Our trip to Lagos, Portugal

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We departed Patricia’s around 4:00am headed for the Chunnel. We had reservations for a 7:50am departure, however, because we arrived early and there was space on the train, we got on the 6:20am train. This was good because that meant we would get into Bayonne, that much sooner.



The train ride over was uneventful. The weather was dreary & misty (told by the rain drops on the car windows visible in my pictures) when we arrived in Calais. I drove until about 9 and then Gene took over. That allowed me time to snap photos. Unfortunately, not real sure of actually what is in the picture or where I took them. J They appeared to be a photo opp at the time.



We didn’t encounter too much traffic until we got into Bordeaux. There was some construction in an area where I snapped a photo of one of their “work crew”. It was actually a “scarecrow” type figure dressed with a yellow suit.



One of the toll roads had an overhead sign indicating “errant animal”. We never did actually see anything, however, in addition to the sign, there was a truck pulled off the side of the road with a computerized sign indicating “Animal”. We thought it rather unique that they went to so much trouble to warn drivers of possible dangers in the road. The only animals we saw were the two figures on one of the overpasses (deer and wild pig). :-)



We arrived in Bayonne and checked into our hotel. We walked over to the Intermarche store to purchase dinner for the evening. The walk was much easier than taking the car! We at salamis, cheeses, bread and wine and crashed for the evening!



We got a, somewhat, early start on Tuesday (around 5:30am. That days’ trip was to be a little over 11 hours. I started the morning drive. It was dark and a bit rainy when we left. As the sun started to rise, the drizzle continued. About ½ hour into the drive, we entered the Basque region of Spain. It was absolutely beautiful, very mountainous and lush. Too bad we could not snap any photos.



I drove until about 10:00 or so and Gene took over. I was able to take quite a few photos. Photographs don’t do distant mountain ranges justice! It reminded me a lot of Colorado or somewhere else out west. Some small and a few larger cities set out in the middle of nowhere. Old buildings mixed with new. The roads were pretty much deserted for most of the trip (probably because they were toll roads). It ended up costing us about 100€ for the trip. It was well worth the time and distance savings.



Through part of the trip, I had been noticing these trees that appeared to have been planted, but yet were not really in rows that could be ascertained. As we got closer to Portugal, the trees became more and more abundant and we finally realized that some of them had the bark removed. We finally realized we were seeing fields of cork trees. Some of the photos show miles and miles of tree “farms”. Some of these are cork trees and others are unknown at this point. We actually saw a trolley (semi-truck) full of cork bark. I didn’t realize what it was until we were passing it. We never saw another one after that! I would have loved to have gotten a picture. We plan on visiting a cork processing plant while we’re here.



There was a castle atop a hill and a city had been built around it. You can see the castle wall still remaining around the city. It was hard to take a really good picture because we’re traveling at about 80-85 mph (the speed limit in France was 130 km/hr (80.778 mph) and in Spain and Portugal it’s 120 km/hr (74.5645 mph)).



We arrived at Patricia’s place around 3:30. We unloaded, and got settled. We headed off to the grocery to pick up something for dinner. There were HUNDREDS of people in that store, speaking various languages!! It was absolutely crazy. We were both tired and somewhat intimidated by the unfamiliar surroundings. We proceeded to get the absolute necessities (meat, bread and ice) and headed out.



After a nice dinner and a good night’s sleep, we awoke refreshed. Unlike our place in England, only the early mornings are nice and quiet. As the city awakes, noises of a typical city become apparent.



Thursday we walked into town to get some exercise in. Lagos is a bustling city full of tourists and locals. There are quite a few abandoned buildings as well as some newer ones being built. The mosaics of some of the streets and the sidewalks are quite nice.



There is a footbridge that leads to the other side of the harbor. We walked to the fish market, a 3-story building where local fishermen bring their catch to sell. The second floor has fresh fruit, vegetables and other trinkets. The 3^rd floor is a restaurant and it overlooks the harbor (a few photos taken from there). We continued our walk to the edge of the inlet. We entered inside the fort wall to find the rest of the city to find, again, nice mosaic sidewalks and roadways and hundreds of shops and restaurants. We continued to walk through town and take in all the sites. There was a picture on a wall of a place called Ponte da Piedade. As we stood there, a young lady walked out to explain their boats tours to us. We decided that we would take a drive there and see for ourselves. As it turned out we were only 2.5 miles away. :-)

The picture of the Pingo Doce, for those in Florida, it is somewhat like our Publix stores, except for some of the things you’ll find there, like PILES of salted/dried fish. Somewhat more expensive than most of the other grocers, very nice selection though.



We are without internet service here in Portugal. In order to post to my blog, we have driven to the local Lidl and are setting outside in the parking lot on this Saturday morning. Enjoy!

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Comments

[CynXyn]

Portugal
Hi Debbie, while I knew cork was from trees, didn't think they were from the bark - extremely interesting. LOL when you said stick figure scarecrow, I thought you just meant a very skinny man - LOL Question - What is the picture of the skeleton?

[debgen]

skeleton painting
this is what I found about that painting. "Spanish-based ARYZ, just completed another huge mural in Lagos, Portugal. The multi-storied mural features a dried up skeleton working on his photo skills."