Month: February 2016

Faro to Lisbon

Our train from Faro to Lisbon today was at 2:00 so we had a leisurely morning. Breakfast, read for a while then went for a walk. It was in the 60s and windy. This is the first time I’ve worn a short sleeve shirt.

 

It was a three hour train ride. Very comfortable through beautiful country.

 

 

Our hotel in Lisbon was about a five minute walk from the train station. We will be in Lisbon for 5 nights so I am glad it is a great hotel.

We had another delicious dinner tonight around the corner from the hotel. I had octopus lagareiro style which I think.basically meant cooked in olive oil. I’ve never had a big octopus like this before. It was tender and very tasty.

 

Duke had fried fish with a banana and passion fruit sauce. We almost always trade plates half way through so I can attest that his was divine too.
For desert we had what turned out to be like a cream brûlée.

Faro, Portugal

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Our first stop today was the train station to buy our tickets for the train to Lisbon tomorrow.

Then we explored Faro.

The gate to the old town.

The former convent that houses the archaeology museum.
And the pretty old streets.
But I think the coolest thing was seeing the storks nesting on the old churches.
For dinner we ate at a seafood restaurant recommended by our hotel. They started us off with a kind of pickled carrot.

 

Then we had the mixed tapas.

For the main course we shared a local kind of seafood stew. I wish I had taken a picture when the tureen first arrived at our table. Large prawns were piled on top. Then the waiter mixed it all together. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It was delicious and filling. We couldn’t finish it.

 

 

Mazagón, Spain to Faro, Portugal

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Today we took a 5:30 pm bus from Helvo across the border into Portugal to the town of Faro. We had a taxi drive us from the Mazagón Parador to the Huelvo bus station. It picked us up at 3:30 so we had most of the day to continue to relax ocean front in Mazagón. As we did yesterday we went down to the beech for a walk.

We had lunch at the hotel and coffee at the bus station while waiting for the bus. That’s coffee in the glasses.

Neither Duke nor I have been to Portugal before today. In Spain I have relied primarily on Duke’s excellent Spanish. I’ve been studying a little bit of Portuguese the last couple of months but I suspect we will primarily be relying on English!

Our hotel in Faro is right on the bay overlooking the old town.

 

Tonight we had one of the best dinners so far at the restaurant on top of our hotel. The view was great too. I liked the way they served olive oil with the garlic in a spoon.

 

Duke and I shared the soup of the day and a salad of arugula, cashews, ham and oranges.

Then we also shared our main courses. Mine was chicken on top of figs, potatoes and tomatoes with an excellent sauce.

 

And Duke’s was sea bass on top of potatoes carrots and beans.

 

Mazagón

Monday, February 1, 2016

 

Today we spent the whole day relaxing at the secluded and very quiet Parador at Mazagón. They have steps down to the beech so this morning we went down and took a long walk on the beech. Other than the fishermen on their boats we were the only people in sight. The beech had a lot of beautiful seashells. The Parador is on the edge of the Doñana Nature Reserve so there were no buildings to be seen either.

 

We ate dinner at the same place as last night in our Parador.