Time to move down to Tavira

It really doesn’t take long to pack up and move if you are organised, and so it was that we left our little apartment in Lisbon fairly early. Using the parking station (14 euro/day) was expensive, but at least the car was safe.

Once out of the car park though it became really, really difficult. Because so many of the streets are close together it becomes difficult to know which one the GPS is telling you to take, and so we went round and round a few times. In the end, at one intersection, I looked and looked and pretty well closed my eyes and put the foot down and hoped for the best!

Eventually we ended up on the A2 and things calmed down. The drivers here are pretty good, and much better mannered than Australians. However, they do drive much faster. On the freeway, signposted to 120 kph, I had to put cruise control on to 135 kph before other cars only passed me slowly. At 120 kph they flew past, and quite a few of them had to have been doing 160 kph. Interestingly we didn’t see ONE equivalent of our Highway Patrol or roadside radar, and only one time when there might have been an accident.

Tavira was 300 kms down the road, and about 230 of those kilometres were on the tollway. Ouch! $32 later we were free to travel on the local roads, only to find that they photographed your number plate and indicated that a toll was due. Because we don’t have an e-tag and have a Spanish registered hire car we have no idea what will happen because there is nowhere to pay.

We arrived in Tavira and found that the streets where we had to go are really, really narrow, and the GPS struggled. Eventually, by reversing back up a one-way street I was able to turn into our little one. I nearly took the side of the car out though, and it was only because Robyn saw it happening and screamed that we avoided an expensive sound.

We were really early, so headed down to the riverside for a coffee and sent a text to Carla letting her know we were here and would meet her there at her convenience. 20 minutes later we met her at the apartment.

The place has been well renovated/built, and is very tidy and well equipped, but soooo small! The main point is that it has a conservatory, which is accessed via an external spiral staircase, and we were bemused by it. It is almost pointless, unless you are having a fight and want to spend time apart!

Anyway, we unpacked, went and bought some groceries, and settled in for the night.Read more