Portugal, from north to south

Sagres, Portugal

Dawn was almost magical this morning. We awoke to chirping birds outside of our window and the sun rising over rolling vineyards for as far as the eye could see.

We fueled up on a big breakfast of eggs, toast and jam as we prepared for a day’s drive of traversing Portugal. It would be a good 6-hours from Porto south to the Algarve, our destination.

Setting out a little after 10 am, the roads returning to Porto didn’t seem nearly as treacherous. In fact, highways here in Portugal are in nothing short of perfect condition. Nicely leveled, newly paved, bright lane markers. And no cops, which meant that we watched much of the country whiz by, only stopping occasionally for gas, snacks or one of the many tolls.

(Portugal’s top-notch highway does system comes at a cost – our tolls ran us nearly 50 euros for the day.)

As we entered the Algarve, which is more broadly defined as the Southern coast of Portugal, the landscape quickly changed to a rocky coastline, akin to New England.

Finally, we arrived in Sagres, a small town nearly at the southern tip of Portugal. Checking into our hotel, the Memmo Baleeira Hotel, we could have been in South Beach. There were lots of weird artifacts in the lobby that Lottie played around with, including these cool lights.

We threw our stuff down in the room, grabbed a couple of beers from the minifridge and made our way to the hotel’s sprawling back lawn.

This is what we have traveled all day for.