Algarve coast of Portugal — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

We wanted to visit Portugal while we were on the Iberian peninsula, but didn’t have enough time to explore the country like we’d like to, so we settled on spending several days on the southern coast, before driving up the sparsely populated and rarely visited (by tourists) eastern half. We saved Lisbon, Porto and the Duero River for a return visit.

This was the view from our balcony the first morning:

We headed west to visit the southwestern-most point in Europe, Cap St. Vincente, where Prince Henry the Navigator (in the 15th century) reportedly had a school for disseminating knowledge of the seas, utilizing information gleaned from sailors returning from the New World.

Along the way, we checked out some beautiful beaches and coves:

It was pretty bleak on the point -

… but the water was gorgeous!

Interestingly, there were men fishing off the cliffs -

I also wanted to check out some of the western coast of Portugal…

… which is renowned for surfing.

Back at the little town we were staying in, the moon rose over it, giving a pretty shine -

I had done some research ahead of time (no…really??), and found that there was a 6 km trail along the shore. We set out early one morning to tackle it (out and back).