Trip to Lagos, Part 3 and final

 Thursday and it's breakfast at Lazy Jack's again, apparently we are a sucker for Joao's jokes and energy. He truly is a nice person. 

We were at the marina for breakfast and some ladies had purchased pastries to take away. They were on the wharf and a seagull swooped in and snatched the entire croissant from her fingers! True meaning of take away I guess... Then, of course, there was a gull fight to get a piece of it. They are bold those gulls.

Later in the afternoon I got a haircut from his wife Carina who does an excellent job. When I mentioned Joao's energy she jokingly said, you, the customers get it all, he comes home to become a couch potato. We had a good conversation about politics that she was careful to find out my viewpoint ahead to make sure there was no offence. They have two older dogs and a year old one that comes to work with her and she enjoys walking. 

This is the chillin' Mabell (spelling?)

I stayed downtown until Ryan and Angela could come in for dinner and we were treated to a young lady playing classical music on a digital cello. We carried on to have dinner at O'Mexilhao which specializes in seafood and Gin cocktails. It was a feast and a real treat!

Left to right: Regular with cardamom seed; cucumber; strawberry

Yes, you do see salad there, I try to have some vegetable and in turn get Ryan and Angela to eat their veggies, NO I am not their mom... and a plate of calamari on the left. I tried the mussels but Ryan and Angela enjoyed them the most. 

Good Friday now and I take the tourist "train" on wheels around the city. No commentary and basically went to two beaches and east of Lagos. If you want to go to those places it is a good deal at 5 Euros per one circular ride. What I'd forgotten was the tuk-tuk tourist ride is much better, taken the last time we were here. It goes through the city since it is much smaller and can handle the narrow streets and you get an amusing and knowledgeable commentary. Oh well, got some sea breeze and a hard seat for the ride. 

Before dinner Friday evening Ryan and I had cocktails at the Green Room which is a Mexican restaurant, I had a margarita and he had a espresso martini. Yum, haven't had a margarita in years.

Then we went back to the Dumplings House Momo and enjoyed more conversation with the owners.

Saturday we went to Odiaxere, a small village about 20 minutes by car for piri-piri chicken with Paul and Anja. It is tradition to go there because they know the owners well and the food is fabulous served sharing style with the chicken, fries and salad.

Chicken on the right.

Then we went back to Paul and Anya's home to meet up with their five rescue dogs, the shy one took a liking to me so I had lovely soft ears and head to pet the entire visit. They have a beautiful cacti garden around the edges of the yard which I envied. There are many storks in nests in this area, looked like an outdoor stork hotel in one field! 

Sunday we drove to a small tourist town and beach called Praia do Carvoeiro, walked in the sand under sunny skies and then watched people walk by, many with varying tinges of pink skin. 

Pepe said before we left, at least get your feet wet and in the sand at the beach, Ryan's reply, I'm a beach adjacent person but Angela complied.

The waitress, Lizzie, at Samir who's tag line is "I heart (love) sexy food and drinks" was friendly and spoke Spanish so she told us of the living conditions there, too expensive for locals, as we've heard from others. 

Then we drove to the top of the cliff to the boardwalk that seems to stretch for miles over the cliffs next to the sea and Algar Seco Rocks, beach is called Praia do Paraiso providing a very good view of what we see across the Algarve. 

That tent like structure is a restaurant you have to walk down/up to, not me thanks.

Last dinner was back in Lagos at Favorita, around the corner from the apartment as it was our last for this trip. This is how our table was reserved.

Chicken pesto spagetti - yummy!

Driving back to Sevilla on Monday it is hilly terrain with many farms, even a solar panel farm, but mostly orange and olive groves. The roads are rough in places so Angela would yell "butt clench" because it really does hurt the butt and back when going over some of the worse ones. 

I saw large rock walls, much like in the UK but these are boulder size winding across the agricultural fields, which made me wonder, larger animals? or using what is available with less effort to make them smaller... 

We took the rental car back to the train station which was crowded chaos, Ryan called an Uber since the taxi queue was very, very long. The times we have called this company for rides has been a good experience, drivers are courteous and talkative in Spanish. There is no hesitation about destination because they know the areas well and the cars are clean and comfortable. 

Great trip to a favourite destination that will always warrant a return visit. Friendly people, great food and being by the ocean, what's not to like? Thank you to Ryan for driving and most of these photographs, thank you to Angela for the butt warnings as she navigated and co-piloted. Thanks to my adoptive brother and sister for the wonderful experience!

Trip to Lagos, Portugal, Part 2

 Angela and Ryan worked the afternoon after breakfast until dinner time when we went downtown for dinner. We went to PIE where of course they serve savoury pie. 

The waiter and part owner was hilarious his name is Poly and said "what the heck, his father was into fabric i.e. polyester". More jokes, he comes from England and then told us his sad saga about his love life and missing his dog (the ex took it). Music was great spanning decades of favourites for all and we played a game using the app Shazam that identifies the music and performance, a guessing game which I was rubbish at but enjoyed. Anyway it was an entertaining evening. The entrance to this restaurant has dangerously narrow steep steps but we all made it safely. 

Next morning downtown to *ice cream* for crepe and omelette which was okay but the people and dog watching was just as good as the marina. Work again in the afternoon for them but I went to a used book store and spent a lot of time there hunting the dusty shelves, happy, happy! This is a store I've been to before, different people at the tills but feels like a musty, old person's forgotten library. It is not, but books are shelved by language and it's a treasure hunt because they are not filed any other way except loosely by subject. Fun for me, always the bookworm. Dinner was at Dumpling House, Momo, they had been closed for vacation until the end of March, the proprietor is a friendly Nepali woman who treats everyone like a friend and shares bits of her life with her customers. The food is top notch, familiar from the first year they started the business and we found it. Yummy! Different also to regular fare either here or in Sevilla. 

A general observation is that many, many people have dogs and since Angela and Ryan are "dog crazy" they always get a pet or scratch when walking by. 

Next day, now Wednesday, breakfast is at Viva close by, a touristic place but the waitress was friendly from the Philippines, living here since she was young and a nurse for her "other" job. Food good, service good, sunny day and none of that nippy breeze. Angela and Ryan went back to work and I went downtown with the intention of getting the Lagos train on wheels, something I enjoyed the last time, nope. Decided to look for sandals instead and voila found some.  

That evening we met with Emily and Lee and a couple of their friends not at the place they intended, but a modern beach seafood restaurant called Barraca in Burgau, their home town. Everything was excellent and had a modern twist on traditional fare. Views to the cliffs and ocean were uninterrupted, the sunset was beautiful but nothing can rival Freiburg's except the ocean in front!

I think Lee is a history buff, certainly interested in the past of their town Burgau. I wanted to show some pictures of the fishing village and fishermen and women but they are on a platform that I couldn't download from, sorry...