We arrive in Portugal: Lagos Day 1 (29 Aug 2013)

We were not looking forward to our trip to Portugal – though we were looking forward to Portugal itself – because:

• it would be the earliest start of our trip;
• we were told there’d be no reserved seats on the bus so we’d have to jostle like (and with) the Spanish for our seats; and
• the trip was going to be a long one of 6 hours or so with lots of little stops for passengers but no toilet stop after the first hour.

In the event, the early start – 7am – wasn’t that bad; we were about the only ones on the bus so had to practise jostling among ourselves, and there were no other passengers to pick up on the way so it was a four and a half hour trip. Cyra prepared us well – as usual – but we were much luckier than her previous group which in addition to having to jostle, also had a bus breakdown to contend with. Them’s the breaks, eh?

The scenery was pleasant enough, but overall not as interesting as our previous two bus trips, so Sue managed to finish her book and drafted the beginning of her review, and Len caught up on some video processing. This technological travel is busy!

A bit about Lagos

Lagos is a popular beach tourist town in the Algarve – so you can imagine where many of our tour group headed as soon as they could. Apparently, one of the beaches here has been named in the top 50 in the world. According to Wikipedia, in 2012 TripAdvisor classified Lagos as the top travel destination on a list of “15 destinations on the rise” worldwide. Perhaps on this occasion we haven’t arrived too late, as de Kretser says tourists do, but just in time!

We also managed to be here for the festival of the last day of summer but this seemed pretty low-key, with a beach concert and, apparently, a dip in the sea at midnight. The tour members who stayed up decided not to join in. It wasn’t the mass dip they expected but a bunch of kids and a few adults.

But, Lagos has a lot more to it than its beaches and bars. We all know about the Portuguese explorers during the age of exploration. They were among the most active. Well, many of them set sail from Lagos and there was a shipyard here. Lagos was also the where Europe’s slave trade started with – being so close to Africa – the first slave market being established here in 1444. Trade was so good that the slave traders made up to 700% (though some of this went back to Prince Henry). Portugal is pretty poor now, but it was once one of the wealthiest nations in Europe. The rise and fall, eh?

Lagos was the capital of the Algarve for two centuries until the big earthquake and tsunami of 1755 which destroyed much of the town. Fortunately some of the old 15th century town walls survived, as did the main church.

One more thing. In the centre of the town is an unusual statue of the “sleeping king” Sebastian – though he’s not “sleeping” in the statue. He apparently set off to Morocco in 1578 against the recommendation of his advisers and never returned. Because no body was recovered, the people like to think he may one day return, hence the epithet “sleeping”. Hope springs eternal …

The social life

Our self-confessed culture-Nazi leader, Cyra, took us to lunch, after we arrived, to a place specialising in fresh seafood, which is of course the main food here. She recommended the fish in a pot – a bit like a bouillabaisse we suppose. Len had that and enjoyed it though the flavours weren’t strong, while Sue had the grilled swordfish. The highlight was being introduced to the local wine, vinho verde, which was served in pottery carafes. It was a filling meal … and so

We ate little more for the rest of the day, other than what we ate at aperitivo time on our hotel’s roof garden. Cyra organised more vinho verde and a rose (each of which was only 10-10.5% alcohol-by-volume content), and a selection of nibbles including jambon, olives, sheep’s cheese, artichokes and baguette-style bread. Most of us then decided to walk into town, where Sue – wine-specialty drinker that she is – decided to try her first mojito. It was good value at €5 – and the sort of cocktail Sue could drink, if she were to drink cocktails! At that point, a few of us left the hard-drinkers (!) and returned to the hotel, pleased with our rather liquid introduction to Lagos.

LEN: Walking, drinking, walking
SUE: Seafood, Sand, Slaves

and the stills…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

and the videos…

Panorama of square in historic Lagos

 

Panorama of d’Ana beach Lagos