Three Days in Faro

Today was a travel day, a 1 1/2 hour meandering drive on the non toll road from Lagos to Faro. The traffic wasn’t bad and we were able to see the little villages on the ocean that we had read about when making the decision to come to the Algarve.

We passed orange groves and little unmanned stands with bags of oranges for sale. Three bags for €5. It’s orange season here.

We got to the airport where we returned our Luzcar easily. It was great renting from them and we would recommend this small company. They only service the Algarve, and since we had made the big decision to rent a car to travel around Portugal more easily (btw, for the first time on our travels), we picked up a Budget car for the next month. We’ll return it when we get to Porto.

The old city of Faro is more or less 5 km away from the airport. Our first impression is that it is a bit rundown with its old buildings and graffiti. We settled into our hostel-like bnb which is a short block to the old town which we will explore tomorrow.

Our room here at Sunlight House is small but very clean and warm. It is like a dorm room for two. On the roof of the house there is a cozy indoor/outdoor terrace with cooking facilities that we can use. A full breakfast is included in the price that we pay. The owners are very kind and helpful.

We walked a short distance to a mini mart to pick up our usual cheese, salami, crackers, olives and apple for an evening meal, and found a little diner, Mama something, where we ate a late lunch. We had the daily special of several plates of food. One of mixed grilled meats, another with rice, another with French fries and a lettuce, onion and a tomato, onion and lettuce salad. Very filling for about $8 each, including a Super Bock beer.

We just chilled for the evening, read our books and made a few plans for the next three days - a day to explore the old town, a day trip out to the town of Estoi where our friends Diane and Claude stayed and another day to be planned.

We are not sure about our initial decision to stay in Faro but feel that three days will be quite long enough.

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