Scruffbag's sister Geraldine and her husband, Gordon, arrived late on a Saturday afternoon and left early the following Thursday morning but we managed to pack a great deal into a short and very enjoyable time. More flowers are appearing each week and the sun shone all day.
The day after they arrived we caught the bus to Salema and completed one of our favourite walks along the coast back here to Luz.
As our visitors had hired a car and had said they wanted to visit Foia, the highest point in the mountain chain that separates the Algarve from Alentejo, we set off to do so the next day because the sky was cloudless and promised us an excellent view from the top all the way to the coast from Portimao to Lagos.
On our drive up we stopped to walk around the pretty spa resort of Caldas re Monchique, with its natural springs and thermal pools. Unfortunately the cages were all closed so we had to make a coffee stop at a roadside cafe that doubled as a shop further along the road.
On our return from Foia we stopped for lunch in the mountain town of Monchique, after which we took the steep path up through the town via the start of the cork forest to the abandoned monastery. If this was the UK it would be fenced in and cordoned off as a health and safety risk. Thankfully the Potuguese are much more easy going.The buildings may be almost derelict but one of the locals keeps hens in there and tinkers with engines in one of the out buildings. He is happy to let you wander round and see the remains of tiled walls and stone roofs and he appears to have created strange altar decoration and the like just to add to the wierd sense of the place.
We drove back from Monchoique via the west coast, firstly the historic town of Aljezur with its amazingly high cashpoint machine where we walked up to the remains of the moorish castle and looked out over the dried up estuary. Aljezur was once an important port and retains its historic charm to this day.
From Aljezur we drove along the beautiful west coast, stopping to take in many of the secluded west coast beaches which are marked by the relatively few tourist facilities save for a few adventurous surfers
That night was a long one involving much wine so the next day Scruffbag took to his bed whilst the other three of us surfaced late and walked to Lagos across the cliffs for an evening meal in our favourite local haunt the Adago de Marina.
The final day saw us headed for the most south westerly point of Europe at Cape St. Vincent where Geraldine posed on a chair at "the end of Europe"
This was followed by a drive to Alvor for lunch and a walk along the boardwalk looking for birds. We saw very few birds, although we did meet a birdwatcher with all the equipment and he showed us lots of photographs of birds he had spotted with his telephoto lens.
After two wet days, on one of which I went to the local shop " in between showers" and got completely soaked, David and Adele Shallow arrived. They got here late on Sunday and left on tje Tuesday but we managed to pack some trips into two days.
On the first afternoon, Scruffbag and Adele walked into Lagos and David and I followed later by bus. We met them in a bar and from there we looked at the nearby church with its gold painted wooden carvings before walking to the fort at the river mouth, which is currently hosting an amazing pottery exhibition. This was followed by dinner at the Adego de Marina.
The next day we drove out to Aljezur for lunch and a wander round the castle with its fabulous views over the surrounding valley and down the river valley to the coast. It is incredible to think that when the castle was built in the 1600s Aljezur was a thriving port at the mouth of an esturay and an important provisioning stop for trading ships
The following morning Adele and I had a short walk in the direction of Bergau to look at the emerging spring flowers and then it was time for them to depart. This left Scruffbag and I with a week on our own before the arrival of our next set of visitors.
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