Portugal

We arrived in Portugal with a high level of anxiety knowing it was our last stop. We picked up the rental car in Lisbon and headed 3 hours south to the area of Portugal known as the Algarve and a sleepy little fishing village called Salema. Here the local fishermen get up every morning, haul their boats into the water and return late morning with their catch which they sell to the local residents and restaurants. The rest of the day they spend tending their nets, sitting around telling stories, smoking little cigars and drinking vino. It seems this ritual has been practiced here for decades.




We were staying at a small B&B on a hill overlooking the ocean and about a block walk from the beach in the smallest room we had seen on our entire trip. It was all good!


After the beautiful mountains of Switzerland, the beach and the ocean were a great place to just sit, relax and reflect on our trip while contemplating how to keep this from ending and Salema was the perfect beach village to do it. We had planned on taking some day trips to the other towns around Salema but we settled back here and got so comfortable that we decided we had absolutely no reason to leave.

We got up every morning had breakfast and just sat on the beach. There were no hikes, no tours, no driving, no sightseeing, nothing to do but gaze at the ocean and read our books. What a contrast from everywhere else! The weather in the Algarve was literaly the same every day and they tell us this is the way it is from June on; sunny, dry and not a cloud in the sky.







Main street Salema is a narrow, one block street with a few stores,










open air restaurants and bars opening up to a plaza on the beach on one side with some hotels and a few more restaurants and cafes there. It was a good 5 minute walk from one end to the other. A real Margaritaville where you really could just get wasted away....... We actually went so brain dead, we forgot the day we were supposed to check out.


John the owner of the B&B asked us what we were doing that day and Tom replied, going to the beach. He asked what about after that, and Tom replied, nothing special. He then asked "you know you are checking out this morning?". Threw us for a loop, thank God they had our room available for another night!



The next day when we finally had to leave Salema, we drove up the coast towards Lisbon and spent the night in the town of Villa Nova De Milfontes in another hotel right off the beach.



We had our last dinner of the trip watching a great sunset from a restaurant overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with a final toast to the whole trip with a glass of local Portugeese wine.


It's amazing, after all the years of dreaming, thinking and planning, not only did we really get to experience this trip but it's actually over. The experiences we had and the people we met were all overwhelming and wonderful. You truly realize what a small world it is and how everyone is connected sharing a lot of the same interests, concerns and dreams regardless of where we live. As the saying goes, the world is a beautiful place.

We thank everyone who traveled with us by reading the blog and for all your good thoughts and prayers. We definitely missed family and friends and for that reason it was tough to be away this long.

We realize this trip might not be for everyone but, for the two of us; would we do it again? could we do it again?......Tomorrow! And we're both looking forward to tomorrow!

As we like to say, It's all good.............