January 1- January 3, 2023: Out with the Old, In with the New

New Year 2023 coming in with a bang in Tavira

  “Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”

Carl Bard

    

A couple married for 11 years and only slightly worse for the wear!

     

       We started 2023 with a toast on the balcony of  A Ver Teriva gazing out to the Atlantic watching fireworks going off all over the place. Our meal lasted from 8:30pm until 2 am if that gives you any idea about the quality of  cuisine (or how intoxicated the chef was by 8pm!) . Although it was beautiful food (literally), I think I will make the rest of the New Year in general, at least not quite as elaborate. But it was fun for the 5 and half hours it lasted!

The site of our culinary carte du jour

Once I made biscuits that were like a rock, but I never made an appetizer that looked like a rock but "rocked" my  taste buds. The spoon contains the food. The rest is just decor.

The green rope is fish mousse, layered with red mullet, caviar and gold foil in a light ham broth. Yeah, it tasted as good as it looked. 

     After this delightful dinner, we had to get a long walk in on New Year's Day. Paul wasn't ready to get up at 8 AM, so we parted paths, and I will let him talk about his walk in Paul's Ponderings. Mine was full of plenty of penitence plodding through some of the most outstanding scenery in the world in my opinion: The Seven Hanging Valleys. Promise me, please, dear readers that if you ever get to Portugal and you can walk even reasonably well, you will take this coastal pathway mostly along the clifftops, over the caves and beside the blowholes (and I'm not just talking about my hiking buddies here), and gaze onto the variegated cliffs, pink arches and blue ocean that lines the Portuguese coast for 10km (roughly 6 miles.)

The starting point at Praia de Marinha

     I really can't say enough about this coastline. We expected rain, but went anyway, and were rewarded with an overcast sky and subdued light. You really understand how light is so keenly perceived by artists when you see these sights NOT in broad daylight that sometimes washes out the variety of colors.

Various views from other photographers. I like our light better except maybe that cave.

     Seriously, just do it. I love to start my first day of January with a long hike. Success...and beauty!

     The following day was our last group hike and we started and ended our loop hike through the Barracol in the rolling hills north of the city of Tavira via the village of Santa Catarina. 

All roads do NOT lead to Santa Catarina (I don't think), but some start there. 

A view out over the Barracol, mostly farms and some vacation homes as well. We did a loop over these ridgetops with lots of ups and downs.

Do you drink too much and can't find your own driveway? It'll be the one lined in mannequin legs!

          Afterwards, in our last night out with our fellow UK hikers, we enjoyed a dinner at a nondescript but oh so delicioso small family restaurant serving typical southern Portuguese fare. Paella= always a good idea!

Sometimes you wish you could eat a picture on the internet.

     Today, three whole days into 2023, we decided to make it a lazy day. We transferred back to Faro and rented a small beach house on Faro Island convenient to the airport for tomorrow's flight back to Lisbon. Admittedly, the place is a little rough around the edges but it allowed us easy access to the length of the beach all the way to the end of the island and all the wonders it contains.

Access to about 3 miles of mostly deserted beach. A few swimmers and surfers about but mostly just us and footprints.

The blob. Methinks this is a jellyfish. Maybe a Portugues Man of War?

There were literally shells everywhere. We figure we wouldn't see this in summer as the taxi driver told us Faro Island is "a zoo."

A view across the marsh to the City of Faro.

If Paul looks serious, it's because coffee is NO JOKE to him. 

Gorgeous colors of sunset on Faro Beach.

     All in all, a more restful type of day. (We still walked about 8 miles! But it was different and good.)

“But Portugal has a peaceful feel about it. I sit on the terrace overlooking the vineyard there and I feel cut off from the world. You need that sort of thing.” – Cliff Richard

Paul's Ponderings:    All in all, we had a great time hiking in varied terrain within a few miles of the sea.   My New Year's Day experience was a walk among the vast salt pans near Tavira down to the village of Santa Luzia and back.    It was a sunny warm day and there is abundant bird life in the salt pans.    Portugal has great coffee as noted above, so that was the thing in Santa Luzia, then a return for some great thin crust pizza.     We had a great group of mostly UK hikers with us, plus a person from Denmark.     Now we head to Lisbon in the now-cooler weather in the region.