Thursday’s Travel to Tavira to Tour!

Today the weather may be considered dull but our hearts were soaring as we headed north into the mountains then east towards Tavira for a day of wandering aimlessly and breathing in the wonderful ambience of the town and sea air.

Marc is still recuperating and opted to remain home and with his grocery wish list in my pocket, off James and I headed.

Tavira is an ancient Moorish town that has retained its unique character to become one of the finest resort towns of the Algarve.  It’s a joy to explore with its smattering of historic buildings and decorative churches, all of which are set around charming plazas and pretty cobbled streets.  Marc and I love going a few times during the winters here and we always find something new and interesting.  Today was no exception.

This chimney is gorgeous and reminds us how wonderful the Arabic style is.

This is as wintery as it looks here. The naked fig trees, soon to be sporting hints of green as the tiny figs start to form and make their presence known.

The streets were pretty empty today and it made photo taking a bit easier.

A view to the north of Tavira.

I am enamoured by all the graffiti.

This window doesn’t look real, it looks like art to me.

This lovely motif made me think of Marc and his fascination with all things fishy these days.

We had parked the car near the train station as I wanted James to enjoy the full effect of walking into the historic centre, take in the hints of skyline that could be seen from time to time and enjoy the architecture.  He was swivelling his head like one of those little bobble creatures in the back window of a car……..it was quite a bit of fun for me to see him falling in love with the place.

A beautiful hibiscus tree, the flowers tucked away from the cooler temperature, in the castle garden.

This succulent type climber, which grows like a weed here, was enormous and practically wrapped itself around this old naked fig.

We scaled the castle walls and enjoy the vistas and a bit of a rest from the walking. The day was perfect for our activity as it was just warm enough to warrant a scarf without feeling over heated or too cool.

We decided that we would wander down to the old Roman Bridge,  cross over and find a place for lunch.  Low and behold, they were shooting a Portuguese soap opera right on the bridge so we were being detoured!!  Just as we were about to walk elsewhere the Director called “cut” and they took a break so they let us walk across the bridge through the cast………fun to see them all posed and waiting to start shooting again.  The locals seemed to be enjoying it very much but of course we didn’t recognize anybody.

This fellow was oblivious to the soap opera cast…..he was casting his own net just below them!

Tell me you don’t think this is beautiful and mysterious to some degree?

This old terra cotta Madonna dates back to the 1300’s.

I found a new front door colour for my friend Françoise!!

For lunch we ended up at Casa Simão, the first place I ever ate here with Gwen and Diane many years ago.  I go at least once each trip and as luck would have it……today was perfect because the prato do dia was javili estufado…….wild boar stew!!!!!!!!!!!  YUMMY>

So tasty….we both ordered it……moist, succulent, a tiny bit gamy.  Underneath was toasted day old bread which was soaking up all the wonderful onion and garlic broth.  We both ate every morsel of boar…….and for the record….I am still behaving myself with not eating the fries……I’ve only cheated once this trip….and I got caught!!!! (Hey Ana????)

Of course after a big lunch like this you have to walk to burn it off and so walk we did.  It was during this part of our trip that I stumbled on an old garden, tucked away beside and old church, that I had never seen before.  The caretaker was working in the garden and that allowed us to wander in and look around…….what luck!!!

This hibiscus tree was amazing but when I turned around………..I found……

Phymosia umbellata or a cranberry cocktail tree, which is native to Mexico so no idea how it got here! It was about 25 feel tall, wide through the branches and covered in these gorgeous flowers, most of them just starting to open. Truly heavenly.

Right next to that a hydrangea tree bursting into bloom.

This is to give an idea of how large the hydrangea tree was. If you look closely you can see some of the cranberry cocktail tree beside it.

Part of the old garden wall behind the church.

This had been removed from the upper exterior of the old building next to the church and was mounted on a large square of granite.

This was in a part of the garden that was still fenced but visible. Maybe next trip I’ll get in there!!!

This datura tree was, as you can see, bending with flowers.

Doesn’t he look innocent? It’s an act I can sure you!!

I could tell James was fading and as soon as I suggested calling it a day, he was heading in the direction of the car!!  We passed this wonderful Christmas tree made of espresso cups and saucers.

Then I spotted an old house that called out to me……

We took our time heading home with stops in Santa Luzia, Pinheiro, Arretioa, Fuzeta and finally, the last leg to home.  I can safely say James seems as in love with this area as we are.

And now at home, Marc was happy to see us, accepted his bag of groceries and the scent coming from the kitchen right now……intoxicating.  Life remains grand.