'No Track' Train Ride Around Faro

Today is overcast - the first morning without sun since we have been here. It is supposed to clear up by the afternoon but our plans have changed a bit. In the morning, we wanted to see the Bone Chapel and take the mini tourist train around Faro. In the afternoon, we wanted to take the ferry over to the Ilha Deserta (Deserted Island) in the Ria Formosa. But we changed our minds. Our morning plans were okay but we decided to spend the afternoon, making plans for the next leg of our trip to Evora.

The most macabre of Faro's attractions is the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of the Bones), a tiny ossuary chapel in the18th century Igreja (church) da Nossa Senhora do Carmo, lovingly decorated with the bones and skulls of over 1000 Carmelite monks. The chapel is intended to serve as a reminder of the simple, holy lives of the monks who once lived here and the fact that life is fleeting. An inscription over the door reads:"Para aqui a considerar que a est estado has de chegar" (Stop here and consider that you too will reach this state). We have tried to visit this chapel twice but, unfortunately, both times it was closed - once for lunch and once for a funeral.

The marina is very close by and that is where we could catch a little tourist train without tracks that would take us around the city. We already had walked most of the old town but we still enjoyed the ride and it was inexpensive. The taped narrative was in Portuguese and English but due to the noise of the vehicle on cobblestones, we really didn’t hear much. The script had been written out though and was on the seats of the cars. Good thinking. It was a fun 45 minutes of bone-shaking, bumping around - maybe not for everyone, but we liked it. Merry

An add on little story about our neighbours and a photo -

Our bnb has been renovated but is in a depressed area, but close to everything and convenient. The owners are nice young guys trying to make a go of it and have given some good recommendations. Every day we have had a different breakfast made with love. Today we had toast with marinara sauce, tomato slices and a slice of ham sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and broiled in a toaster oven. A tiny pear on the side. Coffee and a green smoothie (carrot, pineapple and spinach). On the side of the plate was a pink flower. And, there were slices of orange cake.

Not a place that we would want to stay in for longer than we are, as the bed is sagging in the middle and a little too small for two of us.

Here’s this morning’s story.

This morning we looked out the window and a lady who lives on the 2nd floor next door and who has an outdoor kitchen on her deck, opened a can of tuna and threw it down, clattering, to a meowing cat below. Then said a few endearing cat words to the cat. No one lives down below, but there are a ton of empty (probably stinky) cans down there.

The lady then hauled a little pail up, via a rope. I guess the kitty needed some fresh, clean water, as she washed the pail, filled it with water and carefully dropped it down again, while adding a few more cat endearment words.

A couple of doors away from her, another lady in her bathrobe, came out onto the balcony, which is not a kitchen but a closet as it has clothes hanging everywhere. She had let her little dog out and he dutifully ran up to the roof. In the meantime, she watered her plants and then took a broom and carefully moved a shirt up high with the broomstick. Oh, there was a parrot in a cage up there.Read more