6/5 The train ride from Lagos to Tavira was pretty as we hugged the coast.  There were plenty of orange groves and small towns.  Our fare was only 8€ which was a deal.  We had to change trains in Faro and literally walked off one train, across the platform and onto the next train which then left.  I hoped this was a good omen!  We arrived in Tavira about 1 pm and Lee found a place for us to stay from Let´s Go.  Fortunately the walk was downhill to the river where the apartment owner met us and showed us the way.  That type of personal service is so nice in Europe where the owners are actually the ones running the business and actually care about service.  The apartment was in a very clean, nice building where we would be the only guests.  Our room was 40€ which was more than Lee wanted to pay but seemed reasonable given how nice the place was.  The place was called Quartos Rosa and was in a very quiet area, didn´t have AC but did have a real shower as opposed to one of the confusing handheld showers. 

Since we were in town early and the town seemed so small we headed to the beach .  The Ilha de Tavira is extremely popular in the summer but we were visiting before the deluge.  There is a ferry service from town to the island in the summer but it had not started yet.  The only ferry was one from Quatro Aguas which was 1 1/2 miles away.  We headed that way across the interesting salt pans.  We could see mountains of salt but the individual pans didn´t make the salt look very attractive.  The guidebooks say the salt here is excellent table salt though. 

The ferry was 1.30€ and only about 10 minutes across to the island.  The island looked to be a nicely developed sandbar.  There were numerous cafes and a large campground.  There are no cars on the island; instead there are lots of footpaths to the different parts of the island.  There were lots of surfers although the waves were small and broke close to shore.  There was a special kids area where the parents could leave the kids and enjoy a quiet afternoon on the beach.  Lee and I found a spot and spent the afternoon reading .  The weather was perfect with a nice breeze.  The beach had a lot of kelp washing up but I was told that is only this time of year.  Lee visited the water briefly and said he thought it might be a little warmer than Lagos.  We stayed until 8 before taking the ferry back.  On our walk back through the salt pans, the mosquitoes found us.  This was our first encounter with them.

Tavira is quite small and mainly a fishing village.  It is transforming into a tourist destination but right now it only gets packed in July and August.  We could practically taking the walking tour of the city standing in place.   There is a nice park along the river with a new plaza.  We noticed that many restaurants were closed but we eventually found a good Chinese place near our apartment. 

6/6 The extra we paid at Rosa´s was definitely worth it.  We slept well and enjoyed having the place to ourselves.   I bought bus tickets for us to Seville for 13€ each for tomorrow .  It is so nice not having to worry about changing money with every new country like the old days!  You don´t have to show a passport since the border crossings are gone between EU nations.  Many of the streets here (and in other towns in Portugal) are cobblestone streets.  They are jarring to drive on and treacherous to walk on for me but the ladies often wear heels and seem to have no problem.  We visited the Pingo Doce before heading out to the beach. We´re sure going to miss it when we go to Spain.

The weather was perfect again (how long can it stay like this?).  We read and Lee took a nice run on the beach again.  We left a little earlier and the mosquitoes stayed away.  I am still amazed at all of the building underway along the coast.  I counted at least 25 cranes just around this small town!  The old town has a lot of abandoned buildings and it seems the primary residents of the old town are older citizens who have lived their whole lives there.  The children you see are typically tourists .  The young people are either moving to larger cities or to newer houses with more modern amenities.  The coastal areas are trying to attract retirees from other parts of Europe since coastal Portugal is less expensive than Spain.

I´ve noticed the Portuguese often have very bad teeth.  Most of them smoke which must contribute but I wonder if there is a dentist shortage or if it´s just poor oral hygiene.  Sometimes it´s funny the things you notice.  I had noticed a pizza restaurant that looked good when we were walking to the Pingo Doce so we stopped in for dinner.  It featured kebob pizzas which I had no idea existed.  The restaurant seemed quite popular and was a family-run operation.  We immediately liked it when we saw that they had fountain soft drinks (a first for us at a Portuguese restaurant)!  They had the TV on a soccer match which seems to be the only thing ever shown of interest on TV here.  The menu had a lot of interesting pizzas - many with kebob meat and/or kebob sauce .  I had no idea what that would taste like so I ordered the veggie pizza.  The veggie pizza actually came with pineapple and bananas on it!  That was a first for me but the bananas were actually quite good.  Lee was the more daring diner (as usual) and ordered a pizza with kebob meat and kebob sauce.  He said it was excellent although the pizzas were too big for us to finish.  The pizza dough was hand pressed and just tasted so much better than the usual generic pizzas you get.                 

6/7  We were up early for our bus  to Sevilla.  I was glad the bus station was closer than the train station since my backpack still weighs a ton.  Tavira was a friendly, charming town that had an awesome beach.