movingtoportugal

We headed further west along the Algarve coast this weekend, for a minibreak in the lovely town of Lagos. Lagos is a fabulous town to explore, with cove beaches, a marina and a huge variety of shops, bars and restaurants.

Lagos Marina

While further along the coast, we took the opportunity to revisit one of our favourite Algarve beaches – Praia da Rocha, by the city of Portimão. This was the first place we ever stayed in Portugal and it has remained close to our hearts ever since. The huge expanse of golden sand is backed by stunning (and steadily crumbling) cliffs and the seascape is peppered with rock formations of all shapes and sizes, inhabited by noisy, squabbling seagulls. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know this is a place we speak of a lot!

Praia da Rocha – the rocks for which the beach was named

The highlight of the weekend, early on Sunday afternoon, was a trip to the lovely, quiet beach of Alvor. It was here that, some six or seven years ago, a clifftop ramble led us to discover a tiny restaurant built right into the cliff, facing the neighbouring beach of Praia Dos Tres Irmãos. Accessed via a dingy-looking lift from the land-side, this restaurant and its little area of beach felt like a hidden gem when we first discovered it.

In February 2010, shortly after we moved to Portugal, we set off to find this secret beach once more. After some hours of searching we finally found it, only to be devastated when we saw the restaurant had been destroyed since our last visit. We could only assume that the winter storms or falling rocks had caused its destruction.

The Secret Restaurant

It was with utter delight, therefore, that we discovered on Sunday that the restaurant is up and running once more! It has the same, secret feel that it did when we first chanced upon it and we were happy to be among those few individuals splashing in the sea in front of it. We had eaten shortly before finding it, but now that we know it’s there again, it won’t be long before we return to its sun-drenched terrace tucked into the cliff, to feast on clams whilst looking out over the sparkling sea.

Last week was great. My family came to visit, and as they had already been to the East Algarve on two occasions, we all decided to seek out a change of scenery and rented a beautiful villa “up the other end” in Lagos.

The weather was mostly beautiful all week with temperatures that hit the mid-30s several times. I was delighted that my mother got to experience true Algarve heat, having previously only visited in winter.

Enjoying the Water at Praia da Dona Ana

Accompanying my mother was her partner and his 90-year-old mother, who wowed us as well as serveral passers-by with her determination to experience everything the holiday had to offer. This included walking up and down dozens of wooden steps in the midday sun at Praia da Dona Ana, climbing onto a small fishing boat for a sightseeing trip and enjoying the water in both pool and sea.

Lagos is a favourite destination of ours and somewhere we were tempted to move to before we settled on the Tavira area. As always, we thoroughly enjoyed being in the town with its happy blend of tourist tat and authentic Portugal. This was, however, the first time we didn’t feel any temptation to move there, which gave us a pleasing sense of having fully settled where we are.

Lagos pre sunset

We fitted in several barbecues and enjoyed homemade coconut shrimp, presunto wrapped asparagus, sirloin steak, chargrilled salmon and stacks of sparkling fresh local sardines. When we weren’t eating, we did plenty of sightseeing including a trip to Silves castle and a tour of local beaches.

Silves Castle

As ever, with our family visits, time passed all too quickly. Before we knew it the end of the week had arrived, complete with tearful goodbyes and a sullen reloading of the car. Things were rather quiet at the villa when everybody had gone and we spent some of our last day looking for cheap flights in the hope they can come again before the end of the year.

On the bright side, however, the sad end of an Algarve holiday is far easier to deal with when you still live there. Within an hour of driving away from the villa, we were back in Tavira, enjoying an espresso in the square by the Roman bridge. We really can’t complain.

Enchanting Views in Silves

As ever, our travelling companion was the “Rough Guide Directions” series, see below:

Rough Guide Directions Algarve