Faro - Our time in the Algarve

Three days in Southern Portugal

author: Nate

We left Sevilla on Wednesday morning on bus to Faro for spend three days in the beautiful Algarve region of Southern Portugal. This is an area Claire had always wanted to explore, and we chose Faro for its central location to sites worth visiting along the southern coast. This is the only stop on our trip where we'd have a rental car and take driving day trips.

Day 1 - Bus to Faro, Arriving and Exploring

We took a 10am bus from Sevilla to Faro that last about 2.5 hours. On the bus was another couple about our age with a one and a half year old - and the mom was actually from Middleton, Wi, immediately adjacent to Madison. By the way they recounted their travels, it sounded to us like they were perpetual nomads, which has be to even more challenging with an infant.

Arriving in Faro

We got to Faro, and after some rental car rental misunderstandings (I accidentally rented a manual car - whoops), we were off to the AirBnB. It was a bit stressful getting into town, but our AirBnB host met us outside the place, gave us the key and showed us the ropes. We were both starving and grabbed lunch at the recommended place immediately next door - Crazy Chicken.

The food was quite good - the place was packed with mostly folks on their lunch breaks, and we were definitely the only non-Portuguese folks in the place. We mainly spoke English with the waitress, though this lunch began my endeavor to figure out how to bend my Spanish into Portuguese.

Exploring Faro

After lunch we settled into our AirBnB, and then went out exploring. We were both suffering a bit of what we called a Sevilla hangover, where the world just didn't look as bright as it did back in Sevilla. The first area of Faro through which we walked was pretty run down, and there was graffiti EVERYWHERE. We'd soon warm up to the area, but getting over our Sevilla hangover took some time.

Waterfront and Old Town

Faro itself is a tourist destination in the summer time, but we were off season visitors. We walked down to the waterfront, and through the Old Town quarter.

Skulls Church

From there, we made our way to Igreja do Carmo, an old catholic church, to see the Capello do Ossos, or the Bone Chapel. Monks would serve at this church, and when they died, their skull would be added to the walls of the chapel. It was pretty metal, to say the least.

After the bone chapel, we swung by a local grocery store for some PB&J fixings for the next day's hike, and went back to the AirBnB for some downtime.

That night

Back at the AirBnB, we settled in. This was probably the nicest AirBnB we'd ever stayed in. The apartment was enormous with multiple bedrooms to choose from, multiple living areas to lounge in, and an outdoor patio area. I sat on the patio and enjoyed a Portuguese beer while working on the Sevilla blog post.

For dinner we went to a place close by that Claire found on Google called Portas de Sao Pedro. In honor of our ocean proximity I enjoyed prawns in orange and peanut sauce and octopus in lemon parsley. Claire got a fabulous savory asparagus bread pudding with marinated pork. We split a bottle of a mild but smooth red from the Algarve, and were treated to some delicious dessert wine with our orange cake dessert. Our waitress was lovely, and we'd return on our last night for another delicious dinner.

Day 2 - Seven Hanging Cliffs

We drove out about an hour to the trailhead of the Seven Hanging Cliffs hike.

Full blog post about it here

Day 3 - Surprise children's Carnaval and Tavira Day Trip

Carnaval

Claire and I had a lazy morning, with me doing work on my laptop on the patio. Our plan for the day was a day trip to Tavira, a town Rick Steves' guide book recommended about a half hour drive away. All of the sudden, we were startled by immensely sound music coming from a nearby source. When we were ready to head to Tavira, we headed down to investigate the music.

It was Friday, and it appeared that all local elementary school students were here on the square with chaperones to celebrate Carnaval. We stood on the side, smiled and took photos as kids in choreographed costumes paraded by and took their turn being celebrated on stage.

With a heart full from adorableness, we were off to Tavira.

Tavira

Tavira is a southern Portuguese town along the Gilão River, that soon after feeds into the Atlantic Ocean. It's a city that dates back 1000 BC with the Phoenicians settling in the Iberian Peninsula. Since the city was controlled by the Romans, and then the Moors, and finally the Portuguese. What was once a booming fishing town is now seeing a revival through tourism.

We made it to the main square in Tavira and followed a Rick Steves guidebook walking tour around the old city. We started with the old Roman Door, the one relic of Roman civilization on Tavira.

We explored a garden within an old castle wall, and enjoyed the city scenery from the top.

After the walk, we stopped off for lunch at Tasquina de Paula. The place was absolutely packed to the brim, and we must have waited an hour and a half for our food, but the wait was worth it. Our server was we assume the owner of the place, along with his wife in the kitchen (Paula). Every time we commented on the quality of the food, he responded "My wife's food is so good. It's my problem" and pointed at his round belly. Claire got meatballs and I got baked rabbit, and both dishes were worth waiting an hour and a half in the sun for.

And at that, we headed back to the rental car and back to Faro. The next morning it was off to Lisbon.

Off to Lisbon

The next morning we hauled our luggage to the train station and were off to Lisbon!