Just as in Mexico on one or two occasions, when popped temporarily into the lap of luxury, we can manage to overcome any disdain and appreciate it, at least for a little while. Looking out our window this morning at the unique giant expensive hotel architecture, it looked kind of nice.
Studying the poster on the elevator door, we also came to understand how we could have presented ourselves to the wrong place (as we did) yesterday afternoon. Lots of places here have the word "marina" in their titles, which is reasonable enough. And since this is Vilamoura, "Vila" can figure as well. Add to this that our hotel was part of a huge "Vila Gale" chain, with at least 15 properties worldwide, and one other just across the street, and you can see the prospects for confusion. Can you imagine Scott and Rachel sending their bike suitcases ahead for storage into this mess?
As we left the high rent/new construction part of Vilmoura, we began to see a little more of what we recognize as quaint or older stuff. This included a long row of buildings along the sea front, and a small indoor market. The market did not have much, but on the front wall was a depiction of more traditional life, which we did find intriguing.
Finally we were ready to pass beyond even the lower rent areas of development, and we were again tempted by EV1. Before this could play out we got a brief glimpse of a very zippy woodpecker. The camera only caught his back end.
Scott AndersonOh, my gosh! That’s no woodpecker, that’s a hoopoe! I love this bird, which I’ve only seen three times and never in time to get a photo of one. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
EV 1 this time quickly revealed its evil intentions, with gravel right from the start. Something about a natural park, evidently. Dodie this time was not falling for it, and headed out for N125. EV 1 had another try, putting up one of its super rare route guide signs, but our hearts were hardened.
Our new direction did take us by orange groves, where a lot of fruit was ripe but also there were a lot of highly fragrant flowers. Oranges work like that.
Finally we began to approach Faro in ernest, and like with all towns these days, the outer rings are boring, if not dangerous for cycling. There was really nothing to see here.
It took us (especially me) a little time to understand the layout of the town, and at first I just snapped anything that looked interesting, like the building below. But soon we came to understand that there were some nice walking streets just outside the fairly small walled city, and that inside the wall was mainly the cathedral. To pass through the wall, of course, there were some well known named gates, but otherwise the wall is "reinforced" by buildings that are right up to, or are part of it.
This is the best known gate to the inner city. At first I just blew by it, but later it featured in a "fado" presentation, and I began to smarten up. Another clue is that the TI is just beside.
In the TI we got our Route N2 passports and first stamp. This is a little like the creantiale of the "Camino" but presumably has a little less weight because it was not invented by God, but rather some Tourism authority?
We also bought this great 5 euro map of Portugal, because Steve begged and presumably we do not have infinite GPS maps of the place! (Hey, on the other side is the Algarve!)
At a booth in the TI was standing a man who turned out to be Joao Cuna, a Fado master who offers daily short recitals and explanations from a beautiful room upstairs in the TI. He was about to begin in 5 minutes, he said, and we jumped on the opportunity.
The presentation included some film and slides, and the chance to see and handle several Portuguese guitars. These are all twelve string, not tuned as regular guitars are, and played with only two fingers.
Fado is a passionate music of longing, but can be joyous as well. Joao really did a good job of trying to explain this complex thing to us and the six so others in the room. It was wonderful, and basically made our day. In addition, the film bits with Joao accompanying took us through parts of Porto, Lisbon, and Faro, which we came to appreciate better. It especially took us through that gate to the city that I had blown by!
The cathedral itself is not very impressive from the impressive from the outside, but chapels inside feature over the top carving and gilt work, and tile work as well.
We passed on the local food and went back to our room for some breakfast leftovers! We were happy though. Faro had delivered a kind of experience we like: old buildings, walking streets, cathedral, and this time, the Fado bonus!
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles) Total: 987 km (613 miles)
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Don SkerikHi D and S, I finally have caught up reading your posts. We have been back from Siem Reap a week so have been catching up on your trip. I might do this trip some day.
Thanks for the insights to Portugal. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
