Authentic Algarve, Is This It? #motorcycletravel #portugal

Today we're heading south towards the Algarve, we're going to stop at Europe's mainland most westerly point and we're going to try and hug the coastline as much as we can, although there doesn't seem to be a direct coast road just yet, maybe perhaps when we get really south there is a coast road I think that hugs that line. That would be nice because we haven't really seen so much of the Portuguese coast yet, so we're going to go on a little mission to find a coast road and head south towards the Algarve. So we were just riding through one of the small villages and I spotted a really cool cafe, I checked on the Happy Cow app and it was a vegan cafe so we pulled over and we're going to get some lunch here, it's called Roots, fresh and tasty and we've ordered some waffles and some salads and it's great parking, Shadow's right outside and we're going to have a little look at the map now to see our exact route as we head down towards Lagos. These are flat whites we've ordered, cheers. Oh that's good, that's a really good coffee. We've just pulled in at Sagres Fort just outside the town of Sagres, it's quite nice here actually, there's a fantastic view of the coastline and apparently it is the most south westerly point of Portugal. Yeah so from here we'll be heading east again. We'll be heading east, oh the heading east tour is coming out again is it? Yeah we're going to head to the Algarve region and hopefully it's going to be less windy because it is super windy here today. So windy, but the ride down here, down that coast was okay, it was not too bad. Yeah it was okay, there's some big long straight B roads, a few twisty turns but not so many, it was more like a relaxing ride down here, there was lots of nice little towns that we pulled into on the way. Yeah had a great lunch at that vegan cafe, was top, was really really nice and now we're going to be heading towards Lagos and Faro and eventually we'll be in Gibraltar which is our southernmost point. Oh there's a lot of campers here. That's a nightmare isn't it, let's just pop back. I was warm into the idea of a campervan but I don't know about it now. Crisis, midlife crisis averted. You'd think with all these campers they'd put some tarmac down. I didn't even look did you, didn't even look. We've just arrived in Lagos and Shaun's just remembered that he's been here before. Yeah I slipped my mind. It looks just like a resort town, a beach town but it looks like it's got a cute little city centre and a historic castle as well. Didn't you say it was a party town? It is a party town yeah. Are we here to party? We are the least. Well that's nice isn't it? It is yeah, can we go in there? Only residents can go in there. How do they know we're not residents? So you stayed on this road? Yeah I think it was that hostel there. That's cool. So we are currently driving through the city centre of Lagos. Like we said it's just a very sweet white painted houses, a few tiled houses, lovely little place. And that concludes our little Laos tour. There is a little city centre in there, a little square which is quite nice I think, but I think it's only a pedestrian area. Yeah, might be a good place to grab lunch, we've already eaten today so we're going to continue along the coast. It's a fairly overpopulated beach resort which is not to our liking. No, it's not even that it's like busy that the problem is, it's just like apartment blocks and hotels everywhere you look and it just doesn't look like it's been maintained very well. Our pursuit for Argos coastline continues. Maybe head to the marina, it said there was a sign that said straight Marina de Portilhamo. Oh yeah they said maybe that's a little bit better. I think this is it, I think this is the marina. It's like a bit private isn't it? Yeah I think it is just maybe just for boats or for... Try again, let's have a second sweep at it. No you can't go down here. This looks like something out of a Disneyland resort that's called like the Santa Fe, it looks fake doesn't it? Two hours for free parking. Yeah those are all very fake and new. We continue on towards Faro? I think so, I mean it might be not. I don't really want to spend another few hours in a like a marina that's the same as... Not really. Anywhere. Oh we tried. We tried. I think this is it Sean. No there must be, there must be a bit more across that bridge. Do you think? I reckon. I've not lost hope yet. It looks nice from here. Yeah it looks like it's got a nice promenade from here. Big marina though, lots of boats though. Really big marina. Oh no you're right we're leaving Portimão. Okay so that was Portilhamo. Portilhamo is it? Yeah. And we're still in search of a coast road. Yeah we're not inspired to stay here tonight. No. We'll carry on. Let's keep going towards Faro. What time is it right? It's uh 4 30. We've got another 10, just 10 minutes to Faro. Um I think more like an hour. More than an hour. Oh that's got the wrong destination. No we've just, I just put the destination in over around the um the harbour to see if the other side had a coast road. Okay yeah. Again I still have hope. Gotta praise you, your optimism. This bit looks lovely. Look at that. That looks really authentic and well kept. So this is the opposite side of the harbour to Portilhamo. I'm not sure what it's called. No. Are we stopping here or are we? We can stop here if you want to. Are we doing a drive-thru? I think we're doing a drive-thru really. Can you see anything? Well there's a big hole there. There's water in the bottom. Not wishing to complain but it's not the easiest place to go and see these spots. I feel like you have to take a boat tour. I think so. I tell you what, let's just walk up there and see if we can see anything there and then we can turn back. There's not been a very pleasant ride to be honest. We're heading to Faro. It's our last hope that there's a nice place that we can stay in the Algarve. We've decided the hard shoulder is the best way to go when this traffic is like this. We've created our own little bike lane here. Which is completely normal in Italy. Yeah Italy is fine I think. Yeah. I don't think anyone has a problem in Portugal either. There's a bike behind us doing it. Oh okay. I'm just hoping that's not a police bike. Maybe all this is going to the airport. Yeah you wanna you wanna? We'll just come off. Everyone else is coming off. We are three minutes away from the city centre of Faro. Yeah welcome to Faro. Traffic's not been so bad in the city considering it's um 47. Seems to have quietened down a lot. Interesting building though. We're gonna go to the city centre then head towards the beach maybe we can find a spot there we can make dinner. That'd be nice. They look very polished these cobbles. Yeah they look slippy nice and slow. No one's gonna jump out on me. Happened once in Italy. I was riding really slowly and someone walked out grabbed the front brake and the front just slipped away. I didn't have abs then though. Maybe it would help. Yeah different bike. Here we go. It's very quiet. It is very quiet. It smells nice. It's a nice smelling city. Yeah it's quiet isn't it? It's empty. It's really empty. It's very clean there's no litter or anything on the streets. No. I hope this could be a nice place. It looks cool. Yeah it doesn't look packed which is making me very happy. Absolutely. Some of the places that we've been riding through have just looked. Been heaving full of people. Heaving yeah. Okay I'm turning right here that should take us to the water. Nice. But it looks nice it looks really good. Got a little bit of restoration work going on now. Are you blocked here? I think the road's closed yeah. Because that road's closed we're going to need to try and find an alternate route to the seaside but it means we get to drive through the main street. Loads and loads of cafes and shops. I love the white buildings with the balconies like this. It's a scream seaside. It's like marshland. It is isn't it? Like little islands. This is the end of the road. Driving through Farrow there looks actually a really nice little city or town but we're just looking for a little spot where we can cook dinner. We haven't really found one because again the city seems to stretch all the way to the sea and in fact it's more like marshland here. It's actually really interesting. Really pretty area here but we're in the flight of the airport here as well so we got some good views of the plains if you like plain spotting. But we're going to carry on a little bit more west now. I mean east even towards the direction of Spain. There looks like there's a deserted well less of a populated beach there but maybe we'll find more of a spot that we're looking for because yeah it's not quite what we were looking for. So we're going to carry on a bit further. Look at this little building on the left. Look how lovely it once was with its green tiles and its decorative tiles. We saw a couple of those along this road. They look like bus stops with like their place names and tiles but they've they've just fallen into neglect. That was amazing. There's some great street artists yeah. Okay we just quickly pulled over in this city or town of Tavira. Looks really sweet. Really cute. Sun is setting and we found a hotel on the front for 55 euro with breakfast. So we've booked that and Sean's navigating from the front to get us there and then we'll maybe have a walk around Tavira. But to be honest after the day we've had I'm a bit exhausted. How do you feel Sean? Yeah pretty much the same especially when we like didn't find a place that we wanted to stop time and time again but this place looks uh yeah it looks nice and quiet and looks really pretty as well doesn't it? It does. As you see behind us there's like a fully tiled building as well. Absolutely stunning. These streets are kind of cool too. Yeah yeah and again it's really clean really clean streets. Oh yeah it's really nice. Let's hope this hotel is a warm welcoming and got a comfy bed. If I find it first. It feels worse than the gravel track. I don't know why yes doesn't it? I think I had more traction on the gravel. I think we might have struck gold with this place. It is beautiful isn't it? That's not somewhere that was in like the top turn of Portugal but it looks great. Let's go check into this place then. Maybe have a walk. All right. All right we have struck gold with this little hotel here. It's absolutely beautiful and we found a restaurant that's not too far away and we're going to go directly there now. It's a really old place isn't it? It's fantastic. It's so authentic and preserved. I just love it. Old tiles. Old decorations. And it's not dusty even though it's old. It's not dusty. It's clean yeah. The tiles that's that's amazing. The only problem is Sean had to lug up the three panniers up three floors. Em chose a room with a balcony and the river view which is on the third floor. But it's worth it. It's worth it. The room is beautiful. It's all go here. The town's great it's really sleepy. Shadow's happy. Shadow's parked up for the night there. And there's a nice Indian restaurant two doors down. And I just fancy a curry view. Yeah I haven't had one for ages and it looks really authentic as well. And look at the tiles on the outside too. Hello. Two? Obrigada. After the day we had riding through some pretty uninspiring places. That's a good way of putting it yeah. Coming and arriving here, sun was setting, I was getting tired, getting cold and finding that hotel for a great price. Super authentic. The guy on the reception was so lovely. He was. Really welcoming. And then finding this place two doors down it's like perfect end for the day. It's like it was completely planned but it wasn't planned at all. This might be one of our new favourite places. We'll see how the food goes first but let's try these. Onion bhajis have arrived. And the vegetable pakora as well. All freshly made. Look how good they look. Alright you gotta try one. Also waiter was just telling us that devat means invitation in what language? Urdu. Urdu. The original Urdu language. And the W is like a V. So a bit like German. Yeah. Alright you gotta try one of the pakoras. I've got one of these. Okay. Oh that sounded crunchy. And they're good. Mains have arrived and they look super good. We've got chana masala which is chickpea curry. Asagalu which is potato and spinach curry. Garlic rice, boiled rice and a tomato and red onion salad. And still some dips and sauces. So we're gonna tuck into this and enjoy our evening here. And just have a little bit of relax. We've ordered a couple more drinks. And yeah, just take a few minutes. After dinner there's not much room but they've made us a very special dessert which is apparently an Indian classic dessert. I think it's coconut oil here but I haven't tried it yet. So I'm gonna try it for you. Oh wow. Look at that. It's like a cake. It's got a cakey texture. I've not had anything like that. Coconut-y, caramel. It's very sweet. It's really tasty. If you need to try this one. Okay. I'll tuck in now I think. It's been one heck of a day but it's ended perfectly. We're so glad that we stumbled across Tavira. It's a beautiful little town on the sea and we're going to explore it a little bit further in the morning. But for now we're going to head off to sleep because tomorrow we've got another big day as we head further east and hopefully we're going to make it to Seville.