Algarve - Day 24

We packed up and left the apartment in Lagos today. On the way out of town we stopped at a field that had loads of stork nests around it.

Since our flight wasn't until later, we went to visit the town of Silves. We had a walk around, then went to visit the cathedral.

After the cathedral we went to the castle, which is at the highest point of the town and has great views.

There are underground cisterns there, although they are now used for exhibitions.

We'd bought a combined ticket which also gave us admission to the museum, so we went there next. It's build round a Moorish well which was only discovered in the 1990s.

We walked down to the river, with its Roman bridge.

We had lunch at a busy restaurant outside Silves market. There was no choice, it was piri piri chicken! But very delicious.

We made our way slowly cross-country to the the airport, and handed the hire car back.

Our flight was at 7pm, and took off a little early. However there was a headwind so we landed at our scheduled time, about 10.30.

We got the shuttle bus to the car park and collected our car. We drove home, getting in about 12.30.

Algarve - Day 23

It was raining in the morning but forecast to get better later, so we had a late start and drove to the village of Bordeira in the west. We did a 13km circular walk, route 4 in the book, through scrubland, forest and farmland.

Later we drove to Meia Praia and had a short walk on the beach, followed by a beer at the beach bar.

Later for dinner we had chicken, pepper, onion and beans.

Algarve - Day 22

It was cool and damp again today, we decided to go to Lagos zoo. It's quite a nice zoo, lots of birds and small mammals like monkeys and otters.

We watched a snake eating a (dead) chick, very slowly.

There were a lot of flamingos and other birds.

We saw feeding time as well.

On the way back we stopped at the village of Barao de Sao Joao for a walk, and came across a very strange area with lots of weird sculptures. We found out later they were by the artist Deodato Inácio Santos.

Later for dinner we had salmon with vegetables and fried potatoes.

Algarve - Day 21

We drove to Loulé today to see the carnival. We thought there might be a problem find a parking space so we went early. However there was never any problem with parking. This may have been due to the weather, which was quite cool and damp.

We walked around a bit then had some lunch at a restaurant near the market. Scott had s burger and Shirley had an omelette.

The carnival was delayed an hour because of the weather but eventually started about 3.30. There were lots of floats, costumed characters and dancing girls.

The procession moved very slowly round the main avenue. We left about 5.30 to go home. Later we had cheese toasties to eat.

Algarve - Day 20

We drove north west to Monte Clerigo and parked at the clifftop. We were doing walk 3 from the Rother book. From there we walked south along the cliffs.

At one point we saw nesting storks, which is very unusual on cliffs and rocks.

At Arrifana we had lunch then had an ice cream.

The walk then made a long inland loop through the countryside. Eventually we got to a lake at the edge of the Vale da Telha holiday resort.

It was a long walk, 22km.

We then drove further north to Praia de Odeceixe, with its viewpoint over the Ribeira de Seixe. We had a drink there then drove home.

For dinner we had fried pork and potatoes with vegetables.