Yesterday we decided to get off the trail and go all the way to the south of the country to Sagres. The town is located at the southwesternmost point of mainland Europe. Sagres is characterized by its rugged, windswept landscape of dramatic cliffs and golden beaches. From Almograve to Sagres it’s a little under 100km, about an hour and a half drive. There is no direct connection between the towns using public transit. With a couple of connections it’s doable but it would take almost an entire day if not two depending on timing. Bus routes exist but are not that frequent, with most service in both towns being go there from a larger town in the morning and comeback in the evening, making for long connection times in a larger town that might not be that interesting. Having analyzed all of the options yesterday, we concluded that taking an Uber would be the most convenient, time efficient and, obviously, costly solution. For the not paltry amount of 150€, we were driven from our Airbnb to our “resort” in Sagres.
The drive itself was nothing impressive. Our “resort” looks like an apartment in a timeshare complex from the 1990s is good enough but clearly needs some care. The receptionist walked us through the apartment in great details and he pointed out to us all of the things that are slightly broken (the patio door doesn’t stay unlocked so we could lock ourselves on our patio if we’re not careful for example). He also took the time to explain to us the basics of European living:
- the front door automatically locks behind you, please make sure you have the key with you.
- do not leave the key in the door lock on the inside, it prevents anyone from using a key from the outside and they’ll need to break the whole lock in order to get in.
- if you cook in a building and trigger the fire alarm (like burning your toasts or not starting the fan while cooking fatty food) it will cause the alarm of the nearby units to also go off.
- etc.
Karine was very patient with the dude explaining to us that water is wet. We understand that he could not assume we already knew all of this after decades of travelling to Europe. Still it’s a long list of how other people fucked up in his establishment.
Checked-in properly, we made our way to 📍Arte Bianca for a good facsimile of Neapolitan pizza, our favourite breakfast when in Italy. We then went on a recon for tomorrow. We started with coffee at 📍Picnic that did a very good job of coffee. They went very light with the cinnamon in their cinnamon buns (how they manage that considering the name is beside me) but the breading was fluffy and delicious. From there we reconned the beach with its beach chairs and parasols for rent on the 📍Praia da Mareta. It’ll be 20€ for two sunbeds and umbrella for the day, an okay deal considering the location. We paid up to 100€ for that kind of setup in prime locations. We’ll be back tomorrow for that.
By then it was past 15:00 and we were ready to start our adventure for the day: visiting the 📍Fortaleza de Sagres (Sagres’ Fortress). Its original version was built in the 15th century. It was heavily damaged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and subsequently rebuilt. The 10€ per person entrance fee isn’t really to see the rebuilt structure (which there’s preciously little to visit) but being able to walk the the 2,5 kilometres path along the promontory's cliffs and enjoy the panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean that were the reason to build the fortress there in the first place.
We went back to our apartment after that to do laundry and chill until dinner. We eat at 📍Vila Velha. Our research pointed us to that restaurant for its hearty Portuguese cuisine. The rabbit stew was recommended and it did not disappoint. We picked a grilled fish to go with that as we’re in the south, in a port town, making fish a staple of the local cuisine. Neither disappointed.
Tomorrow we’ll be channeling our inner beach bums and taking it easy in the sun.