Day 29 - day trip to Portimao & car rally in Lagos

Today the weather was cloudy in the morning but cleared for some sun in the afternoon and a high of 24C.

Portimao is the second largest city in the Algarve region. It is a seaside city with a significant port. It is a working city with a popular and nice oceanside promenade area called the Praia da Rocha. It also has a historic area that is not frequented by as many tourists as other Algarve towns.

We started our day trip by visiting some of the scenic beaches to the east of Portimao, starting close to the town of Alvor. These beaches have lots of unique sand stacks and surrounding cliffs that, depending on what the tide is, have various arches, caves, and tunnels for great exploring on foot.

After the beach exploration we went to the Portimao Museum. This was worth a visit with exhibits about the history of the city, particularly on the sardine canning industry. From there we explored the historic center of Portimao.

Easter is coming soon

Lunch at local cafe

Artwork in roundabout

Mural of famous Portugal footballers

Gale posing….

After a busy day sightseeing, how about a tasty dinner cooked by Gale……..

After this tasty meal, we were relaxing to soon call it a night, when we heard the loud noises of cars from the street outside our bedroom balcony. Upon going for a look we saw what appeared (and was) a racing car in the street below. It was about 10pm at night, so a strange time for a racing car to be out, but low and behold, there was a professional car rally happening in the streets of Lagos this evening. So we went outside and joined a large crowd in the nearby streets watching the cars do timed, individual runs around a street racing course set up for the event. It was a lot of fun to hear and watch the cars.

Here are some pictures and links to video.