And then it was off to the Algarve

The rest of my time in Lisbon was spent in the Algarve in the south of Portugal. My primary objective was the beach but before that, it was a full day tour of the region. Aside from the two hours it took each direction to get picked up and dropped off from the tour, it was nice to see different parts of the area.

First stop on the tour was a town called Silves which dates back to the 700s. The old part is small narrow streets that take you to the main tourist attractions - the castle and church.

The Silves castle is a Moorish one built between the 8th and 13th century. The walls are very well preserved but the interior has been turned into a modern day garden.

The interior garden

View from the wall

View of the cathedral

Sé Catedral de Silves was originally a mosque when first built by the Moors and then later converted into a cathedral. There are a number of crusaders buried in the church.

Next stop was the highest point of the Monchique mountains. It has some great views which are not justified in the photos I took. It did have a little piece of home though, rock sculptures similar to those on the Ottawa River.

After a lunch of chicken piri piri it was off to the end of the earth, or so they believed until Africa was discovered - the Cape of St. Vincent. Aside from freezing! It was stunning.

And last stop of the day was Lagos at the juncture of the Bensafrim River and the Atlantic Ocean. At one time it was the centre of the slave trade but today it is pretty much just over run by tourists - mostly British. 

After checking out a handful of sites, I opted to take a petite pause for the rest of my time in Lagos and end the tour on a relaxing note