Strangely enough, staying in the middle makes it easy to explore the edges. One of the days we took a journey to the East of Algarve. This is the side where Portugal has borders with Spain. We left hotel pretty early planning to beat the traffic. Our plans were rudely breached by the fact there was no traffic in Algarve at all. I have to mention that I’ve been told by many that driving in Portugal is difficult, but the only difficulty I encountered was the loneliness on the roads. I don't think that locals are very fond of driving around, it looks like they prefer an extended siesta, spreading it lazily throughout the whole day and the only traffic tends to be created by tourists in tourist season. Since I’ve been there outside of season, this wasn’t a problem at all.
Tavira.
So it was early morning, really early, around 9am, well ahead of all the plans, when we arrived to Tavira – a charming little town to the east of Algarve. Sometimes they call it the Venice of Algarve. Tavira actually is slightly away from the Atlantic coast, if you can consider 3 kilometres to be “away” enough. One of the main attractions in Tavira considered to be a “Roman” bridge, built in 12 century and survived the 1755 earthquake. To me personally Tavira associates more with…"elegant emptiness"…well, when we were there, there were hardly any people on the streets; we had the whole town to ourselves! We climbed the ruins of an old fortress – marvellous hill-top views over the whole town, we roamed some charming curved and narrow streets, marvelling at the low-rise architecture and ridiculous amount of churches for such a small town – there are 37 churches there! In my memory Tavira will always stay as a gentle peaceful place, a perfect gateway from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Algarve invaded by the tourists.
Vila Real Sant Antonio
Went there after Tavira - further down to the East. A relatively young city – built after the Eathquake in 1755. And when we were there, I've got an impression it is still in the process - lots of construction sites all over the place. The city is situated next to the Guadiana river and a beautiful bridge that connects Portugal with Spain. There is also a ferry busily cruising back and forward to the other side of the river – Andalusia little town of Ayamonte (which we visited too, by the way, but more of Spain – later) In Vila Real we were greeted by the local orchestra. Apparently, when we arrived, they were having a parade or something, made us feel so important…as much as this city was charmingly nice indeed, it didn’t leave much memories other then being unnaturally clean and very bright.
Castro Marim
Castro Marim is a peculiar village, in about 2-3 kilometres from the Spanish boarder. Sleepy lies between two hills, adorned with the robust fortification on the hilltop of each. If Tavira has too many churches for its size, Castro Marim has too many fortresses. Castro Marim Castle and Fort São Sebastião. The first one is the oldest – was built somewhere in 12th century by Moors. Then, of course, it was taken over by Portuguese and reinforced and for a while has been used as head quarters of the Order of Christ, created to substitute the Templar Order. In the end of all the reinforcement works, Castro Marim became a castle within a castle. In nowadays it appears rather deserted and relatively ruined - you have to have a good imagination to build up the image around the walls. The other castle - Fort São Sebastião was built on the opposite hilltop somewhere in 15th century. Together both castles provided a military stronghold in the times of Crusades. Of course now they are yet another tourist attraction of the area. Being there out of season had the advantage of being the only visitors in the castle, in a way this felt like travelling back in time, walking down the windy passages of a ghost fortress…
Tavira.
So it was early morning, really early, around 9am, well ahead of all the plans, when we arrived to Tavira – a charming little town to the east of Algarve. Sometimes they call it the Venice of Algarve. Tavira actually is slightly away from the Atlantic coast, if you can consider 3 kilometres to be “away” enough. One of the main attractions in Tavira considered to be a “Roman” bridge, built in 12 century and survived the 1755 earthquake. To me personally Tavira associates more with…"elegant emptiness"…well, when we were there, there were hardly any people on the streets; we had the whole town to ourselves! We climbed the ruins of an old fortress – marvellous hill-top views over the whole town, we roamed some charming curved and narrow streets, marvelling at the low-rise architecture and ridiculous amount of churches for such a small town – there are 37 churches there! In my memory Tavira will always stay as a gentle peaceful place, a perfect gateway from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Algarve invaded by the tourists.
Vila Real Sant Antonio
Went there after Tavira - further down to the East. A relatively young city – built after the Eathquake in 1755. And when we were there, I've got an impression it is still in the process - lots of construction sites all over the place. The city is situated next to the Guadiana river and a beautiful bridge that connects Portugal with Spain. There is also a ferry busily cruising back and forward to the other side of the river – Andalusia little town of Ayamonte (which we visited too, by the way, but more of Spain – later) In Vila Real we were greeted by the local orchestra. Apparently, when we arrived, they were having a parade or something, made us feel so important…as much as this city was charmingly nice indeed, it didn’t leave much memories other then being unnaturally clean and very bright.
Castro Marim
Castro Marim is a peculiar village, in about 2-3 kilometres from the Spanish boarder. Sleepy lies between two hills, adorned with the robust fortification on the hilltop of each. If Tavira has too many churches for its size, Castro Marim has too many fortresses. Castro Marim Castle and Fort São Sebastião. The first one is the oldest – was built somewhere in 12th century by Moors. Then, of course, it was taken over by Portuguese and reinforced and for a while has been used as head quarters of the Order of Christ, created to substitute the Templar Order. In the end of all the reinforcement works, Castro Marim became a castle within a castle. In nowadays it appears rather deserted and relatively ruined - you have to have a good imagination to build up the image around the walls. The other castle - Fort São Sebastião was built on the opposite hilltop somewhere in 15th century. Together both castles provided a military stronghold in the times of Crusades. Of course now they are yet another tourist attraction of the area. Being there out of season had the advantage of being the only visitors in the castle, in a way this felt like travelling back in time, walking down the windy passages of a ghost fortress…
