Today was all about driving – but there was a lot of wonderful scenery. We drove from Lisbon, across the river and stopped in Setubal for lunch, and then to the Algarve coast. We stopped here to take in the view and take pictures and stretch our legs. Miguel encouraged us to try the sardines for lunch, but mom and I settled on a cod dish of some kind instead, though I know that several of our group tried them and enjoyed them immensely. The beaches along the Algarve are gorgeous, the mountains covered in short groves of pine, cork, eucalyptus and olive trees. (That’s one thing I really noticed, was how small all the trees were. Logging trucks are full of these spindly little trunks, nothing like what we’d see here in BC.) We arrived at our next hotel in Vilamoura at about four or five and we took a little tour around the grounds. We were booked in at the Pestana Vila Sol which is gorgeous. At the top of the property are rows of little villas. Ours is on the little lake and it’s full of koi, some of them larger than the lower part of my leg.
We went to dinner at one of the little restaurants on the water (more fish and more wine) and afterwards one of our tourmates and I put our feet into the Altantic in the dark. The wind was blowing and the waves were crashing and the sand was soft on the soles of our feet. Back at the hotel a choir of frogs are harmonizing over the water. We left the door open so that they could sing us to sleep.
I really think I could come back to this place. You can even see the stars at night.