To the End of the World!

Waking up one day and realizing we were halfway through our trip (!), we decided to cut things a little short in Spain and hopped the next bus out of town to the southern Portugese coast. It seemed a good idea to take advantage of the last few days of the pre-tourist season. The Algarve region has become widely known for its excess of sunburned Brits, Germans and backpacking Americans, and we didn't take long to follow suit.

Our first stop was Tavira, Portugal, a perfectly sleepy little fishing village on the edge of the Algarve. No American college kids to be seen anywhere, but plenty of Brits. Two days there led us to Salema, a true Algarve town. Lulled into complacency by wonderful accommodations, beautiful beaches with rental cabanas and cheap food, we were still there five days later, complete with requisite sunburns.

We did find a few hours to take a daytrip to Sagres, the southwestern most tip of Europe, a spot formerly thought to be the end of the world (along with, like, four other places in Europe...) where Prince Henry the Navigator founded his School of Navigation. As you can imagine, one of us was very interested, one a little less so.

Dragging ourselves back on the road, we've moved on to Sintra, outside of Lisbon. We're off to Lisbon tomorrow, 15 June. Sintra's been amazing - full of castles, forests and Moorish ruins, but where in Europe isn't?