20.08.15 — Travel

Portugal

It’s been a week since I landed back in the UK but with commitments such as working for Burnley Arts Centre and organising some Scholarship Project work, I’ve only just got round to piecing this post together! Blatantly obvious is the location which I visited: Lagos, in the glorious country of Portugal.

This post has a soundtrack, click here before you continue. Ears full of cheesy Portuguese club music? Good. Continue.

A church in the town centre

Lagos is a beautiful town in the Algarve region of Portugal, boasting a tonne of shops and restaurants in it’s old walled town centre, as well as a marina and a smattering of coves and beaches. Spending two weeks there was bliss, which began with the nightly trips out to eat and browse the local shops. Even on holiday, though, this universally recognisable graphic term didn’t pass me by…

An abandoned repro shop

I spent a good amount of time wandering around one of my favourite spots in the town, an old fortress forming one of the main entrances to the walled centre…

The old wall and fortress
An arch in the fort

After a few days lounging around the pool of the lovely Aqualuz apartments we were staying in, my dad and I got somewhat restless and grabbed our cameras for a snoop along the coast. We first chanced across this abandoned hotel which I’d taken interest in on our last visit a few years ago, but this time we ventured slightly further into the complex…

The abandoned hotel

I have posted the photos from our snooping around the abandoned hotel, the Hotel Golfinho, in another blog post which you can read here! Anyway, after a quick snoop around it’s peeling exterior, we continued heading towards the coves.

Looking out to sea
The long coastal road

The views from the Algarve are breathtaking, and needless to say we spent quite a while wandering up and down the coastline to take enough photos to all but fill my 64GB memory card. Here’s a few of the best…

Sea and sky beyond the rocks
A lovely villa

As we hit the edge of the coastline, where Lagos bends towards an area known as Luz, the most breathtaking part of the coastline was to be found: the grottos. We had already booked a boat tour of the grottos, but took the time to descend an unforgiving number of steps to take a few photos. Here’s a lovely panorama I managed to take on my phone:

The grottos in Lagos

As I said, however, most of our time was spent wandering through the centre of the town, where I took the following snaps. Do forgive my expression on the one of me down there. It’s the best of a bad bunch.

A lone door
The urban Mediterranean
An old fire engine
Lagos by night

Anyway, back to that boat trip that we had booked. To begin, we headed down to Lagos Marina and boarded a big orange boat before heading off out into the Mediterranean Sea, never straying to far from the looming stacks and arches of the coastline, however…

Us four on the boat

After a little while, and many photos of the coastline (with which I shall burden you not), we dropped anchor and were invited to jump into the freezing ocean (we’d discovered how damn cold it is on a trip to the beach one day). Ellie, fearing not the cold, clambered straight up onto the roof of the boat and threw herself into the water.

Well, she does want to be a marine biologist
A bridge along the coast

Then it was time for part of the trip I’d been waiting for, a chance to have a ride on a modified ‘banana boat’ which had been designed not to tip over. Naturally, of course, I managed to get thrown off it after only a couple of minutes, and then my useless bobbing life-jacked-adorned self had to be unceremoniously rescued from the freezing water. I was not impressed.

I did have fun, I promise

The next day, fancying some time away from the sea, my dad and I ventured out once more with our cameras slung over our shoulders. This time we encircled the outer limits of the walled town centre, before dipping in to meander up and down the steep streets. Here’s a couple of photos from our journey…

In a quiet area of the town
Into a derelict house

On our final full day in Portugal, my dad and I once more decided to give the pool a miss and found something else to do: ride Segways around the town! Picking them up from a lovely Portuguese gentleman in the town square, we zipped around the marina before daring to head into the busy commercial areas of the town.

They see me rollin'

The Segways were so much fun, both me and my dad agreed that we wanted one – and if it weren’t for the UK laws restricting their use, would probably look into getting one. However after this it was time for one last Italian meal and then back to the apartment to pack up, ready for our transfer the next morning.

Boats in the grottos

I loved my time in Lagos, and would very much recommend that anyone thinking of a holiday on the continent doesn’t forget about Portugal. It’s lovely people, old charm, brilliant food and cool sea breeze are not to be missed. If you’d like some recommendations of places to go in Lagos, feel free to get in touch.

You may now end the cheesy Portuguese music (if you bothered to play it). If you want more, try this. Até logo!