Faro, Faro District, PortugalALGARVE
We leave in the Rain
This morning we actually left in the rain – good thing we don’t stay another day. As we head west the weather starts to clear up and we can see a bit of blue sky. Before heading into Portugal, we fill up the gas once more (as it is 25 cents a liter cheaper here in Spain) and then leave via the international bridge: Adios Espana - Bem Vindo Portugal
What time is it
Now the big question is what time is it in Portugal? Gine planned today, as she thought we have to go one hour ahead so that we are at 1 pm in Albufeira. Once we were in Portugal and our phones adjusted it looked like it is one hour back… to make sure we stopped at a gas station and asked the guy what time it is – I think he thought we are weird. But now we are 2 hours early so what to do???
More bones
Gine said let’s stop in Faro (not that the weather is nice enough to walk around town) but there is a Chapel of the bones. Yes, I think at one time that was quiet trendy: we drove small streets in there and as there is paid parking – Paul as the super hero found an unpaid parking spot, perfect.
Igresja do Carmo: they started to built in 1711 got interrupted in 1755 by the earthquake. Once you go inside you can see a lot of gold!!! Like everything is covered in gold – and it got paid by Brazilian gold: it’s typical baroque with lots of angels everywhere.
Capelo dos ossos: we left through the sacristy and came into a small courtyard went into the chapel of the bones: even the entrance-way has bones – it’s made of the skeletons of over 1000 monks and the 1245 sculls are all staring at you – even the ceiling is made of bones. It says “Para aqui a considerer que a este estado had-de-chager » which means “Stop here and consider, that you will reach this state too”
- It is weird, as those are bones of people who ones existed – the skulls will stare at you and there is no place “to rest” inside the chapel
- Why do these bone chapels exist: It all started in Evora, Portugals largest bone chapel, when the cemeteries around the city were overcrowded, the Franciscan monks decided to give the corpses the honor of being the part of something with a higher purpose: the trend soon spread across Portugal and more bone chapels were built
- Throughout Europe there are several of them
The Storks on the tower
As we leave the church, we hear some noise and as we look up, we discover there are some storks on top of the church tower making the noise: it is amazing how we can see them here everywhere.
Funky cars along the road
As we leave Faro Paul sees some old cars in a dealership – so we said let’s check it out, ok turning around was a bit complicated and then the turn off to the dealer is right off the 4-lane highway: only to discover they are closed. But we can look at the cars through the gate – the doggy was not too happy we took pictures. One of the cars was a Fisker (we only learned later thanks to internet that this is actually a bit of a rare car as only 2000 got sold, they started to deliver in 2011 and got bankrupt in 2012 – doesn’t sound that popular)
Lost in Albufeira – we need McDonalds
We said we will check out Albufeira before checking in, as we have lots of time, but first want to make sure we find our Airbnb – ok, that now was a problem as we have the street name – but no number!!! And we couldn’t find it, Gine said I need internet to go online and check. Where to?? McDonalds, even in Portugal they have free wifi – and see there once online all is clear and we can go, and we are there right on time.
Our apartment
It’s perfect: a kitchen, huge bathroom, living dining room, elevator, underground parking, pool, it’s close to Aldi. And once we had coffee we discovered: we are looking right at a Plaza del Torro: yes, that is a bullfighting arena (something we decided not to visit).
Checking out Praia da Oura
It’s cloudy, so how about we check out a bit the area, Gine said we go to the closest beach, and as always, we are there and find a parking spot. We wander down to the beach and here it is more touristy: there are people around, some even in the water – I think it is too cold. We decided to go to the edge of the cliffs and that is when Gine discovered a path and said let’s go and so we started a super cool walk along the cliffs, up and down over sand and stone, on stone bridges, wave watching, seeing a cove, seeing through a hole down to the ocean – amazing views and even better the sun came out. That was a super cool walk!!! Here again we saw those beautiful succulent purple and yellow flowers – but we learned they are invasive plants. By the time we were back on the beach the sun was out and we were sitting on some loungers and enjoying the warm sunrays. A few more lookout points on the other side and we decided to head for some more exploring.
The invasive Carpobrotus flower:
- Also known as pigflace, ice plant is a ground-creeping succulent with large flowers
- The name comes from the Greek word karpos = fruit and brotos = edible
- They thrive in sandy coastal habitat in mild Mediterranean climates: they suppress indigenous sand dune vegetation
- It is native to South Africa, south Australia and coastal Chile
- By the way it can be used as an emergency treatment for jellyfish stings, if the leave juice is mixed with water is can be used to treat diarrhea and stomach cramps or to gargle when you have a sore throat – or like aloe vera for wounds, mosquito bites and sunburn… guess a very useful plant
We go to the strip
Albufeira is known that here the cheap package deals go to, and it is known for its nightlife and that what makes it unique: it has a strip – and it is only a few minutes by foot away from our place (perfect): to check it our we drive along with the car and said – no cooking, we come here. There is one bar/restaurant after the next, lots of options. First a bit recharging and then we head back to the strip and picked one place for some yummy fish & chips…
No Water – No TV
Ok, life is funny. We have a beautiful apartment and as we come back and want to wash our hands we discover that there is no water. We checked with our host and there is a pipe broken and no-one has water… good thing we didn’t plan on cooking tonight. But that also means no laundry tonight.
Later Paul wanted to watch TV and see there, he found Netflix and that had a resolution problem and wanted the TV box reset and afterwards there was no TV. I guess life cannot be perfect.
2025-05-22