The Algave
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2006
1
10
Trip End
Nov 01, 2006
Faro, Silves, etc, Portugal
Monday, January 29, 2007
All very Mediterranean, (how strange a statement is that) but the architecture is all the same, no variations at all. It reminds me very much of Vietnam, I wonder if that is the French influence or which way round who influenced who. The doors of Tavira are fascinating! We purchased a collage to bring home they are wonderful and provide the only variation in colour to the houses.
Faro is another coastal town, but it does have the 'Chapel of Skulls'. this is a chapel which uses the skulls of its long dead inhabitants, monks and abbeys etc, instead of stones or rocks to make up the walls. a bit bizarre. Photo ofcourse.
Silves twenty minutes train ride inland from Faro is quaint. It has the oldest remaining structure from the "Moors" around 5th 6th century. It never ceases to amaze me how these people were able to engineer and build such complex and beautiful places, including water storage cisterns and sewage disposal tunnels. it is currently being very carefully restored.
Tavira is charming, on a river, very close to loverly beaches. The only thing that spoils it is the dog poo on the fotpaths, it is everywhere, you have to really watch where you put your feet all the time. It also has a 'camera telescope' this is a telescope using sprisms and concave parabolic mirrors which allows you to look outside 360 degrees in real time full colour. And to think it was made some 600 years ago. Truly worth seeing.
A bit of a drama getting out of this place but it was achieved and we will be leaving tomorrow 8th Oct for Bordeaux France via Seville.
