Do we have to leave Portugal so soon?

---

It's our last day in Portugal and I'm feeling like I should have planned a few more days here. My first impressions were true and I'd love to explore other parts of the country. But Spain awaits and we packed our bags. Before leaving, we took a boat out of the marina in Lagos to explore the grottos and caves along the shore. It was incredibly beautiful...rock formations and crashing waves. We were the only boat in the area, another advantage of off season travel. It was a motor boat which just fit 9. The pictures don't do it justice but take a look. After docking we walked in to town to go to the slave museum. Lagos is believed to have been the sight of the first slave market in Europe, connected with Prince Henry the Navigator's Trips to West Africa. Hard to fathom that this beautiful spot was also the place of such inhumanity from as early as 1444. The small museum had actual artifacts and even used virtual technology to tell the story.
We had an hour to do some souvenir shopping before boarding the bus to start our journey to Seville. We managed one more castle stop in Silvis, a small pretty town less than an hour from Lagos with a castle made of Redstone surrounded by a quaint neighborhood. I like that this was a living castle, with local artists' sculptures being displayed and even a Renaissance festival held there annually. Can you imagine seeing jousting outside a real castle? Before leaving Silvis, we passed a stork sitting on a nest. We've seen their nests from a distance on the top of poles and high up in trees along the way but this was special.(picture below)
It was more than a 2 1/2 hour ride to Seville from there and we arrived at about 7 in the evening. Our bus had to park a short distance from the hotel because of the narrow streets and a large square Alemeda Hercules that surround it. But we're a tough group of ladies and managed to get our luggage over the cobblestones to H10 Coregidor, our home for the next 3 nights. The champagne we were poured to welcome us was our reward. We made it back to the square for dinner which was teaming with young people, hanging out, eating drinking at lots of different restaurants and bars. We had a delicious dinner of tapas and, of course, sangria to top off the day.

---