Making friends with the natives
Trip Start
Dec 05, 2011
1
19
35
Trip End
Feb 23, 2012
Lagos, Algarve, Portugal
Thursday, January 12, 2012
We've been taking it easy and have been chilling out so far. We've been into Lagos to shop and to have a look around the Old Town which has an amazing history influenced by Phoenicians; Greeks; Carthaginians; Romans and Arabians as well as Christians..
Essentially an important sea traffic centre for gold, silver; ivory and slaves. The slave market from 1444 is well preserved and is now used as an art gallery. In 1573 it became the capital of the Algarve but many of the important buildings were destroyed by our own Francis Drake (naughty boy) and then by an earthquake and Tsunami in 1755.
But now it is known only for its fish and its tourism industry. It still has some charm to it having winding cobbled streets and well preserved churches; town hall; fortress and city walls. We loved the fish market; there are so many weird and wonderful fish on sale that we couldn't name half of them but intend to try and sample quite a few while we are here.
We went to Luz and found it very pleasant at The Bull on its sun terrace sipping Magners Cider in the sunshine. There are good beaches here and we'll be back every opportunity when the sun shines. Some good cliff walks here too and lots more little beaches along the coast.
We saw a heron and an egret on route to Boca Do Rio and a very curious bull who really enjoyed having his photo taken even though he had his mouth full; he was a very horny bull!
