Tavira- 11th till 16th January 2012

Our next "location of laziness" was Tavira, at the eastern end of the Algarve and close to the Spanish border.  Tavira is a very charming town set about the Rio Gilao, and is definitely less touristy than other parts of the Algarve.  Despite it being very much the low season there were enough people out and about to make wandering around town interesting.  We ate a lot of meat, visited a few bars, saw the old Castelo and stared at the outsides of many closed churches.  Honestly- closed churches, even on Sundays?!

One of the town squares in Tavira.  Or as we call them, the places where old men in cheese-cutters hang out all day long and talk.

Igreja da Misericordia

The Irega had the most beautiful tile work in this unusual pattern.

Morgan on top of the Castelo

OSH?  What OSH?

Convento de Graca

Rio Gilao

This guy was fishing off the bridge.  But no mere fishing rod for him- he uses a spear gun!  Apparently the day before we had caught an 8kg fish!

One of the beautiful closed churches.

Rio Gilao

Vino Rosada and macaroons by the river.  Roughing it. 

A few of the gorgeous tiles we saw on the local houses.

Our actual campsite was in Cabanas, which had a lovely waterfront area with bars and cafe's. A visiting Scot told us that a lot of the local towns are suffering because most of the new housing was bought by foreigners (the Irish, in the case of Cabanas), who now can't afford to visit, and can't sell the homes (or finish building them in some cases). So many of these towns are quite empty.

The waterfront at Cabanas

A very fun wee bar called Copacabanas!.....

..which made delicious sangria.  I'm sure the Spanish won't mind.

Feijoada- a traditional stew of beans and stuff.  We picked the seafood option rather than the pigs trotters and tripe.

We also did a day trip to Faro, one of the larger towns of the Algarve.  The old town is very picturesque so we took what photos we could......before our camera battery died!  Ah well.

The Arco da Vila - note storks + nests.

The Cathedral

View from the top of the bell tower.

The square around the cathedral was lined with beautiful orange trees.  I also love the patterned paving they use in Portugal.

Inside the cathedral.

Yes, reliquaries are creepy.  Strangely these weren't even named.

So it's "Adeus" Portugal and back to the UK- with a little stop in Spain on the way. The weather has been fantastic, and a welcome relief from some fairly challenging conditions in the UK. It was also great being in campgrounds with other people again. We had been pretty much by ourselves in campgrounds (apart from York) since leaving Josh and Helen.

It was wonderful to see Jeremy, Rachel and Maia, and we also definitively achieved our main goal of being very lazy in our last stint before turning around and heading back to the UK.