for dessert. I suppose we will never know what wiener melange is.

Aug 18

Since we decide not to rent a car, we arrange for a tour around the Algarve with Johnny's Tours. Boy, are we happy we did! We don't have to find parking spots or navigate and we have a local to give us an overview. And we find a true gem. If you are lucky on your travels you will meet someone so friendly and helpful that it just makes everything easier and better. Joao is that person. Joao went above and beyond in every way. Post tour he checked strike times and texted us about the fireworks for Albufeira Day. He recommended a truly spectacular restaurant with the best view and meal in town. It was a pleasure to spend time with him and we were much more open to the beauty of Portugal after spending time with him. He even took lots of photos and made us a video!!! What a great guy!

***Dmitri: Joao’s trip has been the highlight of our Portugal stay. As Cindy said, just a really good guy. He knew everything, but we could actually tell he cared, and was just so on the ball with whatever we wanted to do. He even took great photos and then sent us a montage later on. Wow.

His tour took us to Lagos, where we got to tour that city and appreciate its history (even the dark side with the slave trade), see its main fish market, walk its cute streets and have a true local meal. The stop was best for the boat tour of the local coastline, replete with dozens of amazing coves and rock formations.

Our guide had funny names for most of them, which fit. There’s very little in the world that looks like this, and I’d highly recommend the Algarve just to absorb this slice of nature. The Benagil cave was super cool, but this was the same feeling on a larger scale.

Cindy and Mia jumped in to cool off.

***Cindy here--what a backdrop! The water is chilly, reminiscent of Tahoe. And the color of the water! Wow. I love everything about this stop and it's quite obvious because I am grinning like a crazy person in all the photos of me in the water. ***

***Mia--You would think the water in Portugal would feel warm, but it's actually pretty cold!***

***Back to Dmitri--Joao then took us farther up the coast, nearly to the end at Sagres, which would be the SW tip of Europe. The farther out we went, the quieter and more local it became. We stopped in to the small village of Burgau, which was a gem. This was more of a locals beach, and the shops and streets were mellow. We nabbed several beautiful pictures of the back streets and lots of great color.

Later we came back via Luz, to see the beaches and also get a sense of the ex pat community there. One of our ulterior motives on this trip is to scout places to eventually visit for longer, or maybe retire. We dunno. It just seems like a good idea to see where people are happy, the weather is good, and living is cheap. Luz is a candidate, but is somewhat mainstream.

Our last stop of the day is a much more original and interesting little town east of Portimao called Ferragudo. We did a walk of the streets and this seems like a great community.***

Probably the only mar in an otherwise great day was that we forgot the drone. Sigh. We just can't seem to get it together with tech on this trip.

***Mia-- I don't think I've ever been so fascinated with walls and tiles in my entire life. Everywhere you look, there are beautiful patterns and tiles, and bright paint on the trim of buildings. There are pink, green, and yellow exteriors all on the same block. Why would anyone stick to black, white, and gray for building color schemes when you could have something that looks this good?! See pictures below.***

The old way fisherman used to catch octopus. They would lower these into the ocean and the octopus would go and hide in them.

***Jack--Without a guide I would've never noticed the small details or paintings on any of these houses; when they were pointed out it felt like a whole new world opened up.***

Aug 19

After spending the previous day with Joao, we have a low key day. Mia and I have a long walk on the beach right by our airbnb and later we have a bit of local retail therapy.

Jack and Mia swim out to an inflatable raft.

***Mia-- I didn't mind this tourist trap at all. Jack and I strapped on life jackets and bounced around on this inflatable raft for about an hour. I have a lot more respect for contestants on "Wipeout" because those surfaces get really slippery! Jack and I both fell into the water many times and even made a little game out of seeing how fast we could run on the inflatable pathways without falling in.***

The inflatable is a huge hit and the kids are happy. However, the waters of Portugal take again from the Williams family, as Mia loses an earring during her time at the inflatable raft.

***Jack--10/10 would do it again.***

***Dmitri: We ditch the kids for a nice meal out. Well, it’s more like we make them a bad offer and they’re thrilled to ditch us, so it works out fine for everyone. We head about 15 feet from our flat to A Ruina, with a great view of our local beach from high up. We also try “green wine,” which is just red wine without the grape skin. Who knew? Anyway, we’re wine idiots and so it was probably interesting and wasted on us. I thought it tasted like a typical white wine, but hey, you gotta try to local stuff. The fish turned out to be great. Like Santorini, this was a place where you pick the fish, they weigh it and charge you, then cook it simply. When the fish were in the water earlier in the day, it’s pretty good stuff.***

Aug 20

***Dmitri: Our last night in Albufeira turns out to be on “Albufeira Day,” which is their once a year celebration, and it’s the first in two years due to Covid. The place is going to be bananas.

Joao had recommended a place he goes called O Penedo. What a great local rec! It’s up on the cliff wall with a perfect view of the whole Albufeira beach cover. We time it to get late day, sunset and early evening, and it’s about as good as it gets.

The place even has a couple cats, which makes Jack happy.

Mostly I was happy for the food, which was the best we had in Portugal, despite being reasonably priced and with the best view in town. I’m getting fish everywhere, of course, and it is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick some up here. This goes to show that the best places are always a little bit away from the main tourist hubs, and that if you can get a local to advise you you nearly always win.

The evening wraps up with fireworks, which we can take in from just a few steps off of our front door. Jack gets some drone footage because at this late hour, there are no seagulls to menace him. It’s a nice ending to a relaxing week. After the relative rush of driving through England, this was what we needed. Some activity and sights, but also a chance to exhale and relax and just live.***

Aug. 21

We have to be up and out EARLY so we meet Joao around 6:25 am. Yikes. At the airport Mia points out that I have my shirt on inside out. Ah the glamour of travel. A week of little sleep and up before sunrise will do all kinds of things to a person. I am able to sleep a little on the plane and feel a bit better as we head to Copenhagen.

But I'll leave you to ponder what this sign means.