Algarve, Portugal: Relaxing with Friends

We drove to Southern Portugal (from Sintra) and met friends at our lovely rental home near the town of Albufeira. 

Lunch stop driving South

Beach stop while driving South

These special visitors are family friends from Victoria, BC with two girls that are similar ages to our own kids. This meant that the kids could play with each other: games, ping pong, jumping waves at the beach, chatting, or playing in the pool.  The adults enjoyed several walks and runs, chatting, sharing meals, and watching the sunsets.

This was the house we rented as a group for our first 6 nights

The four girls playing in the waves

Working at the beach

We went for a walk in the hills one day, and drove through some narrow one-way streets in the nearby town of Monchique.

So happy to have a great friend visit!

The four girls, snacking on a hike in the hills

The moms had a morning outing to the castle in Silves

We rented kayaks one morning and paddled through some cave and arch formations, including the large and popular "Benagil cave" which has a hole in the roof. 

Paddling through the arches

Same arches, seen the day before on a hike above

Fun rock formations close to the town of Carvoeiro

Bushwacking through prickles to get an old geocache North of Lagos

Yummy and affordable lunch in Lagos

View of the point of Lagos

For our second 6 nights together, we drove to the community of Sagres, Portgual, which is the most SouthWestern area of Europe. We stayed at a family resort (named Martinhal) that we really enjoyed. It had a calm beach, 4 pools (two cold, two medium temperature), a spa, minigolf, 2 restaurants (we didn't eat at either of them), basketball and tennis/pickle ball, a small soccer pitch, and this games room that the kids LOVED.

Some intense air hockey

Kids learned to play 'Tetris'

 

R excited to get a hole in 1!

Some holes were REALLY hard

 We continued the trend of coastal trail hiking and running. We saw lighthouses and little fortresses. I (Meggan) was really happy to get in a lot of geocaching during this week.

Dragging J out to grab 2 important caches before sunset ended up being really fun

Jason got up early one moring and ran 50km as a training run. He enjoyed sunrise, stopped at a couple places to buy water along the way, and succeeded in a solid time and felt fit. The only bad part was that he had a fall abour 1/3 way in, which was fine at the time, but felt a bit sore from that particular fall in the next few days.

Running into sunrise

Running along beautiful coastal trail

Running past the lighthouse

Running on the beach

M and friend P getting a geocache on the coastal cliffs

M and friend S watching the waves crash into the cliffs while hiking / geocaching

The girls played with the cannons at the fortress

The fortress

One highlight was an afternoon of surf lesssons. We did this with the 'Future' School (aka 'Eco Future Surf School') in the town of Portamao. We would highly recommend this company - they were great! We stuck to the small waves and everyone had a great time. Everyone enjoyed standing up and everyone enjoyed falling down and getting hit by waves, too!

Family in wetsuits

Our two weeks in Portgual felt like vacation in so many ways. The warmth, the friends, all the fun activities. We worked a little bit here and there, but the travel here was so easy. We were in a really tourist area with options for food, English, comfort, affordable loding / activities / general cost of living. It really helped us recharge and enjoy ourselves. We didn't do much in the way of history, cities, castles, cathedrals, churches, ruins, old towns, crowds, or typical sightseeing. We had lots of time outside, lots of nature, and lots of laughs with people we love.

It was hard to say goodbye to our friends and see them head back home to Victoria soon.

But we have two more months before we go home.... more adventures to seek. Let's go!