Lagos and Luz- 6th till 11th January 2012

After leaving Lisbon we headed south to the Algarve.  The drive there was definitely one of the most boring we have done in the past year; hours of straight, empty motorway and very little in the way of scenery.  The only point of note was that we seemed to be at a reasonably high altitude as we kept driving through clouds!

Our first stop in the Algarve was at a campsite just outside of Lagos (said La-gosh).  After being the only people there in most of our recent campgrounds it was incredibly refreshing to stay somewhere with other people...even if it was a bit "camp brit"!  Some of the people we talked to spent every winter there- a campsite is much cheaper than heating costs at home apparently.

One of the monster "campervans" in the campground.  For scale that's a "normal" one like our sitting next to it.  I have no idea how they manoeuvre these things around some of the road or even into the campgrounds themselves.

Morg about to kill an orange.

We had a fabulously relaxing time and our campsite was a great spot to do it in- it had a pool, spa, restaurant and bar.  The weather was amazing- very warm and blue- and we even managed one, very quick swim. The pool was 12 degrees. Ouch.

The nearest village of Luz was a short cycle away.  It's very Mediterranean in its appearance with gorgeous white houses with yellow or blue trim.  We wandered the beach and had a great lunch overlooking the sea.

The water is absolutely freezing. JJ says there is some evil cold ocean current which means it is always like that.

Luz in the background.

The seafood cataplana - which is the large copper dish + lid it is cooked in.  It was ginormous and delicious.

That's a interesting, oddly tall, perfectly straight palm tree......wait....it's a cell phone tower!

We spent a day in Lagos.  The old town is quite pretty and there were lots of nice little bars and restaurants.  It was pretty quiet but you could imagine that it must be bustling in summer.

Morg in front of the Slave Market. He is obviously a slave to the rhythm.

Looking out to see through the gates to the old town.

Santo Antonio Church

Can't remember what this thing was - maybe a very pretty public bathroom. Probably not.

Morgan's first attempt at a paper hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. I look like some sort of weird nun.