79. Southern Portugal - The Algarve

Ferragudo - I'll bet no-one has ever heard of this place.  

It is on the Algarve which is the southern-most area of Portugal and includes that fabulous coastline whose images have been made famous in movies and on postcards.  Someone who knows the area well recommended the town of Ferragudo as one of the less developed, friendlier places along the coast.  

So instead of taking on the big towns of Lagos and Farro, it seemed worth booking a night at Ferrugudo just to see what the Algarve was really like.

We left Lisbon via the Vasco da Gama bridge, so long it just seemed to go on forever.

Lisbon is a lovely city and we left her basking in some warm autumn weather after a cool week. But something went wrong in the planning phase of our overnight visit to the Algarve,

And instead of being over there on the point, just left of the lighthouse .......

We were over here, at Portimao, amongst the high rises.

Not quite what I had expected.  But it goes to show that every good beach in Europe has already been discovered, developed and over-subscribed for many years before we came along.  In other words - every sandy beach in Europe looks more or less like this one.  I should not have been surprised!

However, we did have some nice views along the coastline ....... 

And saw those windswept rocks that are so evocative of the area.

We also spent a few lazy hours in the late afternoon on the beach - Paul with his flippers and camera and me with a book.

Paul's photos of the biggest of the rocks on the beach.

Complete with blowhole.

And framed view.