Portugal Pics (3) - Algarve, Sagres Area

On New Years Eve day we took an hour bus ride from our base in Espiche to Sagres. Unlike Espiche there was quite a lot written about Sagres in our guidebook. This town was the location of the famous navigation and map making school of Henry the Navigator. Henry was the 3rd child of King John the 1st of Portugal. Born in the late 1300s Henry is credited with being responsible for beginning many of the worldwide sailing explorations departing from Europe.

Sagres is the most southernly town in Portugal and the one located the most southwest in all of continental Europe. Prior to the long exploratory trips of European vessels in the 1400s many thought that the high steep cliffs of Sagres marked the edge of the world! Here is a picture of me at a beach area that even in the winter was teaming with surfers.













Today it seems that Sagres is a tourist town that is a sort of mecca for surfers, with many surf shops and schools offering lessons. Aside from the beautiful seascape and the exotic peninsula where the remains of the Navigation School remain, I can't recommend Sagres as a place to visit. The restaurants were surprisingly expensive, even through it was OFF season. We were also frustrated by the fact we could find NO supermarket, or market of any kind there to buy food. Apparently (after 3 people gave us directions to the supermercado) the local market had gone bankrupt recently! Sheesh!

On top of that was our non-so-pleasant experience with a local bus driver. We took a local bus from Sagres out to Cabo Sao Vicente. Cabo Sao Vicente is the most southwesterly spot in Portugal and the site of a lighthouse and a spectacular cliff area. The bus going out there in the off-season only runs once every 3 hours. The bus drives 20 minutes (6 kilometers) out to the lighthouse area parking then waits for 30 minutes, and takes the passengers back to Sagres. Since the lighthouse is not open this time of year 30 minutes is enough time to wonder around a take a few pictures. Like these that we took :-)
































On the day we went the bus drive drove quite fast and we were 2 of only 3 passengers on the bus. We got out took some pictures and explored the area always keeping the bus in sight. After about 15-20 minutes we heard the toot-toot sound of a bus horn. There were also a lot of tourist busses there and we figured it was one of those buses. After another couple of minutes we heard the toot-toot sound again, but since our bus was not due to leave for another 7-8 minutes we did not pay much attention. When we looked up again we saw the public bus was LEAVING! I was pissed! He knew there would be no other bus for 3 hours, and with Sagres 6 km away it was a long way back on foot. I was SO angry! What a jerk! Add to this the dark dark clouds slowly creeping closer to the shore and it was not a pleasant picture.

So, after a fair bit of swearing, we started walking back to Sagres. After about a kilometer a tour bus stopped and we though, oh maybe they feel bad for us (we were the ONLY pedestrians around) and would offer us a ride. Nope, they were stopping because it was a good picture spot! ARgh! The upside is we were able to take a few pretty pictures along the way, in between rain showers (fortunately I had my rain gear with me) like this one with Morten braving the high surf.











I think all in all it took about an hour and a half to get back to Sagres. We ate our packed lunch along the way. After we went to the Navigator School (very cool area, unfortunately I ran out of film, again!) we began the supermercado search, which turned up nothing - and involved another few kilometers of walking. Fortunately, I remembered seeing a big supermercado at one of the bus stops on the way. When we got on the bus to go back to Espiche (which ran once per hour) it was the same bus driver as in the morning. When I got on I said "Ecomercado internationale?", he smiled and knew just where we meant. Finally! We got off the bus in the right place and got plenty of food to make a tasty New Years Dinner - too bad we both passed out from the long day of walking (probably 10-12 km all together) before 11 pm. Oh well, it was still a good start to the new year, now that we had the Sagres was behind us in 2009!