We booked ourselves a week in Portugal for my birthday and flew from Teesside airport to Faro airport on the Algarve. At one point we had to evacuate the airport as the fire alarms went off and as we were going back in, we passed the kitchens and the cook and someone said "what was it burnt toast?" We arrived at Faro after a 3-hour flight and took the local bus in to the centre and walked to the hotel we were staying in for the night. We went out for something to eat then walked down to the old town Moorish quarter where we met up with Ell a local guide who walked us through the town and its history.
The next morning, we walked around the marina and saw the famous statue of the woman with a fish head visited the old church and up to the top of its tower with lovely views across the wetlands. After lunch we made our way to the train station and took the train to Lisbon a nearly 4-hour journey then took a uber to Sarahs apartment where we were staying through Airbnb, she made us very welcome and shared all her knowledge of Portugal and Lisbon with us, as well as giving us two travel cards that we could just top up for travel on trams, buses, ferries, metro so that was a great help. We walked quite a distance to the nearest metro and topped up the cards then just kept walking right down in to the Alfama district where we had an Indian meal for my birthday and we were entertained by some incredible street performers, after which we walked to a famous Fardo restaurant and bar and asked them if we could just have a drink at the table and watch the show and they said yes no problem and fitted us in to a very lively busy room where we felt we were gate crashing a party, but it was a great experience., we then caught the last tram of the evening back to the apartment.
We arose early the next morning and decided to go straight out have breakfast then we took a tram to end of terminus then another to Santos then another tram out to the district of Belem visiting all the waterfront attractions like the prow of the Padrao dos Descobrimentos and the Tower of Belem as well as going around the botanical gardens of Jarden and of course visiting the famous Antiga Confeitaria for coffee and custard tarts followed by visiting the church at the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. We then took a train back to Sintra and walked around the square I had last walked across in 1968 when I was on a ship there loading cork for the USA, after this we took a ferry ride across to another area called Almada and back and then went to a recommended local family run restaurant used by locals for which we had to wait over an hour to get in but it was certainly worth it, a very nice friendly family.
The next day same itinerary up early breakfast then a tram down to the large flea market, Jun bought a lovely hand stitched piece of art that the woman said had been done by her grandmother and we also bought a very strange looking bottle fixed tightly inside a metal frame with a winding mechanism and lever on the bottom for our garden. We then made our way to a local train station and took the train out to the town of Sintra which is a part of the UNESCO world heritage area, a really beautiful town and surrounding National Park, we visited the stunning Quinta da Regaleira a huge villa set in fantastic grounds including the Initiation well. After all this we walked back in to town and paid a visit to another famous place specialising in custard tarts where we ate some with coffee then as we were leaving we decided to stand in the line for take aways at which point the young girl who had served us came running up with Jun's bag that we had left, we couldn't thank her enough and although she refused I insisted we give her some money. we then discovered that in the 1930's/40's a tram line had been built that ran from Sintra to the Atlantic Coast and it had been restored so we couldn't miss that opportunity and managed to get the last one of the day out there and stayed on it to come back, a really old screeching rattling ride that at times I swear went through peoples gardens, great fun.
The next day we took a tram in to Lisbon centre and found the old Funicular which we rode up and down then visited the Elevator which wasn't open but we had great views from the top. We then went to the main Catholic Church in Lisbon for Jun to take Mass and it was beautiful the choir was really something after which we had lunch then took bus up to the Gulbenkian Museum which had exhibitions of Islamic and Egyptian art as well as a fantastic collection of Lelac jewellery. We then found a traditional Indian restaurant where we had a really nice meal then back to the apartment and packed our things and had a late drink with Sarah and her partner.
We went down to the centre again the next morning bought a few things from a really old established Lisbon shop then back to the apartment had a talk with Sarah then took a uber taxi to the train station and back to Faro arriving at 6:30pm due to delays where we went to another Airbnb which again was really nice consisting of 5 separate rooms and shared kitchen and toilets but really well maintained and clean. On the night we went to a newly opened buffet style Vegan restaurant the food was delicious but just couldn't eat all of the different foods on offer. Finished the day with a walk around the old town again.
The next day we took the train along the coast to the town of Olhao from where we took a ferry out to one of the islands named Anorma which was very nice lovely old bungalows and chalets
walked across the sand dunes and feet in the sea, took the ferry back did some shopping in local supermarket then train back to Faro had a meal in the apartment then another walk and early night.
Up at 5:00 am packed and took Uber up to the airport for our 9am flight back home all went well except when our bags went through the x ray machines they picked up on the bottle we bought at the flea market they asked us what it was, we said we don't know we bought it at a flea market, they then said do you often buy things you don't know what they are, we said yes sometimes. At one point there were five of them all looking at the x ray of this bottle before giving it back to us, where it now has pride of place on a shelf in our garden at home.