Trip to Querença, Salir and Alte

Yesterday we left at 8:30 am for our one day trip to 3 tiny villages (Querença, Salir and Alte) in the hills just north of Albufeira. They are described as typical older and "traditional" Algarve communities, unspoiled by the tourism industry with its influx of people like us (they don't actually identify the "spoiler" - instead they refer to "modern life"). It was a pleasant but unexciting trip marred by a cool day with intermittent rain. Visiting churches, which seems to be essential, is of little interest to me (saw my fill in Italy) but while others were checking out the local church I had time to roam about in search of something interesting. The villages are quite attractive as well as charming and appear to be cleaned and "polished" for the visitors. In order to get to the villages we passed through some rather hilly country (including cork tree country) with some potentially attractive views but, except for two unscheduled places, we stopped only in the mentioned villages. By necessity the stops are generaly quite brief and structured and while it is very nice to visit and see these old style Portuguese villages, it is only a tiny taste and provides little time and place flexibility to try to capture the flavour of the region in photographs. In Salir we had 20 minutes or so to wander and in Alte, after an interesting lunch, we had about 45 minutes of "free time" - so time for a few photos. We were home by 4:30 pm.

After an unexpected hour or so in Loulé, we moved on to Querença. Pretty much the first thing you see in the plaza in front of the church in Querença is a collection of brightly painted cows - examples of same in these photos which Ruth took.

Not sure why they are there and our guide did not enlighten us. These reminded me of the Mel Lastman years as mayor of Toronto when he arranged to have similar representations of moose around the city.

While most of the group were inspecting the church I took a brief stroll near the cow plaza. It was dark and overcast and raining a bit so not very pleasant but I took a few photos to have some impression of the area - one is adjacent.

The rain drove us all back to the bus and we moved on to Salir, only a short drive away. The rain abated a bit so we had a bit of a break to look around and get a few photos when we got to Salir.

Most of the buildings, as you can see, are whitewash usually with quite brightly coloured frames around windows and on railings. The colours are quite attractive and the white makes the place look very clean.

This last of my photos from Salir includes a small church - left.
After our brief stay in Salir, we headed for our final stop, Alte, reputed to be the best example of a traditional Portuguese village. Here we had our lunch after which about 45 minutes or so to look around and take some photos.

Adjacent is an image of a kind of plaza in Alte near the restaurant with Ruth (left) on her way to lunch.

This is a small stream or ribeiro (rivulet) that runs through the town. I was told there is a water fall somewhere, though I didn't see it.

As is suggested by the number of photos of Alte, I found it a very attractive village. As in Salir, buildings are well kept and usually white with bits of colour on most.

And you can no doubt appreciate I liked the narrow streets, the colour and the characteristic cobblestone walkways everywhere.

Another of the narrow "streets", this one with blue trim leading one along the cobblestone path; this combination of steps and inclined walkway seemed a common pattern in Alte. Looking along this path makes one wonder what's tucked away in there.

This area of the Algarve is well away from the coast in an area with quite hilly terrain so there is lots of climbing up stairs like these. This was also quite a nice view across the valley to the hills on the other side.

Ruth walking toward the area where we are to meet the bus to head for home.
I can't help wondering how much work and expense it is to keep these villages looking so pristine and how the frequency of tourists affects life there.

Beginning of week two

Tomorrow we are off on a tourist trip to 3 small communities north of Albufeira. These are said to be traditional old Algarve villages "unspoiled" by modern living. It is a bit of a puzzle how they remain so when tourist buses descend on on them on a regular basis. We'll see tomorrow.

I mentioned yesterday that I walked to the western part of Albufeira. Adjacent is a view of the ocean from a street in that area.

I was especially interested in the relatively new "marina", which is protected by a couple of large breakwater structures. When Ruth first came to Portugal about 6 years ago, the multicoloured Portuguese fishing boats were pulled up on the beach in old town. This is was a tradition that was nostalgic of earlier days but it is no longer the case. The boats now dock in the protected area of the rather extensive marina. Those of us looking for nostalgia are disappointed, but it is likely much better for the fishermen.

This is a view looking out to the entrance to the marina and the ocean beyond. This marina area is much larger than I had expected, sheltering a large number of all manner of boats including sail boats and a couple of very large yachts.

This photo speaks to the current problems with the world and Portuguese economy. This extremely large development for housing the once growing number of tourists appears to be completely abandoned, at least for now. The number of tourists has apparently decreased substantially - for example we are told that the number of Canadians coming to this community is down by 50%.

This is not a trick of photoshop. This is exactly the way the sky looked yesterday when I was sitting having fresh orange juice and apple pie at one of our usual refreshment places.

Sorry, I couldn't resist showing these beach images. This one from yesterday and the one below are my favourite sunrise beach images from this morning.

This sunset from tonight is a preliminary to this - click on the link "one click closer to being here" - then when you get to Picasa, choose full screen and click on the photo. one click closer to being here!
To get back to the blog just click on the browser back arrow.

Tuesday - another very good day

Monday was an annoying day - google decided to cancel my account because of "suspicious activity"on it. I lost my email, blog and Picasa among other google stuff. Not sure what that suspicious activity was but I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to reinstate everything, which took a couple of hours of responding to a lot of nearly impossible questions, like when did you start your email account, blog, etc., year, month and day! In any case all is now back to normal.

Just my usual reminder that you can see a larger version of the photos by clicking on any one. To return to the blog, click on the X in the upper right hand corner of the larger image.

Well, not a lot to blog about. Things pretty quiet and relaxing here.

As is my habit I start the day at the beach just before sunrise, so, once again, you are going to see sunrise stuff.

I got interested in trying to get a good image of the surf meeting the shore - took a lot of photos and, of the 50 or so that I made, two, three, four and five are the ones I like the most.

I like this one too - except for the footprints, it's what the receding surf left behind.

Here is a look at the beach from the west end of old town - one I don't think I have shown before. Not very artsy but it shows it as it is - a touristy beach with not many tourists on it. And the ones that are on it are very small.

Yesterday we walked into old town to pick up some oranges and stopped to sample a local chocolate milkshake - energy to get us to the grocery store and then home.

Today I walked to the west end of Albufeira and took this photo looking toward the ocean over a roof top with a chimney pot style I don't recall seeing before. Took this one mostly for Kathie.

This evening we had the first sunset with some clouds to add a bit of interest so I walked down to the beach just in time to catch this not bad image - a nice way to end the day.

Sunday - a day of rest

Remember, to see a larger version of any photo, click on it.

Well, what can I say - another fantastic day!
I started it at the beach just before sunrise and this time I was not alone. There up on the breakwater was a fisherman. One sees them often on the beach and sometimes up on the cliffs, so no great surprise to see someone on the breakwater. I made a lot of photos of him but will spare you the rest - I think this is the best of them

After breakfast and doing some washing - perfect day for hanging clothes out to dry - we walked to the bakery to replenish our supply of pão and pastry. On the way we finally paid attention to the flowers that are in bloom along the route to the bakery.

I think the reds here are bougainvillia which are growing along a balcony less than a block from our apartment. I hadn't noticed these before so not sure if they have just appeared - I think it more likely that I didn't notice them.

Not sure about these yellow ones which are on a route from the bakery that we haven't taken before.

But these are definitely poinsettias.

And, I finished my outdoor day at the beach. It was a wonderful evening leading up to sunset.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Nothing to say about the weather today, except that it is pretty much the same as the last three days.

Today is Saturday, so I didn't have to get up early to head for work :-). But I wakened at 6 am so got up and went down to the beach at about 6:30 am. It was still quite dark with the beginning of light in the east - sunrise was not until 7:10 am. It was cool but great to be there with no one else and to enjoy the ocean pounding away at the rocks, breakwater and sand. The sun took its time coming up so I waited and made a few photos.

A reminder that you can see a larger version of any photo by clicking on one. To return to the blog, click on the X in the upper right of the enlarged photo screen.

I know, I know, I have posted lots of sunrise (and sunset) photos, but just because you have seen a few sunrises you still haven't seen them all. I like a few of the ones I made this morning, so here they are.

I mentioned earlier that we are booked for a tour to Seville, Gibraltar and Tangier. We are also, with the help of our JMV contact here, arranging a trip to the walled medieval city of Evora in the northern part of the province of Alentejo, just north of the Algarve. We will go to Evora on our own; that is, no tour. We plan to stay over one night so will have a day and a half there.

The ancient Celtic settlement of Ebora was established before the Romans occupied the area in 59 BC. After the Romans vacated it, the city apparently deteriorated in the hands of the Visigoths before it was rejuvenated by the Moors sometime around 800 AD. Around 1200 the Moors were driven out by the Christians and during its so called "golden age", the 1300 and 1400's, Evora was a thriving community with a population apparently well in excess of it's current 56,000,

So there is much history inside the 14th century walls, from Celtic, Roman, Arab and Christian cultures, accumulated over a couple of thousand years. Not sure when this trip will happen, but when it does I will do a blog show and tell.

Drinks on the balcony.
Cheers!

Second full day in Albufeira

I didn't think I would be doing another blog post so soon since we are still settling in, getting supplies, etc, and not doing much other than relaxing. But, as I have a new camera which I have used very little so far, I am practicing by taking some fairly familiar photos at the beach.

We have booked a trip to Seville, Gibraltar and Tangier for March 7, 8 and 9, so hopefully, after that trip I will have some interesting photos and stories of things and places we haven't seen before.

In the meantime, what I have included in this post are new camera "practice" photos, all but one made at the beach.

You can see from the photos below that today was another beautiful day.

Remember, you can click on any photo to view a larger version.

The first is a photo from this morning of a boat with a couple of folks on it, and the question related to this photo is, how do you know this is not a fishing boat? Think about it for a moment before reading on.

If you have watched fishing boats or have seen some of my earlier photos of fishing boats you will know that gulls don't watch fishing boats from the beach as the gulls in this photo seem to be doing. But maybe it's a fishing boat with no fish in it yet.

Apparently this winter the Algarve was subjected to a quite severe storm that did substantial damage to this area, including the airport in Faro, only 30 minutes from here. Perhaps because of that, those in charge have decided to build a large breakwater to protect the beach near our apartment hotel from the pounding surf. The next couple of photos include this new addition to the beach area.

Then some large rocks, prominent at low tide, with old town Albufeira in the distance.

The lone shadow is a near repeat from last year but then there were two.

Finally, a crescent moon tonight above our apartment hotel.

First full day

Well, we have had a great start to our stay in Portugal this year! A beautiful day with cloudless skies and temperature very comfortable at 18 C.
Not much exciting in terms of photos yet, so just a few documentary shots.

Note that you can click on any of the photos to see a larger version, but now to go back to the blog you need to click on the X in the upper right of the enlarged photo. And, you can also scan through large versions of all of the photos from the screen with the enlarged photo.

A few photo from the air on the approach to Portugal (the quality of the photos taken from the plane is limited by somewhat unclear windows). I am always very pleased to see the first sighting of land after several hours over the Atlantic. So included here is the first such sighting with some additional photos of the mountainous area, the first beach areas then the Ria Formosa which begins just east of Faro. There is one photo of the salt pads - Portugal has long been a producer and exporter of salt.

Finally below are two of the beach, just to prove we were there. I slept late this morning so we got a late start, but managed to walk the beach in to town at low tide.

The last photo is a view from just outside the door to our apartment.