More western Algarve

I have written much more in these blog posts than most of you will care to read but I do it as a sort of journal to remind myself where I have been.

So, from Algar Seca near Carvoeiro, we went north to the Monchique mountains through Marmelete en route to Aljezur. On the way we stopped a couple of time to enjoy the vista and at one place there was a local woman preparing her outside wood fired oven for bread making.

She was too shy to allow me to take a photo but on the right is a photo of the yard in front of her house. In these higher elevations it was cooler and cloudy with bits of light rain. On the way we passed through the Serra de Espinhaço do Cão ("Spine of the dog" mountains) between Marmalete and our next destination, Aljezur, close to the east coast of Portugal and just inside the Parque Natural do Sudoeste e Costa Vicentina, the heart of the St. Vincent coast.

Here we are at the market and small cafe where we had some drinks. Our guide, Irie, standing and Donna, Ev (Jean Wheeler's sister) and Jean with her back to the camera.

Aljezur is a lovely old village from the time of the Moors. It has extremely narrow streets and hills and is the home of Castelo de Aljezur, one of the seven castles/fortresses important during the Christian defeat of the Arabs in the 13th century (The 7 Castelos including the Castelo de Aljezur are represented on the crest of the Portuguese flag).

The photo at the right was taken from the market/coffee shop where we had our drinks so you can see that the Castelo is high above the village with a commanding and beautiful view in all directions - very hard to sneak up on this fortress! In the town we visited a small market, bought some fresh figs, and, as indicated above, had refreshments before driving through streets which seemed too narrow, for even a small car, up to the Castelo for some amazing vistas.

I can't recall the directions I was facing for each of the last three photos but they were all taken from the Castelo de Aljezur.