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Published: November 17th 2013
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Glyn and I didn't get up until gone 11am as we'd purposely not set alarms, wanting to catch up on sleep.
We then drove to the end of the world.
The End.
........
Not really! But during Ye Very Olde Times, people thought that Cabo de Sao Vicente was the end of the world as it's the most South West part of Portugal. The guide book promised all sorts of wildlife including sea-otters, eagles, kestrels, heron and white storks, so all we saw was a few fat seagulls and one lonely sparrow.
When we got there we thought it must be cold as people were dressed in big coats and scarves around their faces. These people clearly have never been to England as it was pretty warmish and sunny. We went to the lighthouse which has been there for centuries although Sir Francis Drake had managed to demolish it in 1587- wey hey go the British!
The museum took about 5 seconds to get around but had a looped recording of the sea, so worth the €1.50 to get in.
Outside people were fishing over the cliffs which seemed insane as the water was
miles below and anything caught would be totally battered on the way back up.
It was pretty windy and I was convinced to buy a wooly poncho for €25 from some old guy near the lighthouse. There was an old lady knitting nearby, to give the idea that it was all handmade....
I had my first go at driving in Portugal and it's OK, pretty sedate and no signs of barking mad drivers as yet. Not many roads have the speed limits marked, so often I made an educated guess. Even the satnav when used, rarely had any idea of speed limits.
I drove us to Vila do Bispo as the guidebook had promised a 156m obelisk marking the spot for spectacular views over the ocean, after driving a few miles up a dirt track. This was utter bullshit. We got the dirt track, with pot holes deep enough that I heard a few worrying banging noises as the underside of the car hit the road. The obelisk was so pathetic, it was hilarious, and about 15 metres tall if that. It wasn't worth visiting even if you only were staying 500 metres away. We could see
a good mile or so, with a bit of sea in the distance and a few wind farms - spectacular it was not.
Glyn insisted we went to Lidl where we got a few groceries and saw some of Portugal's finest chavs.
Next we stopped at Lagos which is fairly big with a fortress that was just about to shut as we arrived. Lots of cobbled streets, no cats.
We went into the Church of Santa Maria. I wasn't sure if the woman at the door was collecting an entrance fee or was a beggar, so I gave her a euro and she seemed happy with that. The church was OK, some bloke was playing the organ and we felt self conscious in there as we quickly took a few photos.
We found the site of the first European slave market which was opened in 1444 and has since been built over. There were some boxes hanging from the ceiling but nothing said what they were about.
The sun was setting and Glyn spotted an orange glowing sun that actually turned out to be the moon - duh! It soon got dark and I did
my first foreign night time driving which was not scary due to the lack of other vehicles on the road. The first and only cat of the day was seen leaving our apartment complex as we arrived.
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