Portugal, often overlooked by travelers, is one of our favorite countries. For the month of September, we're staying in the far south of Portugal on the Atlantic coast known as the Algarve. The Algarve is about 100 miles of the most beautiful coastline and is a popular tourist spot for Europeans. The main town is Faro where the airport is located, while the coast has many little villages with white washed, tile roofed houses that hug the coastline and dot the hillsides. This is our second visit to the Algarve, so you can look back and see many more pictures of this beautiful place in the posts from September, 2014.

 We stay in Praia da Luz, made infamous by the disappearance of the little British girl, Madeleine McCann, nearly 10 years . This is where she was with her family on holiday when kidnapped. That was a sad case. Praia da Luz, however, is really an idyllic little village on a beautiful beach with many really nice accommodations and restaurants for the tourists which are the main economy here. We can walk the length of the village in 20 minutes to go to the market, browse shops on the wide pathway on the beach, or visit one of a dozen or more nice restaurants. Little tourist shops selling trinkets and clothing line the beach, and a man creates sand animals for tips from the tourists. Thatched umbrellas and beach chairs can be rented, or we usually just wander up and down the beach, enjoying the sand and scenery. Little cafes line the beach walk, and they don't mind if you sit and sip wine all afternoon while watching the waves roll in and out. We rent a beautiful, modern apartment with a large balcony just a few minutes from the beach. There are two large pools with a bar where we spend many afternoons sunbathing and reading .

We've met friends here from Britain whom we've seen both last year and this year, Terry and Joan French. They have been coming to the Algarve for holidays twice a year for 30 years. They are typical of the many British tourists who come here seeking warmth and relaxation. They are so sweet and generous to take us to some of their favorite places and introduce us to people they've met here over the last several decades.

 We visited several restaurants with them, but a highlight was when we stopped to see the collections of a very kind and friendly elderly Portuguese man. They've know him for years, and his collections of old sewing machines and hand carved crucifixes are well known in the Algarve. In fact, they call his house "the museum." He and his wife invited us into his home, showed us all his collections which were amazing, to say the least. I've never seen so many old Singer sewing machines in my life . On rough estimate, I saw at least 50 old sewing machines, most of them Singers. I tried to tell him I learned to sew on an old Singer machine when I was a child, but my Portuguesa is nonexistent, and he didn't speak English! Still, we communicated with smiles and nods of admiration. He also is a wood carver and has many of his works in the attic of the house. He's carved so many pieces, it was just amazing to see. He never sells or gives away any of his work, but carefully covers it with plastic or cloth covers that he removes to show interested fans.

 Then we met his darling wife, who insisted we have a drink with them. She brought out the "good" glasses, wiping them clean with a tea towel, and poured us a drink of some sort of firewater. We drank and smiled, eyes watering, and nodded. She showed us a picture of her son and I showed her a picture of my daughter, while we all smiled and nodded. You don't need to speak the same language to communicate love.

Enjoy our pics!