A Quiet Day on the Algarve

Even after a night of celebrating "Carnaval" and only returning home at 4:30am, I am awake by 8am.  The rain is just pouring down this morning (Feb 16), and I enjoy a hot cup of tea while sitting on the couch in front of the huge sliding glass doors watching the fury of this down pour.

But in true Algarve fashion, the rain stops, the clouds clear and the sun shines!  Perfect time to take a little morning walk to the town "Square" for a nice hot glass of "Galão".  I know, I'm addicted.

Now it is "Fat Tuesday" and much to our surprise, when we arrived at the square and took our usual seats, we were entertained by the children of Ferragudo dressed up in costumes.

It seemed the children were waiting to participate in a parade.  We took a little walk around and found two floats, no more, just two......so we thought we were going to see a parade!  But how odd that there would only be two floats.

Well, this float was quite cute!  It took me a minute to figure out what the theme was......and then it hit me!

Heaven........

...........and Hell

Well, if a parade ever happened, we didn't see it.

The afternoon found us over at Alice and Sergio's for some more home cooked Portuguese food!

Did you really think there would be a post without food?

I am a big fan of food of different cultures!  And this meal is the perfect example of why.  Sergio is grilling Linguiça, a highly seasoned Portuguese pork sausage that is flavored with garlic and onions.  But he's not grilling on the BBQ!  It is very common here in Portugal to grill your Linguiça on a little clay dish over an open flame right on the dining room table!

How the heck cool is this??!!!  Everyone sitting around the table drinking wine and enjoying each other's company while you watch the main course being cooked right in front of you!

Another fabulous meal, dessert and all!

We ended the evening with a little drive to Portimão and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee while watching the sun set on our quiet day in the Algarve.

If you would like to see more pictures of our day, click here "Where's Debbie" and then click on the album "A Quiet Day in the Algarve"

A Morning Walk in Ferragudo

It's February 13th, and it was an absolutely beautiful day in "Ferragudo"!

Our penthouse is only about 400 yards from the Praia Grande beach, so we took a walk along the beach before meeting Alice later in the morning.

As we walked down the stairs that lead to the sand we discovered a nice beach cafe, Restaurante Praia Grande .  In fact there are a total of 3 little cafes along this small beach.

I just love these twin lighthouse's that sit at the mouth of the Arade River where it goes into the Atlantic Ocean.  The lighthouse on the left is in Ferragudo and the one on the right is in Portimão .

From here you can also see the city of "Portimão" on the other side of the Arade River.

Now I've seen a lot of castles in my travels, but this is a first for me.  A castle on the beach!

São João de Arade, sometimes referred to as "Castelo de São João do Arade" was actually a fort that began it's life in the 15th century as a lookout tower which was then extended during the late 17th early 18th centurys to play a part in the fortifications protecting the mouth of the river Arade along with the fort of Santa Catarina that is straight opposite on the bank above Portimão's modern marina. 

(That's Portimão in the distance)

After enjoying our stroll on the beach we walked over the hill to the other side of Ferragudo. On our way we had a nice view of the other side of  Castelo de São João do Arade from the other beach in Ferragudo, Angrinha. 

We walked along some narrow cobblestone streets to the town square and saw some beautiful hand painted Portuguese tiled homes.  

We picked our spot on the square which in the days to come, became our favorite place to hang out.

I ordered my two new favorite's....a Galão and a Pastel de Nata!  Remember the Pastel de Nata is that great little tart filled with custard I had the morning before.  A Galão is a Portuguese hot drink made of espresso and foamed milk served in a tall glass.  I don't like coffee, but this is made with only one-quarter coffee and three-quarters milk......YUM!

Well, Alice has just arrived and it's time for us to head up into the mountains of the Algarve.  The Monchiques!

There are so many more pictures of our morning at "Where's Debbie".  Just click on the album "A Morning Walk in Ferragudo"