Port 68 Portimao, Portugal

by Ed · May 12, 2022

Ola!

On May 8th, 2022, we pulled into port at Portimao. It was cool but sunny! A lot of people were already out walking. Some watched us come in from one of the lighthouses!

The sun is high and the water is alive with activity when we clear the breakwaters! Our tug joins us there.

I hear a man whistle, then a boat toot! The tug crew is motioning toward the water. We are dragging a line, probably from a crab pot in the water outside the bay! The tug can’t get near us with this in the water – it could foul on their propeller!

I guess our guys couldn’t do anything, so the tug swung around to the other side of the line and used a long pole to fish it in. They piled it on deck and pulled up to our aft end. I couldn’t see what happened, but it appeared our crew took the line from the tug. Now the tug can safely operate behind us!

The beaches here are beautiful! A lot of people are already out enjoying the sunshine!

On the other side of the ship we see a cute marina area with colorful buildings and a fort!

A fort on the starboard side comes in to view along with more beach! …and whatever that blow up thing is…

We finally reach our pier!

We have an excursion to visit “Traditional Villages – Alvor & Ferragudo”. We hop on the bus to go to the other side of the bay to Ferragudo! I’m tickled by the bicycle sign. How many symbols do you need to say “no bikes here”?

I snapped this photo before I knew this is Ferragudo! I thought we had a little farther to go…

We park, pile out, and start walking! I love this statue of a fisherman pulling in the nets!

In this town, everything is on the hillside, and a rather steep hillside at that! Your knees need to be in good shape!

I really appreciate what some people have done to try to dress up a lousy wiring situation! The birds on the right are cute! This would never fly in the US! I’m talking about the exposed wire unions, not the birds covering the wires.

We get a lesson in paint colors!

Yellow around the door and windows means the lady of the house is married.
Blue around the door and windows means the lady of the house is single and looking!
Gray around the door and windows means the lady of the house is a widow.

In this case, both a married woman and an unmarried woman live in the house on the left, and a widow on the right!

When I saw this memorial I had to look him up. Baden-Powell is honored here with this memorial. I found this on Wikipedia: Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Scout Movement, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of the world-wide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement.

From the viewpoint of the memorial to Baden-Powell, I get this lovely view of Insignia! This is my gratuitous shot of the day!

Behind me on the wall is a unique image of the Madonna. In this it appears the two children are fighting!

This is on the side of the Main Church of Ferragudo (Igreja Mardiz de Ferragudo). (Remember, we’re in Portugal, so the spelling is a little different than in Spain.)

These lovely parasols decorated a rooftop just below the church plaza! there was a little tan dog there too, but I can’t see it in these photos.

But here’s another dog! It was nice to see the tile that made the restaurant’s sign has the owner’s dog in the picture!

Here is another special work with tile! I love the seahorses!

This is a monument to Opera! There are four tile panels around it. You see two of them here.

Of course, not all artwork is on a wall, and certainly not all on tile! The bird portrait is stunning! This town’s name is Ferragudo, and the region of Portugal we are in is Algarve. That is celebrated in the box on the right. I’m not sure what would be inside that box!

This house took tilework to a higher level. And it wasn’t the only one! Remember what yellow means?

All over this area there are tall red smokestacks with nests on top. Here’s the explanation: This area used to be chock full of fish canneries. These factories were pulling out as the fishing business slumped due to overfishing. Storks made nests on the unused stacks. As storks are protected, the smokestacks could not be removed as long as an active nest is present. So factories were demolished without damaging the smokestacks.

There was even a case at a construction site where a stork built a nest on a crane. Construction was shut down for six months until the stork’s eggs hatched and the chicks left the nest.

We drive to the other side of the bay to the village of Alvor. This appears to be a more improved area. Beautiful tilework has been laid by artists. The white is limestone, the black is granite. All over the waterfront they embedded images of the Portuguese caravel boats that made Portugal the master of the seas for decades! A ship’s wheel is also a common image. The offset stripes add a little fun!

This recycle fish sculpture attempts to remind people that we need to be careful with our plastics.

This sculpture basically says the world is full of poluted water sources. The little kid is trying to get a cup of water and is only getting ocean waste.

This beautiful mermaid is made mostly of washers welded together! It’s sad there wasn’t a prettier background to highlight her. You don’t want to see the junk I cropped off the top of this photo.

Dorothy take a seat next to this little lady, also made of washers!

No one was willing to try a full lotus position!

The traffic circle has three sculptures related to the clam business that once thrived here!

Behind some huts are the tools of the trade still in use here!

We walked around town for about twenty minutes, then hopped back on the bus to go to the fort! Bonus! That wasn’t in the description!

I really like this view of the point through the arches! This might become the featured image!

Looking a little more toward the harbor, we can see the colorful villas that we saw this morning!

JLS came by to say “hi”! I like how this photo turned out!

We were told these villas are all for rent! So if you want to come to Portimao for a week or more, these places are at the marina, close to the beaches!

And the boardwalk goes all of the way to the end of the breakwater! (This is not the one I showed when we came in this morning – this is the other side.)

Time to head back. The ship isn’t far away!

Back on board we are having a special dinner on the pool deck tonight! Here are two of our lovely crew members, Angela on the left and Estefanie on the right! Estefanie danced for us during dinner!