May 8 - Portimão, Portugal

Here we are in Portimão in the Algarve region of Portugal.  This is on the southwestern tip of the country and has nearby what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches, Praia da Rocha.  As with most of these places on the Iberian Peninsula, the history goes back to the age of the Phoenicians, Greeks and in the case of this area later the Carthaginians and Romans.  Of course for a period of time it was under Moorish rule until the Portuguese reconquest in the mid 13^th century.

Portimão is situated on the Arade River and as such for much of its history has been a fishing area.  During the 20^th century from about 1906 to 1980 it was the sardine capital.  Our tour today took us first to the Museum which is located in a former sardine processing plant.  It was very interesting to see the process from fishing to canning. While the fishing was done by the men, the processing was principally done by women.  We tried to imagine what it must have been like to spend every day handling sardines; I can only guess that you could never eliminate the smell.

Little baskets on a conveyor to carry the fish from the boats to the factory

Reproduction of the processing line

In the 1980’s the industry apparently just crashed and that was the end of it.  Now this area survives on tourism.  The city was devastated in an earthquake and subsequent tsunami (which reached nearly 60 feet high) in 1755 so much of the city is “new” (it’s kind of strange to hear things a couple of hundred years old being called new).  There’s a nice little promenade along the river but not a great deal to see in town.

 

Bandstand on the promenade

Our next stop was a little fishing village called Alvor.  On the way there we passed some lovely hotels and what looked like timeshare complexes. In Alvor tourism has overtaken the old economy.  Along the waterfront most of the old fishing sheds have been removed to be replaced by cafés and restaurants.  There was one shopping street which sold mostly tourist souvenirs.  There were lots of things made of cork since Portugal is still the largest producer of that material.

 

Main shopping street in Alvor

After a little walk through Alvor we returned to the ship.  By that time the sun was out and it was getting very hot with little or no shade around, so we decided to stay on the ship and catch up on things.  I should have mentioned that our guide Carla told us that while it doesn’t get extremely cold here in the winter,  the summer can be brutally hot.  Last summer the temperature reached 115 ° .  We couldn’t deal with that!

Anyway, tomorrow we’ll be in Lisbon for an all day tour for just the two of us.  I’ll wrote more when I can. Until then, até mais tarde.