Portugal!

The mock exams and the JAAs are drawing closer and closer, so we decided we’d have one last trip out before we settle into working towards these exams! We’ve been talking about going to Portugal for a few weeks and so thought we’d just go for a long day-trip. Hayden and a friend of his from Australia, Tait, joined me at 7am on Saturday when we set off. Our first stop was Seville, where we stayed briefly to eat Breakfast and then headed off for a 2 hour drive into Portugal. The first town we stopped at was Tavira. We saw it on the travel brochure – had a quick walk around. Didn’t seem too interesting – just a river and boats, and we quickly stopped to buy a postcard.

We then drove further west, to Faro. We explored Faro, and watched the planes swoop down over the water and then headed off to eat lunch and walk around the shops.

Marina at Faro:

Difficult to see, but the airport is straight ahead in the distance. We enjoyed watching the aircraft come in!

Shopping – all pedestrianized:

It was getting quite warm…so we head straight to Lagos, which is about an hour west of Faro. We accidentaly stumbled upon some beautiful beaches separated by rocks and caves.

View similar to the post card we picked up in Tavira:

Beautiful clear water!

On our way out we came across a strip, and being keen aviators we parked up to watch a Piper come into land and a Cessna take off!

We then continued onto Alvor. The water was cold, but the Atlantic Ocean was just too tempting, so we went in for a swim! Your body gets used to the temperature once you’re in anyway. There weren’t many people on the beach, so we had a huge stretch of beach almost to ourselves!

Our next stop was Portimão:

…and then to Carvoeiro!  We found some fantastic views here, and the GPS took us to some amazing spots – something I didn’t think my GPS would do!  We stayed here till sunset and managed to find a Portuguese fisherman!  Unfortunately none of us speak Portuguese, so the language barrier was quite high – almost felt like the first time I came to Spain and I spoke no Spanish at all.

We found another beach, viewing from the cliff edge:

The cliff and the vast Atlantic Ocean:

Sunset at Carvoeiro:

After sunset we headed to Albufeira for dinner.  We found a well lit parade of restaurant – a very lively atmosphere.  After dinner it was a journey back to Jerez!  We were back around 2:30am.. a long, but excellent day!