Tuesday Sevilla to Sangres

Sevilla to Sangres – Tuesday – Judy’s “Birthday”
We left Sevilla pretty early without seeing much of anything. The previous day’s harrowing experiences were too fresh in our minds. We decided to leave the bad karma behind us and push on to Portugal. We felt that Sevilla is no doubt a great place and worth a return visit but after having so many problems trying to navigate to our hotel, we’d probably get lost just walking.
We’d even had problems inside the hotel. It was very charming – located in the middle of the block on a one block street (unmarked of course). Once inside there was a large common space with antique furnisher, lots of nicknacks and musical instruments (e.g., piano, cello, violin). Each room was named for a famous composer (although I’d never heard of mine). The only staff person at the hotel when we arrived was an elderly man who spoke nothing but Spanish, and he made little attempt to try to understand our Spanish. This was interesting because Judy’s Spanish is quite good. Mainly his response to anything we said was, “I don’t speak English. My name is Francisco.” This was very frustrating because we needed some important information – mostly where do we park the car? When we returned after dinner (not that Judy or I ate anything) it was late but I wanted to check my email. I had some trouble getting onto the hotel’s wifi – so I tried to ask Francisco for some help. He wasn’t any – only repeatedly said “My name is Francisco.”
So we decided to just have breakfast and get out of town. We took a cab from the hotel to the parking garage (it turned out to be only two blocks), got in the car, turned on Garmin and trusted her advice. Miracle of miracles – we got out of town with no problem. We drove all the way on the most major roads after the backroads experience the day before. Judy and I had both fully recovered from our food poisoning so it was a pleasant drive.
We stopped In Faro to have lunch and take a look at the place. It is obviously thriving on northern Europeans escaping their cold climates for sun and sea in Portugal. There are lots and lots of new appearing houses on the hills. In town there are many high rise condos (for the less economically benefited visitors). We walked through the old town which appeared somewhat rundown but quaint. We had lunch at a little café across from the Cathedral (not very grand compared to those in Spain). I decided to check it out and saw at the entrance a posting that the fee was 3 Euros which seemed pretty cheap for a modest cathedral. So I waited a few minutes and entered as part of a tour group.
The rest of our drive to our hotel in Sagres was uneventful. Our Hotel is Pousado Do Infante an upscale resort but a little worn and out of date. They provide one computer with internet access in a common room which is free. If you want to use your own computer you can but they charge 8 Euros an hour. Yikes… We upgraded our rooms to ones with a view which is spectacular. The rooms that we were originally given had no view of the ocean but looked out on a out building.
This is truly a beautiful place. It is on a cliff over a large cove. There are huge waves crashing on the rocks below. There is an old fort on the point that we look out onto. Apparently this is a big surfing spot. We see lots of European surfers, most with dreadlocks.
This is clearly a good place to have a vacation from our vacation. It is very quiet, with not much to do other than walk on the beach, smell the salt air, and read a good book. We needed this.