Porches: Sun, little cloud, Quite Warm 26

Of Storks & Beaches

Yesterday after a slow start due to some low cloud and precipitation we decided to drive up to the city of Silves to have a look around. Seems it was a medieval village with some Moorish history. It also has a castle! Traffic was heavy so we trusted Google Maps to get us there. We are using the map app quite a bit as the roads here cross and crisscross again and again. Our lives would have been more challenging if we’d just stuck to the map. That said, most of the time we still just use a map. Simple and efficient. 

I took this shot crossing a bridge on the way there. I believe this effect is similar to a parallax, the same effect one sees when a meteor streaks across the night sky seemingly moving towards the edge of the horizon. 

Silves. As you can see it was cloudy, one of the few times since we arrived in Portugal. As advertised there was indeed a castle. 

There’s a gate house into the old town area. 

There was also an old church which of course was closed. Seems welcoming enough.

We had given up on seeing castle as there was a long lineup and frankly it looked much better from a distance than it did close up. However it was about this point that we began to first observe the storks. Specifically their huge nests. I’ve seen many storks and their nests over the years, but it’s still special to see it again. 

I spotted a nicer nest on top of a brick smoke stack.

There were three storks standing on the nest. An adult and two juveniles who were beginning to stretch their wings and hop up unto the air.

Of course I could have stood there for hours watching. 

Lots of fun playing ‘spot the stork’! 

Hanging out in front of a medieval bridge,

Or on a tall crane.

An interesting old city.

After a filling lunch sitting with the local constabulary, we headed back towards the coast to walk the long spit at Alvor.

It was pretty nice, so today we decided to walk to the long beach of Praia da Galé and along its considerable length.

As usual it was busy where the parking lots or resorts fed sun bathers onto the beach. Otherwise, except for the walkers and nudists it was pretty quiet.

This was not a swimmer’s beach as the waves chopped the shore too hard. A little wading, but that was about it. Sure glad I found that cheap swim suit!

This is one of the few beaches along the Algarve still used by the fishing boat crews to access the ocean. These are channel markers that they come and go along where it’s safe.

We enjoyed a light, if stupidly expensive lunch at the end of the beach before turning around and heading back. 

Tomorrow we have no plans as yet for our final day in the Algarve. On Friday we head north to complete our travel at Évora a Wotld Heritage protected city. Looking forward to that!