Day 15 Alportel to Lagos

We left the Pousada in Alportel early this morning so we could see the small seaport towns on our way to Lagos. It was relatively disappointing to see that the coast line littered with condos and touristy restaurants. It was like this all the way from Tavira to Lagos. We stopped a small town inland called Silves that had an 8th century Moorish castle and a 12th century Cathedral. We visited both and enjoyed a brief walk through the steep cobble stoned streets. The castle was worth the stop. After Silves, we continued on to Lagos so that we would get there early enough to find a hotel. We had not had internet access for several days and could not do our due diligence hotel wise. We got lucky and immediately found a Rick Steves recommended hotel called Marina Rio. It’s a modern 36 room hotel across from the marina and a few blocks from the old whitewashed town with a jumble of pedestrian cobblestoned streets and outdoor restaurants. We managed a room with a marina view (picture taken from our room). After unpacking we walked the town and decided to have a “light” lunch of a few sardines and a small pizza (picture). I guessed we wouldn’t have dinner. We then spent some time walking the town and marina area trying to take in as much as we could. We did find a small internet café and checked our email, but didn’t have enough time to update the blog and hoped we could find better internet access tomorrow. At night, as expected, we were not at all hungry enough for a big meal, so we walked the old town looking for anything interesting. We found a wine bar called Nectar Enoteca. It was fairly empty except for its young owner who turned out to be a great host. We spent the evening talking to him (he spoke good English) while trying a host of his Portuguese wines and spirits, all accompanied by bread, cheese, olives, and olive oil. He was very proud of everything he served and deservedly so. It was a fun evening sharing our different life styles, politics, and food with him.