A Romantic Love Story
We’ve fallen in love… Seriously in love… It was love at first sight as well. Here follows a very romantic love story.
It all started as we crossed the bridge into Portugal. We were so very excited! We haven’t travelled in Portugal before and earlier in this trip, we had decided not to visit on this occasion as we didn’t think we had enough time. But as always with our plans… They change. And this time they changed with the weather. The weather was simply too good to start heading north, so we ventured into Portugal.
And are we glad that we did! We have fallen in Love with Portugal! Villa Real de Santo Antonio was our first stop; a busy aire, not very pretty at all but practical and convenient. There was a restaurant next to it which is where we were introduced to Portuguese hospitality and friendliness, and the beautiful bbq’d fish.
It was here where our love story began… We visited the little town and we found all the people were smiling, friendly and keen to chat to us. The food at the restaurant was simple but so fresh and beautiful. We were loving every second!
As we carried on our travels, via Cacela Velha to Tavira and Fuzeta, we kept finding the same. On top of that, everywhere we went was just so beautiful! The towns are pretty, with beautiful tiled buildings in all sorts of colours. The coastline is stunning and ever-changing.
In Fuzeta, our Romantic Love Story took an extra romantic turn with a lovely meal to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We loved this quiet little fishing village with its lagoons protected from the ocean by the sandy islands.
From Fuzeta, we moved on to Loulé to experience Portuguese Carnaval. Loulé has one of the most famous Carnaval celebrations of Portugal and the town was very busy! Luckily, the council had organised a great space for motorhomes to park (and there were many!). The Parade certainly didn’t disappoint and it was a colourful, bright and vibrant as promised.
On our way out of Loulé, the weather changed and with the clouds and rain came the tragic part of this Romantic Love Story. After a day in Armação de Pera to do laundry we moved on to the beaches near Lagoa, where we walked from Praia de Albandeira to Praia de Benagil. We were enjoying our hike along this stunning coastline, marvelling at the rockformations, taking plenty of photos. We decided to fly the drone to see more of this beautiful coast from another perspective. This is when disaster struck… Or rather, where the drone rotor blades struck rock and it crashed into the wild Atlantic… High Drama! And two very, very unhappy and sad campers… We decided to head to an aire in Silves to lick our wounds…
After a few cloudy, rainy days, we had recovered from the drama just about enough to travel on. The sun was back out, and like criminals returning to the scene of the crime we returned to Praia de Marinha for another look at the coast in the sunshine. We didn’t want to stay there however after the drama from a few days before, so we moved on to Alvor.
Alvor provided the ‘making up’ part of our Romantic Love Story. Although we were still sad about the loss of the drone, the coast here was even more beautiful, if that’s even possible. The weather was beautiful too, so we spent a few days here, walking, exploring and even a day out on the water on the SUPs. We also visited Lagos and Ponta da Piedade, which although very touristy and busy, is very much worth a visit with more stunning sights along the coast!
Time waits for no man however, and we had to keep moving. Sagres was next, where the coastline changed again from impressive rock formations to sheer, grey cliffs and lush greenery and our Romantic Love Story took an exciting & scary turn. A surfer’s paradise with a number of beautiful beaches and bays. We visited the Lighthouse where people were ‘slacklining’. This means they had suspended a line, about 1 inch wide, between two points on the cliffs over the ocean and they were walking across it like on a tightrope… Heart-stopping and jaw-dropping!
Now that we were at one of the furthest corners of Europe, it was time to seriously start thinking about heading north. With just under 4 weeks left before we have our tunnel crossing booked, it’s time to start making some miles. We drove to Sines in one go with every intention to keep moving, however our Romantic Love Story holds one more twist. A happy meeting with Karen and Miles from Motoroaming in Porto Covo saw us staying one more day on the south west coast of Portugal, which again provided nothing but stunning scenes and a wonderful day with new friends!
Here our Romantic Love Story draws to a close, as we drove off into the sunset, through lush, green Portuguese countryside of Alentejo to the ancient city of Evora, full of history going back as far as 7000 years, with megalithic structures, a roman temple and aquaduct and ancient churches dotted along the cobbles streets.
With Evora as our last Portuguese stop, there is no doubt about it, that even the high drama at Benagil cannot dampen our newfound love for Portugal and we’re already excited about coming back later this year!
The details of all our overnight stops can be found here on our Facebook page.
Ahh so glad you had such an amazing time in Portugal, that coast is stunning. Sorry about the drone though! ? Lovely post x