Another day, another tour of the delights of Portugal. This time it was a day exploring the eastern Algarve.
First up was a brief return to the capital of Faro before heading onto the port of Olhao. Sadly we had mere minutes to take a look at the market hall before speeding onwards.
Next up we briefly cross the border into Spain and the town of Ayamonte.
Again we had very little time to spare in the town so we just snapped some of the colourful tiles in the town centre.
Patterns galore and palm trees make the town a pleasant place to sit and watch the world go by.
Here’s a few more colourful painted tiles.
Next on our whistle stop tour is Vila Real de Santo Antonio.
This pretty town is easy to find your way around, because it’s laid out on a grid system. The town was designed that way by the Marquês de Pombal.
Vila Real has a large town square, ‘Praça Marquês de Pombal’, which is edged with orange trees and surrounded with white buildings, shops, cafes and restaurants. Its grey and white cobbles radiate out from a central obelisk.
There’s lots of lovely details scattered around the town. Including highly detailed tiles on many of the buildings.
Lots of the buildings are in a sad state of disrepair. Partly because anything over one hundred years old can’t be knocked down, only refurbished.
Here’s another of the decorative tiles.
Another of my favourite touches is that some of the houses are completely tiled from floor to ceiling. Whether this is purely decorative or whether it helps keeps them cool in summer I am not sure.
At the end of the 19th century the town was a major canning centre for sardines and tuna. There’s a museum dedicated to the business.
It includes lots of the surprisingly decorative packaging and tins.
There’s also an exhibit of lithography which was used for the print of the labels.
Finally we visited the lovely town of Taveria. Thanks to a cock up I have already posted about that though!!! Opps 🙂