Albufeira - Praia da Marinha (EU top)

For Monday, Cams found a really nice beach. Praia da Marinha was amongst one of the most beautiful beaches of Europe and only a 30min drive away, so we had to try this !

Fortunately, we discover that our airbnb owner (called Diogo) had a frigo box so we could bring a fresh salad for lunch and perhaps even our cava for the evening ! So we prepared the full frigo box and off we went.

Because of works, we had to park the car on top of the street and walk the whole end downwards (about 1km). Going down was ok, but this would be interesting going back up when returning later from our beach day. Arriving at the view point, we enjoyed a good view from the top of the rocks. Wauw !! Time to get down and discover this secret beach. We were surprised how few visitors the beach had. Probably because it was October and also Covid (by then Belgium declared Algarve region red). There was a tiny restaurant and 1 bathroom, but because of the few tourists, everything was manageable and we even found a spot closeby the rocks and shadow for our frigo box. That day the wind was very strong, so the waves were really high. I was a scared chicken that never went swimming, however Cams had more balls and took a dive once in a while. I was listening the whole day to my podcast about the cold war (“geschiedenis for herbeginners”) and enjoyed the sun.

Small downside: my right eye was suffering a lot from wind, sun, sunscreen and salt water. So I had many difficulties to keep it open. Later that day I went for eyedrops and everything was better. I‘ve learned now that oily sunscreen is not the perfect idea for my face. However, I was still so grateful for this amazing day and company with Cams. Such a dream to be on this idyllic beach with few people. Thank you Portugal !

In the evening, it was time for our last dinner in Portugal 202. We went to the restaurant O Alagar, more inwards the land. We felt like eating a steak the both of us, which is very rare for me. First we had some olive bread and burrata, followed by a rare steak with pepper sauce. We ordered a bottle of white wine (fruity and local) but we couldn’t finish it, so we decided to take it home with us for later. Funny fact: we never drank that bottle later at home, because we were too tired. However we managed to chat for 2hours. That’s what best friends are for I guess.Read more