So my retirement was pending and 2025 is going to be the gap year I never had. My actual retirement date was 31 March, but I was keen to get going before that so I resolved to do a trip every month in Jan/Feb & March, just to get started
I had never been to Portugal before, and a sneaky weekend in the sun beckoned in January. As it turned out the Med is not as predictable as it once used to be and I only had one day of very warm weather, and the evenings were cold. The hotel in Lagos, however, was built around some lovely courtyards with plants and ponds. I thought the turtles were a bit naff looking, wondering why they would have had concrete models just placed on the edge, until one took fright and swam into the pond
Because it was January some of the shops and cafes were shut, and their Christmas decorations still hung in the windows. Nevertheless I enjoyed wondering around and soaking up the sights, sitting in the sun whenever it was available.
As always, I struggled to converse, not having considered looking up any Portugese before I arrived. I had lazily assumed Hola and Gracias would suffice, as I got away with in Spain. Typical lazy English – Portugese is a very different language. ‘Thank you’ is Obrigada, if spoken by a female (Orbrigado if male). I hadn’t before come across a language where the words changed depending on the speaker rather than the object.
Note to self: must do better in future
Lagos is on the coast and the beaches are easily accessible. I am sure in the summer they would be packed, but in January there were only a few hardy souls.
I was particularly impressed with the wooden walkways keeping the public off of the protected dunes. Perhaps a similar solution would protect the dunes at Widemouth in Bude, rather than just sticking in a few dead Christmas trees – I wonder how Portugal can afford the investment whereas the UK seems to be bumbling along on a shoestring…
I had booked a sunset tour for the Sunday, the best day of the weekend. I was collected from the hotel in a jeep, before we also picked up an Argentinian family nearby. Our host, Sandro, proceeded to give a running commentary, alternating between Spanish and English. As a native Portugese man in what appeared to be his 60’s he had seen many changes in his life in the area. Tourism is huge but the area we drove to is protected, with heavy fines if he strayed off the highway onto the brush verges.
There are strict planning restrictions to prevent the area getting developed further – run down ex agricultural buildings are available to buy to be converted to residential, but cannot be extended beyond the original footprint, nor be more than one story high. Some come with a large area of land, and have amazing views out across the Atlantic, but with a price tag of over 1m euros they are likely to be bought only by a small number of interested parties. No electric other than solar power, and water is provided into private tanks by the local fire service who will bring a tanker full, at a cost.
After visiting the lighthouse at Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of Europe, we moved on down some dirt rough tracks to isolated beaches looking over the Atlantic. Eventually we parked up to watch the sunset with a celebratory glass of local wine – a very pleasant way to start my year of travels. I am sure that sunsets, and maybe a few sunrises, will feature heavily
