After breakfast and a short hike to stretch our legs, we loaded up the car and started our drive north through the Algarve and back into the Alentejo region of Portugal. Nuno had given us suggestions as to which towns we should stop at along the way and I'm so glad he did or we would have missed some gorgeous beach views. We side-tripped to the beaches of Carrapateira, Arrifana and Odeceixe, villages so small they're barely on the map and are never covered in the guide books. At Carrapateira we saw kite surfers, at Arrifana an old fort, and at Odeceixe a favorite local swimming hole. It took us all day to work our way north, but it was so worth it.
Kite surfer at Carrapateira
Another view of Carrapateira from the cliff tops
The fort ruins at Arrifana
Odeceixe beach
We stopped for lunch at a small fishing village along the way and ordered the local specialty, Arroz de Marisco (seafood rice), filled with prawns, clams, crab and mussels. It was one of the best meals we've had this entire trip!
By the time we reached Sintra, it was almost 7:00 and we were all tired of being in the car. Sintra's a fairly small town with steep, narrow, winding streets. Our GPS obviously didn't know how to navigate these streets to get us to our destination. It kept routing us in circles through some of the narrowest streets I've ever seen and up steep inclines. I don't know how Jerry did it with the manual transmission, sometimes having to stop on the incline to let another car pass, sometimes having to back up downhill. There were times I had to close my eyes! Rich finally used his Google Maps app on his phone and it got us to our hotel directly. The car is parked and will stay there until we leave Sunday morning. If we need to go any distance, we'll take a taxi.
Can you see how close Jerry parked to the post?
No comments:
Post a Comment