Beja

Got up early and left the apt in Lisbon around 7:45 to catch the metro to the airport. Not many people out on a Sunday morning. Smooth sailing on the metro. Arrived airport aroun 8:55. Got the rental picked up- had a good sandwich at the airport. Took a few minutes to figure out Bluetooth on the car (in Portuguese). Left the airport trying to use GPS. Always hate leaving new airports - GPS was lagging a bit and confusing us. Finally got out of there and hit the road. We had Zips set for no toll roads but again, the lag made us miss an exit and then suddenly we were at toll booth trying to read Portuguese. No attendant. Finally threw some money at it and the gate lifted. Then we finally noticed the e-toll transponder at the top of the windshield and realized we were supppsed to be in a different lane for it to pop up. Crazy.

Once on the back roads we were all good.

As we drove south along country roads, we passed through miles and miles of cork forests. (http://portuguese-american-journal.com/portugal-names-sobreiro-its-national-tree/). You could see where the bottom half of the trees had been stripped. Also passed through some areas of olive trees.

In Vila Nova de Milfontes , we ended up by chance (thanks to Yelp), eating at a great seafood restaurant on the beach. Wonderful grilled sea bass, potatoes,salad, wine (too much wine) . I'm telling you Google Maps , Yelp, and Trip Adviser are good friends to have on the road. And it's nice to have an always available Internet connection, although that does set me back $10/day, but I have a lot of data with Verizon and that $10 is using my home data allowance, so I can use it without worrying about it.

Anyway, back in the car, we continue southward - at one point climbing into the hill town of Alijezur which has these homes perched on the side of a hill with incredibly narrow streets and 90 degree turns - once up there and in the middle of it, we wondered if we were ever going to get out!

After departing Alijezur, we headed for Lagos and landed there about 7pm. Nice property with beautiful landscaping and very nice check-in person who went out of his way to make us welcome and give us some good tips. After that - we chilled.Read more