Portugal

Wow.
Jimmy read somewhere that the women's USA soccer team was playing Japan in a tournament called the Algarve Cup in Faro, Portugal.  Faro is only a 2 hour drive away, but the team was playing on a Monday.  So we talked about it and Thursday night we decided we would make a weekend trip to Portugal out of it and take the kids out of school for the game.  Our friends have said that they enjoy Portugal but a lot of the local Spanish people don't seem to travel to Portugal much.  We went into the weekend with not much planned and hoping to just relax and enjoy the weekend.

Saturday we left the house mid day at Clara's nap time hoping she'd sleep the whole way there.  We had a great drive over to the border of Portugal, of course Clara did not nap.  The border is just a little over an hour away.   There is a beautiful bridge that you cross to get over the Guadiana River which separates Spain from Portugal.  The drive from the river through Portugal to our destination Albuferia was a beautiful drive.  It reminded Jimmy and I of Northern Utah, Mountains in the distance, very hilly, the dirt is more red in color, rocky, and the trees and brush are low.  We pulled into our hotel it was actually a resort.  We got a two bedroom condo, it had a nice little back yard the kids enjoyed playing in, two beds, two baths, and a nice little kitchen all for 42 euros a night!  That was a steal.  Majority of the people staying there were English speaking.  Turns out Portugal is a place the British love to come to during the winters to get away from the cold.  We stopped by the park at the hotel then settled in for the night and then we went to find a restaurant for dinner (the lady at the front desk said most restaurants open at 6 pm!  After living in Spain for so long and not having restaurants open until 8 we were pretty excited about this.)  We went one town over to find a restaurant we read reviews about and it was still closed for the winter.  So we just drove and stumbled upon a restaurant that looked nice.   We went in and we were the only customers the entire time we were there.  The food was delicious, and the service was good.  I enjoyed my first taste of Sword Fish, Jimmy tried Monk Fish both were great.  The kids wanted grilled shrimp except these things were HUGE!  Think small lobsters.  (Sorry no pictures of the food). Then back to the hotel for bed.

Our garden view at the hotel.

Beautiful Clara playing in the garden.

The kids and I on the teeter totter.

Emma in the tunnel.

Clara exploring the playground.

 

Sunday morning we woke up and took a drive to the most South Western point of Europe. Sagres has a fortress that surrounds the very tip of the Sagres Peninsula. This fortress was over the centuries as a place for sailors to stop and wait for storms to pass or the winds to change, the next point of rocks north west of Sagres was extremely dangerous to get around with the wrong weather. It was also used for a sailing school with the high cliffs it had a great vantage point to watch over the sailors. 

We got out of the car and realized just how spectacular the views were.  We walked right over to the edge to take a quick peak.  Breath taking was all we could say.  We walked into the fortress you could see an old compass rose on the ground, cannons lining parts of the walls, buildings, an old church, and a light house.  Most of the buildings were closed, we were able to sneak a peak in the church, it was small but nice.  We walked all around the tip, there are places where there are some walls to go lean against and look over, but mostly you're walking a path that is about 15-20 feet from the cliff's edge.  The cliffs are up to 250 feet high.  The crazy part was watching all these fishermen that fish off of the cliff's edges, they climb right on the edge some wiggle their way down and fish.  A lot of them will drive back into the town on their scooters and sell the fish to the restaurants in town.

First look over the edge.

Clara got to peak too.

Honestly this doesn't do it justice.

There was a small cave in the side.

Another view with a different lens.

The entrance to The Fortress.

The Compass Rose - Fact most Compass Roses have 32 sections

For some unknown reason this one was made with 40.

A shot by the cannon.

I love this photo with the light house in the background.

I absolutely love this man.

A beautiful picture of the lighthouse.

The kids goofing off.

Breath taking views.

How many fisherman do you see? (5)

A popular place to surf, there is a small path down the cliffs

to a nice beach below. 

The bell tower at the church.

After our spectacular sight seeing we drove down into Sagres and found a part of the coast that the cliffs come down and create a small beach area, the people have created a nice beach front here with lots of restaurants on the beach, and a small village that looks down onto the coast.  Absolutely gorgeous.  We ate at one of the restaurants and had a great meal, then let the kids play on the beach for a couple of hours.  They had a blast playing and we wore them out.  We then headed back to the hotel and took in an easy night. 

Grumpy (I mean hungry) kids.

Once they got food they were much happier.

restaurant

came with Sardine Pate, bread and butter. 

Emma LOVED it!

Chasing the waves again.

This is looking back at the restaurant and small town.

These two kept digging in the sand!  They were making caves.

The tides kept moving up and washing them away.

Monday morning we woke up made a lazy morning to get out of our hotel.  We drove to an English grocery store called Iceland's.  It was nice to see some familiar brands of foods.  The store was right next to a large shopping center (similar to a mall) so we went in there to kill some time and look for food.  We found a Pizza Hut it had a Europe twist to the flavors but it was delicious!  It was a sit down restaurant and they kept bringing us slices around of different pizzas. One combination was Shrimp, Pineapple, and Tuna it was a little strange with the tuna on there, but over all it tasted great!  Then we headed to the game!

We got there just in time, they were just introducing the players on the field.  There was about 200 fans there to cheer on both teams.  It was great see these ladies in action.  Abby Wambach is a machine to watch.  Hope Solo was actually smaller than I pictured her, and I'll even admit that Alex Morgan is cute.  Landon loved cheering on the team, at any given moment he'd start chanting U-S-A over and over.  He'd be the first up on his feet if they approached the goal and joined in all the cheers that the crowd had to offer.  During half time he even had some serious "Moves Like Jagger" during the song.  US lost 0-1 against Japan.  It was sad to see them loose, but we really enjoyed watching the game. 

Game time.

 The Line up

Post game, Hope Solo is in the dark jersey #1.

We liked Portugal so much we've already booked our next vacation there when my parents are here in 3 weeks!  Can't wait to take them and show them some of the most breath taking views I've ever seen.