Faro

24th May

Arriving by coach from Sevilla in Spain, where I have seen only plains, I was happy about the stunning views of Portugal. Actually it started like it ended in Spain, but when we came to Tavira the hills started again. By the way in Tavira there is an old bridge over the river Gilão, which is coming from the Atlantic Ocean. The bridge has the name “Porte Romana” and the river changes its name at this bridge to Rio Séqua. Here in Tavira we had our first stop, but only for passengers to leave or enter the bus. The driver was speaking with a very low voice – I think there was no speaker system, therefore I had to ask my seat neighbour again about what the speaker told us. Then I looked up the name of the place on google maps.

Finally we arrived in Faro. The bus station looked old and not well maintained. It was just a place, where the buses could stop, even there were a waiting area and a vending machine for snacks. I also found a counter where I could buy my ticket to Loulé. My destination for this day. I had to wait for around an hour for the bus and was leaving the building for enjoying the sunshine and looking at the surroundings as well as I eat a muffin at a coffee shop. The restaurants here around were not really nice looking, it was like they were situated in a back yard and a day or two later I found the explanation.

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The Bus Terminal in Faro from the Outside – Much Nicer to See than from the Inside.

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I catched the bus to Loulé in time.

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The House (the one floor building in the very front on the right hand side), where Maria J is living. She actually owns it.

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25th May

Maria J. took me to Faro, because she was working there this day. From her working place I walked to the city center and to the old city of Faro. I was interested in to see the dolphins, but the trip administrator told me, that I have to come the next morning before 8 o’clock, because you can only see the dolphins at that time. They offered more tours by boat and I decided to buy a ticket for the Desert Islands, which also counts as a part of the Algarve. I was told, that the tour is guided. I purchased the ticket in advance and walked back to town for eating something. I also bought a sweet.

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Part of the Old Faro City – this Wall is very long.

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I found an old building where handcrafted items were for sale and I took a look. I decided to buy an oven cloth, because it was beautiful, cheap, not taking a lot of space in my luggage and also a useful item. Furthermore it was one with a Portuguese symbol, a cock. I continued to the old city and was walking around there for a while and climbed the church tower as well as I was in the museum of the church.

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This is the building, where the sell hand crafted souvenirs.

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I was early at the meeting point for the boat trip, actually I still had to wait for half an hour for the tour, which starts at 3pm. I would have liked to eat an ice cream, but there was no possibility to buy one close to that place and I was not willing to go further and miss the boat. The boat ride was nice even we did not see all the birds announced, but a few. At the island, where we had the possibility to go to the beach, to visit a restaurant and to walk a trail I decided to walk the trail. We hade around one and a half hour to stay there. I needed some time to find the trail, because it was not signed on the beach. I walked around all alone and enjoyed it, even I did not see a lot of birds or other animals. I did not really know how long the trail was, so I was a little in a hurry because I needed time to find it. All was OK until I reached the beach. It is hard to walk a beach for kilometers, especially in hiking shoes, but I did it with success and was in time for the boat, bringing us back to Faro.

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The boat for the trip to the island.

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For more photos of Faro and the island, you can follow the link for the pictures.

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I also was back in time at the shop where Maria J. was working this day. When I left I took some pictures with my tablet of the street signs for finding my way back and it worked very well in two ways, because by taking that pictures I remembered the names better and I also could look them up easily to be sure I was using the right streets.

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The Rua do Dr. Candido Guerreiro – “Rua” means street, “do” means of.

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