Day 18 Wednesday 24th April


 Lately, it's been noisy in our room in the morning as we can hear every movement of the people upstairs. Very movement. But today is quiet. New tourists we reckon. So it's a breeze to have breakfast and get ready to go out early. We are going to take the train to a few small towns today. We never got around to hiring a car because it was 3 days minimum and we only wanted two days. Oh well the train has been fine.

First, we go to Vila Real De Santo Appolliona which is on the border of Portugal and Spain. When we finish walking our way through the grimy streets we end up on the boulevarde that follows the Guardina river. The border. we can see Spain on the other side. The boulevard is quite nice to walk along. Sunshine, boat, fishing that kind of thing. Very clean. Halfway down we diverge into the town and check out the square. It's a nice place but not a highlight.

We jump back on the train and head to Tavira. It's got a reputation as the prettiest town on the Algarve and yes it is quite lovely to look at. A nice bridge and a river and it's well set out and it's probably our favourite small town we have seen. We have lunch there and Liz has a vegetarian sandwich which is full of just about everything. Lettuce, corn, apples, mangos, tomatoes and more. Totally bizarre. My ham and cheese toast is squashed to the point of being crisp bread and is incredibly crunchy. But hey they both taste fine.

We walk around and end up it a splendid cathedral garden. We had to walk up a hill for the first time since we came down to the Arlgaves. A nice day exploring small bits of Portugal and then we make our way back to the apartment stopping at a Lidl Super to get some chocolate for later.

After a short break, we went down to the Marina and had a burger and fries as the sun set over the harbour. It was lovely however there was a chill in the air. There is a concert on the foreshore that we are going to come back to but we need to put on some warmer clothes. I get to wear the beanie I brought for the first time over here. and a jacket!

Down at the concert, we are told it starts at 9pm but there are only about 50 people there so it looks like a non-event. But we are running on Portuguese time and the artist Diogo Piçarra comes on at 10pm. And by 10pm a few thousand people are covering the foreshore. Turns out he has just had a Number 1 album here and won Portugal The Voice about 4 years ago. He is their biggest pop star! The crowd love him. Unfortunately, it's not really our kind of music but it holds our interest for a few songs. I walk Liz back to the apartment after three songs then I come back for a wander around.  There was lots of beer flowing, kids in the playground at 10.30pm crowds of people young and old and Diogo was doing his slower numbers which I think he's famous for. So I head back to the apartment and we finish off with another episode of Parasite.






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