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Published: January 29th 2024
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Our excursion today is to Tavira which is east of Faro and on the south coast of Portugal. It is an ancient town founded in 1,000 BC. The old town is typical of most European cities and towns - very narrow cobblestoned streets lined with ornate buildings complete with fancy iron balconies. The sidewalks are all uneven cobblestones making it a challenge to walk straight. I wonder if they did that so you couldn’t tell who had too much to drink and who was sober. These towns are immaculately clean, no garbage anywhere. We saw a lady out with a mop swabbing down the front of her very well maintained house. Many of the buildings have glazed ceramic tiles known as azulajo either as a decoration or as a whole front coverage. Uniquely coloured and decorated doors adds an attractive distinctiveness. It is very colourful
People of all ages are friendly and respectful. The Gilao River divides the town and is spanned by an ancient Roman bridge. The river is tidal and when we arrived the tide was out with Snowy egrets busy picking away in the muddy shallows for snacks. By the time we were ready for lunch at
12:30 the tide was starting to come back in and swept over the muddy stones on the bottom rising about 3-4 feet up the banks.
Daphne, Anne & I explored the town while Peter went to play pickle ball. Of course, I always notice the flowers and I am amazed by things like lantana that is a 6 foot hedge and angel trumpet (Datura) that is an 8 foot tree. We passed by a community garden where the brussels sprouts plants were like trees. I don’t know if they keep on growing and keep on producing sprouts or if they just simply grow that big in one season. There are poinsettias happily growing around the base of a tree on the street. And Bird of Paradise flowers are common in the town flower beds.
The restaurant we chose was an outside patio beside the river, sitting under an umbrella with the warm breeze wafting around it felt like heaven. I had the most interesting and unusual lunch - first a layer of thin dark bread spread with avocado and topped with spinach. Then a salmon loin adorned with a poached egg and served with homemade potato
discs. The appetizer was Portuguese bruschetta - a thin slice of dark bread topped with roasted red pepper, spinach and slices of mackerel, with salad and balsamic cream. Mmmm…I could really get to love this life and this diet.
On the way to Tavira I suddenly realized that I hadn’t seen hardly any crops other than the odd vineyard and orange groves and very few farm animals. First of all there is no flat land suitable for crops and secondly I’m sure the yellow/orange limestone would not be conducive to growing food crops. I wonder where all the food comes from?
Outside the towns, the houses are quite big sometimes 3 storeys, white with red tile roofs. Beautiful ornate architecture with decorative spires which remind one of Arabian Nights. Inside the towns in the old sections, three or four story homes line the streets without spaces between. One building flows into the next building sometimes with a store on the ground level and the ornate balconies above.
At lunch we were talking about experiences we had as children on the farm. I have to tell you this story as told by Daphne. Her family had a pet
moose! She grew up in northern British Columbia where they regularly ate deer, moose, bear, etc. One day her father found a baby moose that had either been abandoned or its mother shot and brought it home where it grew up as a family pet. She said Ginger got really big but still barged into the house and ate off the table. Eventually she went to a sanctuary where she was well cared for. Can you even imagine having a moose for a pet?
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