Faro and Tavira, middle of the Algarve

Our final destination in Portugal was Faro, part of the Algarve region on the southern coast. There is a stretch of seaside towns that people from Europe flock to, especially in the summer. We were there a little before the high season started, so it was nice to be surrounded by relatively few tourists, but the weather was so-so.

Although Faro is one of the larger cities in the region, it is still fairly small. It was a short walk from the bus station to the main shopping area where our motel was conveniently located. From there we could walk to the old part of town that is really only a few square blocks. The city sits along the Ria Formosa Lagoon, a protected wetland that you can take boat tours of to see the local wildlife.

We also took a day trip to Tavira, a tiny town that we saw in entirety within a couple hours. We enjoyed the hillside town and the winding cobbled streets leading down to the riverfront.

In the middle of a main traffic circle, a huge bird decided that it was an ideal location for a nest. These pelican like birds are enormous and they put up these enormous nests in all sorts of strange places like this one and along rooftops.

The Arco da Vila is the main gateway to the old city. It is originally of Moorish and Roman architecture and is part of a medieval castle. The building around it was created in the 19^th Century.

Along the lagoon are these old seaside cabanas that are no longer in use. They are just there for nostalgia.

Once a day, we made our way across town to the Moorish inspired library, since our motel failed to deliver the advertised Wifi. Luckily, the public library provided computers with internet and was very loose on their one hour limit. The library sits on one end of a little park that has a mini golf course (European standards, which means made of concrete), a turtle pond, bird cages, and an exercise area that included this wonderful bench-cycle.

Here is Megan being greeted by a friendly Portuguese gentleman.

The Cathedral sits in a square that is flanked by the buildings belonging to the church and the Town Hall, seen below on the right.

We climbed to the top of the Cathedral to get a view over the city and the surrounding Lagoon, and also got an up close look of the church bells.

The interior of the church features this red 18^th century organ, finely painted with Chinese motifs. There were several opulent chapels in addition to those pictured below.

In less than an hour on a train along the beautiful coast, we found ourselves in Tavira, a quaint town along a river near the coast. This is a medieval city gate that still exists in the middle of town on one of the main streets leading up the hillside. The Romans originally settled the area, and the Moors also created a settlement here in the 8^th to 13^th centuries.

At the top of the hill lie the ruins of a fortress. A wall from Neolithic times was the basis for the fortress and later on was rebuilt by the Phoenicians, then reinforced by the Moors. Now there is a nice garden within the ruinous walls.

At one end of the fortress was this tower that we climbed to get a view of the town below.

After descending from the fortress, we crossed the Roman Bridge behind us. It is said to be from Roman times, although there is some controversy as to its authenticity. The few blocks along the river were nice and we ate our lunch on a bench along it.