The weather forecast on our last day in Portugal was not ideal for enjoying our Algarve beach resort: chilly, breezy, and drizzly So we decided to bundle up and hit the road in our rental car to explore the coastal region.Our first stop was the Fortaleza Sagres (Cape Sagres Fort). King Henry the Navigator built a school here in the 1400s to train seafarers including Vasco de Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. Later the fort also served to protect the coast from North African raiders. The wind was so strong that it threatened to blow us over the edge of the cliffs! We sought refuge in the chapel where sailors prayed before venturing across the dark sea, and then tried to walk along the windswept path to the point but halfway there we yielded to the wind and picked our way back among the sturdy spring wildflowers clinging to the rocks.
We piled back in the car and hit the road toward Lagos. After a few days enjoying a beachy slow pace, we were keen to check out a larger town (one that Rick Steves describes as "as enjoyable as a big-city resort can be"). We parked along the waterfront and wandered into the jumble of pedestrian streets, starting near the big indoor food market. It was mid-morning, but the kids were already hungry. Most of the proper restaurants weren't open for lunch yet, so we found a coffee shop and ordered ham and cheese sandwiches for the kids and cafe lattes for Mohit and I. The morning was mostly just overcast and periodically drizzly, but we waited out a short period of heavy rain in the coffee shop.Afterwards we let the kids lead the way to explore the cobblestoned streets while the sun gradually came out.
We had passed a carousel at the edge of a plaza called Praca Gil Eanes early in our exploring, but it was shuttered in the morning. When we came back out into the plaza we found it open. The kids were thrilled to top off our Lagos visit with a ride and some ice cream from a nearby kiosk.
We hopped back into the car with one more stop in mind before heading back to our resort. We'd seen amazing photos of wave-splashed cliffs on all the tour ads while walking in town, so we navigated toward Ponte de Piedade to check it out in person. At the edge of town we found a lighthouse at the point, with a dirt parking lot and a cluster of small cafes overlooking the steep drop over pinnacles of rock carved by the waves. We got out to walk around and chase a kitty hiding in the bushes. My mama instincts had a death grip on our 3-year-old's hands! It suddenly started to rain heavily so I dashed back to the car with our little one, but the boys insisted on staying out in the rain to climb down and back up some stairs for a particularly scenic view. They piled back into the car with us, soaking wet and laughing.
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