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sister_luckThere are many beaches in Portugal and most of them are exactly too my liking - not too crowded with bizarre rock formations and then of course there's the refreshing water of the Atlantic.
Our hotel was close to one of the more famous beaches, but today I'll show you the one west of it. We went there on our second day, the first one was spent driving around a bit (and more about that and pictures will follow in another post).
Praia do Camilo, which I kept calling Don Camillo, can be reached by walking along the edge of the cliffs or by road. The first time we went there we walked - it was only about ten minutes from our hotel. Like a lot of the beaches on the Algarve it actually consists of three smaller beaches - you walk down the steps
to the first one, admire the view
and then realize that someone has hewn a passage way into the rock that takes you to the next bay where - depending on the tide - you can climb through a small gap between the rocks to the next bit of beach.
We settled down at the beach in the middle and as it was fairly early there was still a bit of shade available (that's where the rocks come in handy).
Just above us a group of four young Swiss people set up their towels and their beach umbrella. They were at an unfair advantage, because while they perfectly understood what we were talking about between ourselves what they said to each other wasn't that easy to understand for us. Listening in on Swiss German takes a bit of concentration and then it becomes a little too obvious what you're doing.
Anway, the breeze kept blowing over several of the beach umbrellas, but we noticed that the white and green Swiss one seemed fairly sturdy. We kept discussing the fate of the flying umbrellas and that we had to buy one, too, but which one was the best?
Meanwhile a large French family had also found their way to our corner of the beach and they kept us distracted for a while. When the Swiss group packed up, they told us it was their last day and gave us their umbrella which had seen most of Portugal with them. They unloaded some of their beach mats onto the French family and then went their merry way.
So, that's how we came to be the owners of a beach umbrella. It survived our time with us and we wanted to pass it on to the next batch of travellers, something which was more difficult than imagined. In the end, we even took the umbrella back to Lisbon airport and then I finally spotted a group of English girls who where on their way to the car hire desks. I made one of them take the umbrella - I think she was rather surprised. I managed to tell her a rather shorter version of the umbrella's story and if it survived I'm sure they passed it on to the next holidaymakers.
Our hotel was close to one of the more famous beaches, but today I'll show you the one west of it. We went there on our second day, the first one was spent driving around a bit (and more about that and pictures will follow in another post).
Praia do Camilo, which I kept calling Don Camillo, can be reached by walking along the edge of the cliffs or by road. The first time we went there we walked - it was only about ten minutes from our hotel. Like a lot of the beaches on the Algarve it actually consists of three smaller beaches - you walk down the steps
to the first one, admire the view
and then realize that someone has hewn a passage way into the rock that takes you to the next bay where - depending on the tide - you can climb through a small gap between the rocks to the next bit of beach.
We settled down at the beach in the middle and as it was fairly early there was still a bit of shade available (that's where the rocks come in handy).
Just above us a group of four young Swiss people set up their towels and their beach umbrella. They were at an unfair advantage, because while they perfectly understood what we were talking about between ourselves what they said to each other wasn't that easy to understand for us. Listening in on Swiss German takes a bit of concentration and then it becomes a little too obvious what you're doing.
Anway, the breeze kept blowing over several of the beach umbrellas, but we noticed that the white and green Swiss one seemed fairly sturdy. We kept discussing the fate of the flying umbrellas and that we had to buy one, too, but which one was the best?
Meanwhile a large French family had also found their way to our corner of the beach and they kept us distracted for a while. When the Swiss group packed up, they told us it was their last day and gave us their umbrella which had seen most of Portugal with them. They unloaded some of their beach mats onto the French family and then went their merry way.
So, that's how we came to be the owners of a beach umbrella. It survived our time with us and we wanted to pass it on to the next batch of travellers, something which was more difficult than imagined. In the end, we even took the umbrella back to Lisbon airport and then I finally spotted a group of English girls who where on their way to the car hire desks. I made one of them take the umbrella - I think she was rather surprised. I managed to tell her a rather shorter version of the umbrella's story and if it survived I'm sure they passed it on to the next holidaymakers.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 08:50 pm (UTC)Also I like that advantage we Swiss have, it has come in handy for me quite often. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 12:49 pm (UTC)Yeah, I can imagine that.
I was so worried we wouldn't find anyone to give the umbrella to, because that would have been wrong not giving it to the next people.
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Date: 2007-08-04 07:32 am (UTC)The way Britian has been this summer, they might take it home with them.
I'm with you on the Schweizerdeutsch... I tried reading it several times in some genealogy references and gave up. Deutsch is emminently easier.
Neat picks! Is the water warm or cool?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 12:51 pm (UTC)I'm not sure what happens when the umbrella gets wet - somehow I don't think it would work well in the rain...
Well, I said that the water was refreshing - that's my euphemism for cool... No mediterranean bathtub water in Portugal.
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Date: 2007-08-04 03:20 pm (UTC)I like the umbrella idea. That's neat :)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-05 11:20 am (UTC)And we weren't even fishing for it - I felt slightly guilty taking it and maybe she should have offered to share the cost of buying the umbrella with them, but I was so surprised that it didn't occur to me at the time.
Yeah, beaches with rocks are the ones I like best, too.