Daytrip to Albufeira
Caitríona: Today Morgan, Olwen and I took a trip into Albufeira, being Saul-less because he is back in Ireland for a day, getting his passport application signed by a guard!
We have deliberately avoided the main tourist hotspots during our time in Portugal because of Covid, so it was interesting to see this town, having been on the outskirts for months. Albufeira was a fishing village, until tourism became the major industry. It now has a population of approximately 40,000 people, but this rises to around 300,000 in the summer – yikes 👀
As with so many other towns on the Iberian Peninsula, Albufeira traces its history back through centuries and millennia. The area is thought to have been occupied in prehistoric times, and the Romans referred to it as ‘Baltum’ when they were based here.
The name ‘Albufeira’ comes from the Arabic ‘Al-buhera’ which means Castle of the Sea. The Moors built strong fortifications around the settlement to protect it from invasion.
Here we are ready to tuck into a delicious lunch – look at the beautiful tilework at the bar area 💙
It was a blustery day. Here we are in the old part of town, quite high up, looking down over the beach area.
This bar, Portas da Villa, is located on Rua da Bateria where one of the gates to the fortified city once stood. The three brothers who run this bar were born and raised in this building and have decorated it from top to bottom using shells from the beach.
We saw sculptures at the seafront. Once again, as so often across Portugal, the artwork here celebrates the work of everyday people; in this case, making fishing nets by hand.
More decorated electrical boxes!
The old town is quite high up on the cliff tops, but there’s a lift from that point right down to the beach, so we trekked up to catch the lift down and back up again, of course!
