066 Portugal: Algarve

Portugal: Algarve
Luz, Burgau, Sagres, Lagos, Silves, Pera

Frank celebrates his Birthday in a bar on the beach (where else??? :) in Burgau.

The view to the North.

Ruth, happy with a beer in her hand. (how else??? :)
The view to the South.

There is a live band playing English music from the 70s and 80s (Played "Land Down Under").
Not only are the people in the bar 'bopping' but so are the people on the beach.

Just another of those photos Frank takes :)

Just a lovely photo of us at the most south westerly point of Portugal where Henry the Navigator planned the Overseas explorations.

We've seen some lovely fishing villages, this is Sagres. The Algarve is far better maintained than Porto or Lisbon. There seems to be a bit more pride in the place. Having said that the Algarve is almost 100% tourism. There are a surprising number of Russians running the businesses around here.

The colours of the photo have not done this scene full justice.
The moon rise was spectacular.
The colour of the moon was a dark orange. The reflections along the water edge sublime. I've run out of superlatives again :)

We went to the most amazing sand sculpture exhibition. It was the most extensive we have ever seen. There were approximately 20 artists, 15 of whom were Russian - go figure.

The theme was music and film. The detail in the sculptures left you breathless. It was pouring down and we were wet to the skin but we just kept going. That is why there are no people in the photo.
This is Adele with her Oscar for the theme to the Bond movie. Behind you get an idea for the scale of the place. Beyoncé, Freddie and The Pav below.

The Algarve seems to be for English people who want warm weather but don't like foreign food, culture or language. We even saw one restaurant that claimed to serve 'Proper food: Fish and Chips'
There were lots of drunken, happy people. The newspapers were The Sun, The Mirror etc, The signs were in English. Actually I think the first language of the Algarve might be English?
Even on a day where it was overcast they were on the beach, with their umbrellas, staking out their space. One lady was even basking, where the mist was so heavy my hair was damp. I guess she'd paid her money and nothing was going to stop her doing what she came to do.

and that was Portugal. We are heading back to Spain as it suits us better.