Lagos, Algarve

Storyline: Portugal by trains

Jan 14 – Jan 18

There is a lot going on for Lagos. It has a beautiful old city centre (downtown for the North Americans and yes it was downhill from where we stayed), sunny beaches for every taste, a nice food scene, especially around the harbour and the old town. And good weather. When considering places to stay, the whitewashed houses of Albufeira were attractive, but after some research I figured that it would be just one of those beach towns with not much more to it. Lagos on the other hand had all we needed. And I was right.

The regional train from Faro to Lagos took us through orange & olive fields and fig trees on hilltops, stopping at every local village or town.

It was mainly dry hilly areas.  After about 2 hours we arrived at the Lagos train station, which is much bigger and nicer than Faro’s.

Although more luxurious and direct trains from Lisbon go to Faro. Perhaps it is an older station.

Lagos on the other hand is more of a tourist town and a newer train station had been built.

There was a lovely little café with a patio just outside the station. I still was under the influence of the cataplana food poisoning (read the Tavira post), but with some medication from the pharmacy (boy they are not cheap!) I was well enough to have a glass of sangria and a sandwich. It was close to 3pm and we hadn’t had lunch yet. So, we enjoyed the sun, sipped our drinks and had a sandwich each.

Time to head up some hills to find our new home for four nights.

Crossing the bridge at the marina, guided by the Google maps, we passed wide sidewalks with many booths and a few tour operators selling boat tours even in January. Many more were lining the boardwalk, empty but ready for the next high-volume tourist season.

Then it was the old city with narrow sidewalks and uneven small cobbled streets. We were inching our way upwards. The sidewalks were still narrow but streets were now paved with asphalt telling us we were heading towards the new part of the city.

After 2 roundabouts we reached our 8-floor apartment building. We were in a resort area with some big mansions and apartment buildings being rented to tourists and snowbirds.

The apartment we rented through the Airbnb was on the 5th floor, spacious but uninspiring.

One could see the water in the distance with many building cranes reaching for the sky.

That evening we shopped at the local grocery store, bought some frozen pre-made food, and called it a day.


Next day I was well enough to venture on a walk back to the old town and explore it. First, we checked the bus station, on the mainland side of the canal across from the train station. We wanted to buy tickets to Sagres. Unfortunately, they sold none at the bus station.

There was a bus that we thought was going to Sagres, but tickets for it were sold online only. We’ve read that there was one bus going to Sagres around noon and leaving back to Lagos an hour or so later. Made no sense. If we decide on it (I still wasn’t well enough to venture a bus ride) we’d have to Uber it.

After sorting all this out we enjoyed the walk around the old town, by the castle, on the boardwalk.

There was an old tiled building across from the train station. Apparently, it was the old train station. It was fenced so we could not visit.

A nice train sculpture in the middle of the round-about. Then there were many restaurants of all sorts of origin. Italian, Portuguese, North American fast food, bars, and one we chose because of the menu, apparently was owned by an English lady.

It was also filled with English regular customers of hers.

After a short stop at the apartment, the afternoon was to explore some nearby beaches. We went to the most popular and closest to us one Port Mos.

Still sunny and apparently warm enough for some to try sunbathing, if not with bathing suits, with shorts and t-shirts. Not me or even Alex was that brave.


Our luck with the sun ended the day after. Cool and wet air moved in. We decided to visit the biggest beach to the east of the train station, the Duna Beach. It rained on and off, but we had our rain jackets on. There were a few restaurants and bars along the beach of which we found one open.

Tasca do Kiko which means the Tavern of Kiko. We really enjoyed this one. It also sheltered us from the rain for a while. We enjoyed sharing a few tapas.

Veal tartar and white fish ceviche plus their so called couvert. Not sure if I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but when something is called cover, we though it is mandatory to pay for. In many places in Italy for example they bring you bread with butter without one asking for it and at the end it’s included in your bill as a cover. Not so here.

The cover is a variety of breads and spreads. One of them is butter, but usually there 2 or 3 spreads and olives and sometimes olive oil and vinegar to dip your bread too. You can order part of it because items are individually priced. Bread, olives, spreads, etc. It was still raining after we finished so I headed for shelter at the train station.

Alex decided to explore the beach some more, take some videos and photos. Not sure when and which of all his videos will make it to life. The rain tempered a bit, just enough for us to get uphill to home.

I was ready to do some writing while Alex ran out again to chase the surf on the beaches. There was no surf, but nice photos and perhaps videos (I don’t know, do I?)

Last day in Lagos was still quite rainy. Aside from walks on the beaches and packing to head for Lisbon the next morning we ended up for dinner in Alma Lusa, a nice restaurant recommended to us by our hosts.

It’s been a while since we were in a fine dining restaurant. Don’t even remember when. We were the first customers of the evening. Never the less there were more waiters than tables in this place.

I felt very uncomfortable with five people watching me eating and ready to jump in at any moment to refill the glass of wine or water. There was this oldish guy who was watching us from behind the bottles of liqueur. I could only see his eyes and above, but it was creepy.  Glad other people filled the place so the attention was eventually split.

The couvert was interesting.

Then we shared an appetiser with scallops and a local lamb dish. A great finish to our Algarve stay. See you in Lisbon.


Lagos
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