Lagos & Silves, Portugal
With Lauren and Chris
In July Chris and Lauren came to visit us in Portugal. We met them at the Faro Airport after their grueling 24 hour flight with delays from Austin Texas. If that wasn't enough we then took them on a 2 hour train ride to Lagos for our home base for thier visit. We had just come from Ireland the day before, so we were all weary travelers and just had dinner in town the first night in Lagos.
We settled in and gave them a tour of Lagos and an over view of our favorite city in Portugal most of those locations and sites are in the "Lagos, Portugal", posting on this website. Along the way we stopped to give them a glimpse of the beautiful beaches of Praia Batatta and Praia Estudantes.
An evening of Golf
I have not played a round of golf since leaving the US in March. Lagos has a putting course that offorded the opportunity for a friendly competitve round of golf for the family.
Mary Kay was the winner with a score of 22 she won with a clear lead of two less strokes, and she was the only one who had a hole-in-one. You win the Masters Green Jacket Mary Kay, so let's go out and celebrate at the 19th hole.
The course is part of a park that is set against the old city walls which add a picturesque setting for our game.
A Walk Along the Cliffs
We took the hop on hop off train tram to go to Ponta da Piedade to walk the boardwalk along the cliffs. We learned from the first time we visited the Point that the 2.1 km walk from our place was uphill and that it was worth the 5 euros to avoid the walk. The stop is at the Ponta da Peidade Lighthouse which sits atop the point overlooking the Atlantic ocean with great views oF the Lagos coast and west toward Praia De Luz.
The cliff at the point overlooks one of the most picturesque coves in Lagos. It is where a number of water caves are located. The cliffs protecting this cove are magnificent with a rugged beauty carved by the elements.
In order to experience the full beauty of this spectacular beach we took the steps down to the water in to the cool shelter of the grotto.
CLICK THE VIDEO FOR A VIEW OF THE COVE----->
After climbing back up the steps to the top of the cliff we went around the Lighthouse and picked up the boardwalk along the top overlooking the shoreline.
We enjoyed the exercise and the great vistas of the rock formations and the ocean, for the 1.2 km walk.
Meia Praia
we cooled off with beer and cider at a small cafe and then reborded the hop on hop off shuttle to take us to the other side of the Marina to our favorite restaraunt Gaviota Branca that sits on the Meia Praia (Beach) . We had a relaxing lunch wiht the cool breeze from off the ocean.
Enjoying our leisurely early dinner we went out on the beach to pick up shells and swim and play in the water.
We came back up to the cafe after enjoying the ocean to find that a band was setting up on the patio. We enjoyed their smooth jazz renditions of 90's and 2000's pop songs. They were very good musicians and the music and libations were very relaxing after our fun day.
Silves
We have been experiencing hot days here in Lagos and we wanted to go see the CAstle in Sivas which is inland from Lagos, so we got up early to beat the heat. Unfortunately, our portable wifi was not working that morning so I went to the MEO phone store to buy some gigabytes. It took a lot longer than we expected to get the problem fixed so it was a later start than planned. We left the phone store for the Train Station but had just missed the 11:00am train and the next train was not until 3:20pm..
Since we had time we had a long leisurely lunch people watching. I did some research and found that there was a bus leaving to go to the town adjacent to Silvas where we could catch a Taxi to the Castle. So we went to the bus station and caught the bus.
We arrived in the heat of the day and it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so our plans to miss the heat was unsuccessful.
But seeing the castle on the hill was worth the heat. it is an imposing structure of red stone sitting majestically atop the hill overlooking the city.
The Castelo de Siivas, was a great castle to take Lauren and Chris to becasue it is so well preserved and it has also had restoration to historical accuracy.
From archaeological excavations, it is assumed that the first fortress on this site consisted of a Lusitanian castro.[2] It is believed that Phoenicans, Greeks and Carthaginians traversed the site at one time, but that around 201 B.C. the Romans conquered Silves, transforming it into a citadel of their occupation, and commercial center that prospered for the next five centuries.
The castle consists of an irregular polygon implanted on a hilltop overlooking the community of Silves, comprising four towers and seven crenellated posts, linked by walls with ardaves.
Two gates, the principal one between two towers and the Traitor's Gate carved into the northern wall. Alongside the principal gate is the guardhouse, constructed with a vaulted ceiling, and covered in tiles.
Cisterna dos Cães
inside The Cistern the inside is currently a museum of some of the animals of the region.
Within its courtyard are various subterranean structures, with accesses at soil level. The Cistern of Moura, is a 10 metres (33 ft) high, 820 square metres (8,800 sq ft) superficial area, with five naves marked by four orders of columns, interlinked by semi-circular archways. The Cisterna dos Cães, within the courtyard, is a vertical hole of 60 metres (200 ft) depth, that also supported water supply in the castle.
We walked along all the perimeter walls of the castle enjoying the views, the breeze, and soaking up the history of this marvelous piece of Architecture. Then stopped for refreshment at the cafe in the garden to cool down from the heat.
We walked down from the castle through the City of Silvas and caught our Train back to Lagos.
FADO CLUB
We wanted to share the experience of some traditional Portuguese culture so Mary Kay, Lauren and I went to a Fado club in Lagos to enjoy Fado Music. The club was pretty full and we ordered some drinks with bread an olives to snack on.
Fado is a type of Portuguese singing, traditionally associated with pubs and cafés, that is renowned for its expressive and profoundly melancholic character.The singer of fado (literally, “fate”) speaks to the often harsh realities of everyday life, sometimes with a sense of resignation, sometimes with the hope of resolution. the audience participated with clapping along with some of the livelier songs that had a Spanish flavor to them.
The music was performed primarily by a female vocalist but she had another male and female guest vocalists perform for us. The music was accompanied by of one guitarras (10- or 12-string guitars), one violas (6-string guitars). We enjoyed two sets of songs and then headed back home in the cool night air.