Albufeira back to Lisbon

We’re staying in a lovey house near Albufeira. But it only felt right to go and explore the town proper. The beach looked inviting, well, apart from the ranks of chairs.

The town was old, very narrow streets and the shops of zero interest to us. It must be overwhelmingly crowded at other times of the year, but it’s still interesting to see touristy places like this.

After lunch, rather than walk back up the stairs from the beach, we took the lift. Yes, a lift from the beach to street level!

We returned to our house for a few hours, during the hottest part of the day, spending time in and out of the pool, chatted a bit, and generally relaxed as much as possible without actually falling into full siesta mode. The reason for this? A return visit to the lagoon to see the birds, specifically the flamingoes, and to watch the sunset.

Catherine brought a monocular (like binoculars, but for people who can’t afford a full pair 😉 ) and while it was good to bring the birds a bit closer, I was unable to successfully take a close-up picture of the flamingoes through it. Not enough hands.

The stork was a little closer to us today, but, all together now: I really should use my real camera with a zoom lens!

Sunset looked promising with some fascinating cloud formations. During the next hour, I took many photos. I’m only going to upload a couple of hundred here.

We walked further along the boardwalk today, before backtracking, crossing the dunes and witnessing the Sun’s departure from the beach.

There were a lot of people also here to watch the sunset. But I think the small group of people sitting around a fire, yes a fire on the beach, might have had other ideas.

I think we all spent some time in the pool during these few days, but photographic evidence is limited.

What’s better than seeing a sunset? Seeing another one the following day. So that’s what we did. But to earn that sight, we went for a walk along the clifftops first. You know Crunchie bars? Well, the orange stuff that’s covered in delicious chocolate is actually mined here.That’s what the earth looks like, anyway.

Praia da Marinha is a lovely place, the beaches looked very inviting and there were a few people in the sea.

Our hike was higher up though, looking down at the beaches yes, but also at the caves. The path unulated a bit and I found some of the climbing a bit awkward, especially knowing I’d have to come back down later on.

Some of the rocks were by now well worn from the footsteps of twenty thousand billion visitors, and it was fun spotting some of the fossils, some more obvious than others.

This schooner was by far the most interesting boat out on the water. We’d thought about joining one of boat rides to and into the caves, but having seen some of them from above, I’m glad we didn’t. They all seemed so overcrowded.

The geology of this area is interesting, and we learnt that it’s being scrunched up as Africa is moving in a northerly direction at the rate of a couple of inches a year.

Yes, of course I checked. The spines are very sharp.

The rocks and stacks changing colour as the Sun went down reminded me of the changing colours of Uluru at this time of day.

No idea who these people are, but they insisted on remaining and having fun in front of the setting Sun.

And the skies, now a water colour painting, were a fabulous way for our time with Catherine and Hans to come to an end. Thanks again for inviting us to join you here!

Catherine and Hans left us really early, bound for Germany on their way home to Alaska. After they’d departed, I went back to bed for another hour of slumber. Liesel, on the other hand, enjoyed playing in the pool.

Rubbish bins are communal here, rather than belonging to each house, so I took some rubbish down the road to dispose of. It was a nice day for a walk down the road. The walk back up, after a full breakfast, not so much! Glad I don’t have to do that every day!

We had to leave the house by 10 and the taxi took us to the railway station. And from here, the day was full of disasters. First, we had to wait a few hours for our train and we thought we’d just pass the time in the town centre. But the railway station was a long way away from all the shops. Oh well.

Liesel crocheted a sheep while we were waiting. I was less creative. I went outside to the nearby café and bought some coffee. No takeaway cups, so I carried actual china cups and saucers back to our seat on the platform.

I walked up and down a bit for some exercise. Mostly we had the place to ourselves, but a group of locals turned up and had a very loud conversation. I’m not sure they caught a train anywhere in the end. The most interesting plant at the station was probably the fig tree, even without any edible fruit on this occasion.

We knew trains were due when more people turned up, headed for Lagos or Faro. But when the Lisboa train was due, ours, that’s when the hordes really did descend on us. And we were aghast at the size of some of the cases. One person couldn’t even lift her own luggage, she had to rely on the good will of strangers.

The train wasn’t as packed as we feared, we didn’t have to fight for our reserved seats, this wasn’t Aviva after all.

I walked along the carriages to get a coffee for myself and water for Liesel. I tried to pay, as usual, with my phone. No: cash only. Oh well.

We tried not to get too excited about our arrival in Lisboa. Just as well. At Pinhal Novo station, just before ours, the police took a long time escorting some passengers from the train. I think their crime was being drunk and a bit lairy. Oh well.

Excitement built as the train crossed the very wide river Tagus.

And, at last, our stop: Entrecampos. We all stood up, got our bags down, and prepared the leave the train. The driver had other ideas though. Having been delayed earlier, I think he just wanted to get home for his tea. So he closed the doors and set off. We and dozens of others looked at each other in disbelief. Someone had words with the conductor who made an announcement in Portuguese, but all we could do was wait until the train stopped again. Oh well.

Our plan was to take the metro to our hotel, but in the end, we took a taxi, which of course, drove underneath the very railway station where we should have left the train. And what a hairy ride. Certainly the scariest, fastest, most rubbish taxi driver it’s ever been our misfortune to use. Oh well.

At the hotel, we were upgraded to a better room. Hooray! And it really is one of the best hotel rooms we’ve ever stayed in. We walked up the road for dinner, which was acceptable, nothing special, but no need to go back. Oh well.

Still, here we are, looking forward to exploring the capital.

I think Cath and Hans enjoyed the radio show which we listened to as it was broadcast on Wythenshawe Radio on Friday afternoon, they were very polite about it anyway, but if you would like to hear it, click here. What’s the theme? “I don’t know…”