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.