Lagos, Faro District, PortugalLAGOS
Lagos Town
- Today the tourists are attracted to come here, but also Henry the Navigator was a lot here (guess that’s why we saw a statue of him): he split his time between here and the training school in Sagres.
- The first Portuguese maritime expeditions embarked from here, in 1415 a giant fleet set sail under the command of the 21-year old Henry the Navigator to seize Ceuta in Marocco: the start of the age of discovery
- Here was also the first African Slave market in Europe in 1444 and the town grew into a slave trading center. In the early Portuguese explorations, the king made it a rule, that ships needed to bring back dirt, plants and people from discovered lands – upon arrival they were quarantined for 40 days and those who survived were cleaned up and sold to add to Portugals wealthy people
- It was the capital of the Algarve from 1576-1755 when the earthquake flattened it
Two road closures
As we drive in, there is suddenly the road closed with police – what is going on? An event? We definitely have to stay here and check it out, so the next question is where to park, so we drive through narrow one-way streets in the search of parking đŸ˜Š, as we drive Gine said left and a couple said no, we are up there with the van and we are stuck you can’t go by… ok so we take the other road and see there big surprise there is the perfect parking spot in the middle of the town!!! We can’t believe it.
The Lagos International Speed Skating Tournament
We walk down to the main road along the river and check out what is going on, it is the international speed skating tournament, cool, so we have to check that out, we can see the first ones leaving and then walk a bit up the street so that we will have prime view on when they come down the hill, it’s super cool several police motorcycles come first and then the skaters: and they are super fast!!! And the guys in the middle of the road waving and using his whistle, it is super cool, we actually stay until the first ones go over the finish line – ok so in between we did a bit viewing… but this was amazing.
We see something in the town of Lagos
Lagos River Promenade: we did walk along this promenade which is beautiful, as it has super nice cobble stones and nice views along the river.
Fort Ponta da Bandeira : during the race, We walked over to have a look at it, it is one of those cute little forts along the shoreline to defend the city against the pirates and the Spanish, we walked on the draw bridge, but didn’t go inside – I mean they are really here at each corner.
Viewpoint to the Praia de Batata: walking by all the kayak guide tour operators we went up on a little viewpoint, from here you can see another beach this one with a really weird name: Praia de Batata – I wonder what Potatoes have to do with it
Porta de Sap Goncales: as we watched the race, we always looked across to the old city wall and the gate, so at one time Gine ventured out to check it out: this was once the entrance of the Islamic fortress and town: behind are a lot of small cobble stone streets
Praia do Infante Dom Henrique: we came by this square several times, because here is the start and finish of the race, it is a super nice cute square with fountain, you can see the white towns with churches in the background, and in the middle a statue on Henry, as over 400 ships departed from here before it shifted to Lisbon. Here is also a house with a small portico outside: this is where the slave market started in 1444 and in the small portico the chained slaves were paraded around to bid on: around 100.000 slaves were sold here.
Praca Gil Eanes: is the main square of Lagos – it is actually a small little square in the middle of the pedestrian shopping area – the statue is of King Sebastia who ventured into Africa to Christianise the dark continent, he was killed and after him Portugal entered the Dark Age. He symbolizes hopefulness: when he returns the golden age will return – I wonder if they are still waiting.
- Gil Eanes by the way was another Portuguese explorer, he was born in Lagos and made several trips along the African coast, he was also the first to sail around Cape Bojadar and to the Canary Islands – by the way we also did see his statue it’s near the Porta de Sao Goncalo
Rua 25 de April: this is one of the many pedestrian streets here with lots and lots of souvenir shops – and we also had fun going in and checking them out
Praia de Dona Ana
We were a bit worried as we had several big clouds in the sky, but as we hit the beach (a bit later than planned as we watched the race) we visited this famous beach near Lagos: they call it the most dramatic – I think that is a bit overrated. As Paul relaxed right away: Gine went up on the one side first and along the top until she could see beach from yesterday – then after some relaxing on the beach and Paul going in the water (I know he is crazy as the water is cold) discovered there are steps on the other side so up there to check out the view from up there… yes, the views here are always amazing.
A quick coffee in the loungers
If the beach is only 3 min from our apartment, where we are on ground floor with parking right in front of it, we go back for coffee and a relax-time in the sun or shade as we wish… but then the sun shines and Paul is eager to hit the beach again… so lets go the 3 Min to the beach.
At the fine sand of the Praia Porto de Mos
Maybe a lot of beaches have more dramatic Algarve views with the cliffs, there is no question this beach has the best fine sand – truly amazing, it’s like powder. Lucky for us there is a parking close to the steps, we set up and relax until we decided it’s time to put the feet in the cold ocean water and walk along the beach to the stones. What is also a lot of fun is watching the people.
We stay here until it’s time for a quick shopping for supper and then heading back to our gorgeous little apartment with kingsize bed … half of the bed is empty at night đŸ˜Š
When it rains its time to go
During we were loading the car the raindrops came down: certainly not a beach day – so it’s good we are on the road again and keep on going. Good bye Lagos.
2025-05-22