Sunday in Tavira

While having breakfast I noticed that the time on my phone was an hour earlier than my watch. It took a few minutes to work it out, but Dr Google of course was able to advise that daylight saving had ended early this morning. We are now 11 hours behind NSW and 10 hours behind Queensland (I think).

Tavira is a mixed sort of place. Where we are is obviously fairly old, while a few blocks away you can see quite modern blocks of apartments. One travel guide said that it had a population of around around 11,000, while Wikipedia said it was around 25,000. After a walk around we tend to think that the latter is nearer the mark, as there are quite a few residential areas of significant size. Alas, some of them look destined to be the slums of the future.

We headed over the river first for our morning coffee (for those who know me, this is code for one coffee and one hot chocolate). It was quite cool in the shade so we found a sunny cafe and sat down. Just after ordering, another couple came along and as all other tables were taken we invited them to join us. It turned out to be the best thing we did all day. They were Canadians who are in Portugal for a while, staying a few kilometres away and day tripping to Tavira. They were so interesting to talk to. He is retired, and doesn’t look a day over 50, but when he said that he had been a portfolio manager for high net worth individuals it made sense! Furthermore, his wife had not worked while raising their two children. In many ways we had quite a lot in common and it would have been nice to see more of them, but such is the way with holidays. They even paid for our drinks, a nice gesture.

Our walk pretty much ended our day, with reading, Scrabble, grocery shopping and generally doing nothing the order of the rest of the day. I managed to cook omelettes this evening in our “galley” with some success, only because I am not too tall.Read more