March in the Algarve (Part 2)
Part 2 – Lagos
This posting will have a LOT of pictures of food and cliffs, because Lagos was rainy except for the last day.
Wednesday
Late Wednesday morning we caught a Flixbus from Tavira to Lagos, about a three-hour ride. We got into Lagos about 4pm, and started the walk to our next hotel, about 15 minutes away.
Well, those were a tough 15 minutes. One of the things I appreciate about Braga is that the city center is not hilly, certainly as compared to other Portuguese cities. Lagos city center is a port, so walking out of it to our B&B was strongly uphill for the last section. And we were dragging a suitcase. It was climb three steps up the 30-degree angled street, stop, catch our breath, repeat. But we finally got to the Dream Lagos B&B.
And was it ever worth it. The room was large and comfortable, with a nice writing space (important for me!). Like every hotel here, the bed was a little too firm and yet I slept on it well enough. The host was helpful and informative, the check-in alone was five stars. And unlike the last place, it had a huge, stocked, self-serve kitchen that was open pretty much all day. It had bread, crackers, fruit, cookies, deli meat, cheeses, coffee, tea … and FRESH EGGS.
After congratulating ourselves on our great choice, and lying down until our legs recovered, we set out to explore. Unlike the sunny days in Tavira, we had three straight days of rain, on and off, in Lagos. So a lot of our sightseeing was walking until we were tired of the rain, then ducking into a place to have coffee or a meal. As a result it took us about three days to see the city center. Outside of this historical district, Lagos is definitely newer and more built up. My first impression is that it shows its proximity to Lisbon AND it’s retiree appeal by having a lot more apartment buildings. It felt a bit like a southwestern American city for a moment, but it’s probably more analogous to a small British city.
So we stuck to the historical city center for our visit. We stopped for dinner at Nah Nah Bah which appears to be famous for its burgers. I think it’s famous for its marketing, the burgers were just okay. Good, but overrated.
Thursday/Friday
Because of the rain we spent the next two days fairly quietly, wandering the old town, ducking into coffee shops when the rain tired us out, and trying (unsuccessfully) to see the interior of the old church. The first time we tried it was closed. The second time we tried there was a long line, as everybody was trying to get out of the rain.
During a relatively dry spell, we managed to visit the seafront. Signs explained that the 14th century walls and old fort surrounded a 15th/16th century village that grew up inside it, presumably after the Moors were forced out.
We got our first taste of the relatively craggy shoreline in this part of the Algarve.
Time for some food porn! On Thursday we walked out from the Dream B&B to the only Portuguese restaurant within 5 minutes walk. It was a bit of an adventure finding it, as it was dark, and the building was up some steps at one edge of a mall-like building. We went up the steps and tried a door marked Papa Cheio. That was the kitchen, apparently, they directed us to keep going around. So we got to a left-hand turn into a dark, abandoned-looking corridor, then another turn to face a wall, then stepped around the wall to discover one edge of a parking lot, and finally some very obscure doors which were the entrance to the restaurant.
And it was worth it. The guy who ran it was a bit of a character. The menu was on a white board with many types of fish listed in Portuguese, and when I asked what was good, he pretty much just waved at the fish counter with a raised eyebrow. Okay, fine, maybe a bit of a stupid question. I ended up pointing at the squid because I recognized it. I shouldn’t have had the usual couvert (term covering the bread, olives, and tuna pate they bring you at the start), the meal was huge and delicious.
Marty bucked the trend and had chicken. I had something called Toblerone cake for dessert, which was … surprisingly good, and totally recognizable as Toblerone. The entire meal was €49.10 for bread, olives, water, wine, chicken, squid, and a shared dessert. Phenomenal. And the Algarve is the expensive part of Portugal!
Because Friday was even rainier it involved more coffee and a tapas place for a snack. And oh my Gawd, do I wish we’d gone to Casa do Prego for a full meal, because the two tapas plates I had were outstanding.
It was a chorizo, bursting with flavour and ACTUALLY spicy, with caramelized onion, and sweet whole-grain mustard, and the second was prawns in garlic ginger sauce. I used all my bread to make sure I didn’t sacrifice ANY of that sauce. Simple, like good tapas often is, but just Packed. With. Flavour. Not cheap, which is also like good tapas, once you add up a bunch of small plates. But I recommend this place in Lagos.
I don’t have a picture, but Indigo Bar across the street had excellent coffee, was bright and cheerful, and was a great place for people-watching while it rained. We noticed a lot of young people with backpacks, and yep, there was the hostel a few doors down. I remember our hostel days. Which were just last year, we stayed in one on our scouting trip. While basic and sometimes shared, they are usually in great locations in the center of things.
Saturday
Finally a sunny day! We planned our cliff walk for Saturday to take full advantage of the one nice day we had in Lagos. We took an Uber to the farthest point by the lighthouse, then walked up part of the west side and back.
March in the Algarve was just about perfect. This day was 16C, sunny with light cloud, and I was still moderately comfortable in jeans. This was a Saturday, and the first nice one in a while, so we expected some crowd but it was not too bad. I will need to create better backup rain plans, especially without a car, but I think I will keep visiting here in March.
We had overpriced (yet quite good) coffee and water at the lighthouse, then walked along the east side back into town.
I picked out a lunch spot based on reviews and we headed there. Another winner! Sadly, no pictures, I was pretty hot and tired … but the Restaurante and Bar Pinhão had THE best tomato soup I’ve ever had, I am not joking. I couldn’t believe it, because the place was predominantly Indian food. Marty had the prawn curry lunch special and I had the soup and an octopus salad.
We chilled out at the hotel for the afternoon, and then for our last evening decided to splurge with a relatively fancy restaurant (I wanted to dress up a bit). So we dined at the Restaurante Dom Vinho. In what is apparently a theme with us, we had some trouble finding the entrance, because although the dining tables are clearly viewable through the window, the entrance was through the bar at the back. Part of our difficulty is that we eat way earlier than the local Portuguese. Restaurants tend to open at 7 and 7:30 and we’re often the first ones there. The locals don’t come in until 8 or 8:30 or 9. So restaurants look like they aren’t open yet, and there’s usually no one by the entrance to signal that we’re in the right spot.
Anyway, we got in, we got seated. The place was full of bottles of wine and port on shelves, and old barrels with various logos served as room dividers. So, pretty much everything you’d expect in a fancy restaurant of a certain type. I had the grilled mushrooms to start, which I inhaled so fast I forgot to take a picture. How can you go wrong with grilled mushrooms? They had a delightfully crunchy fond and light garlic glaze, just YUM.
I followed that with the sirloin steak and pepper sauce, with steamed vegetables on the side. I don’t tend to cook steak at home so it is often my choice when we eat out. I have noticed that steaks are covered with more sauce here in Portugal than I’m used to. That’s not a problem, it is a feature of the dining. I believe it’s because beef here tends to be grass-fed and pasture-raised, and therefore is tougher than North American beef. I’m fine with that, since I had a meat CSA for years and know that grass-fed beef is less tender, but also more flavorful. And if you’ll excuse me the moment of politics, how cattle feedlots operate in the U.S. is a horror show, and I’ll take slightly tougher meat any day.
Anyway, my steak was tasty.
Marty had gnocchi:
The wine was outstanding, a Douro reserve with a blend of Touriga Nacional (a dominant grape around here), Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Francisca. Lightly tannic, that went well with the steak, and a subtle fruit finish. I highly recommend it:
And then we both had the almond cake for dessert. It was warm with a texture like bread pudding, with sweet notes from the cream and cinnamon, and the crunch of toasted almonds:
The Portuguese do dessert WELL, I can tell you.
Sunday
And finally it was time to go home. We bid farewell to the Dream, which I’d really like to use again. This was a long travel day, 3.5 hours on the bus from Lagos to Lisbon, a gap in Lisbon where we got some lunch near the station, and then another 4ish hours on the train to Braga. I had insisted on the train over the bus for this last stretch, as I wanted better leg room and enough space to use my laptop. The only disadvantage to this is that the train station is a 25 minute walk to our apartment over the bus station’s 10 minute walk. But now I’m just complaining about the quality of the gravy in my life, so I’ll stop.
And I’ll leave you with some amusing sights from the voyage home. There are some large seabirds in the Algarve region that will build nests in interesting places. I will call them herons until someone corrects me, because they don’t look like pelicans. I spotted one nest in Lagos on the top of an old chimney (hopefully defunct!):
But the even more amusing sight was from the bus, where these birds built entire communities of nests on power scaffolds:
And apologies for the fuzzy image, but snapping this from a speeding bus wasn’t easy!
And that’s it for the Algarve. It was pretty terrific to visit in March, and I know I’ll be going back to Tavira for a more in-depth trip. Given the warmth in March and the cost compared to northern Portugal, I know we made the right decision not to move there. But it is popular for some excellent reasons, and I love being just a day away.
See you on the next trip!
