We woke up at about 7:30 a.m. to pack, clean up the Airbnb, and head down to the bus station. There had been warnings about potential strike activity affecting the trains, so we had cancelled our original train tickets and used a FlixBus instead. It was quicker and the accommodations were nicer. I believe the prices were comparable. Initially, the trip was slow with several stops along winding roads. I did not like that part. But, once the bus had run its traps, picking up people in various towns in the Algarve, the route became more direct to Lisbon on the main highway. Someone, possibly the driver, had some kind of news station on very audibly. It was in Portuguese, but had that loud and overbearing “BREAKING NEWS” urgency to it.

When we got back to Lisbon, we checked into the Tivoli hotel  just across from the train station. Initially, they had the kids booked for a king sized bed, but we fixed that. We went to the Skytop bar for some snacks and drinks. The view was good but the prices were high and the service was indifferent.

However, properly fortified, we were ready to do something with the day. It was incredibly hot out, but we didn’t really have any indoor ideas. So, using the metro for – I believe – the first time all trip, we went down to the Praca do Commercio and generally wandered around in that area. I enjoyed a busker playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” while I dipped my feet in the water.

 

One good find was a place called Bizzarro Gelato which had a variety of oddball flavors (onion-mango, for example) along with the usual ones. The temperatures made it a great day for gelato. From there, we continued making our way up hill, stopping for drinks at “the Little Wine Shop,” a place where Amy, Harper, and Kenza had stopped in 2022 back when Harper and I were encountering the never ending stairway. In fact, we found the record store where Harper had picked up some 45s and I regretted not buying the “Rapper’s Delight” knockoff by “Chagrill’s Gang.” Unfortunately, it was closed on Tuesdays.

After enjoying some views at the top of the hill, we wound our way back down and had ginjinha at A Ginjinha which is a few steps away from the Memorial of the Jewish Massacre of 1506. The ginjinha shop is pretty literally a hole in the wall. Just a small alcove where a guy is slinging shots. There is a handwashing station there because the drink is so sticky. Rounding out the day, I had some prawn and cod stew at a nearby restaurant we picked more or less at random. Once again, the fish bones were a bit of a problem for me. And then, we took the train back to our hotel. We were all good and tired at this point.

 

The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 for a 7:45 a.m. departure. Going to bed, I had inadvertently turned off the main power to the room without realizing it. So, Amy had to take a shower mostly in the dark. (I figured out the switch later.) We got the kids up and moving without too much trouble, and the journey home was mostly uneventful except that the connection through Heathrow is a cluster. We were literally running for the gate and, fortunately, made our connection.  Chicago was easy. Total travel time was just over twenty hours door to door. And, as per usual, the dogs were glad to see us return!

 

The full series:

• • Day One: Travel to Lisbon
  • Day Two: Lisbon Street Art and Sunset Sail
  • Day Three: National Tile Museum, Tropical Botanical Garden, and Food & Fado Tour
  • Day Four: Travel to Lagos
  • Day Five: Catamaran from Lagos
  • Day Six: Seven Hanging Gardens Trail & Caso Do Prego
  • Day Seven: Sunrise Kayak and Lagos Food Tour
  • Day Eight: Back to Lisbon and Return Home (You are here.)

Our third day in Lagos and seventh day overall started with an extremely early morning. Our big activity was a sunrise kayak tour, so we had a lot to do before sunrise! Amy got up at about 4:45 a.m. and started making breakfast. The kids and I woke up at 5 a.m. Both kids understood that the timeline was such that we couldn’t mess around too much and got moving without a fuss.

Our Uber picked us up at 5:55 so we could get to Lagoa at about 6:30 and hit the ocean at 7. In retrospect, given our activities with two day trips to the Lagoa area, it might have made more sense to stay in Lagoa and then maybe make a day trip to Lagos. But, live and learn.

The tour was about two hours. Our guide, Caio had a background in geology, spoke about five languages, and was really friendly. We used two-person ocean kayaks, Harper & I in one and Amy & Cole in the other.

The main destination was Benagil Cave (not technically a cave because it is open at the top, but I forget what Caio told us it was called). It is a beautiful rock formation with an open ceiling and an entrance from the ocean onto a beach within the cave. Environmentally, the amount of tourism it gets is not sustainable.

When we were there in the morning, with just a few kayaks, the impact was fairly minimal and it was a great time to enjoy the site. But, when we had been hiking the day before, we were able to see the area from the cliffs above. The crowds of pontoons and jet skis and what have you were overwhelming. Technically I think tours are supposed to have permits but that rule is either ignored or they are getting as close as they can without violating the letter of the law.

But the morning set up was great. We basically had the place all to ourselves. To make landfall in the cave, Caio had us come in one kayak at a time so he could help us out. Harper and I got to the beach without incident. Amy and Cole came in hot with a wave at their back, running over Caio and dumping the kayak. They got wet, but nobody got hurt, and none of the gear was lost. So it ended up just being a funny little incident.

After about 20 minutes in the cave, we headed out and explored some other caves and rock formations in the area. After we got back, climbed up to the parking lot, stowed the gear and whatnot, it was breakfast time. Rather than getting an Uber right away, Caio took us into Lagoa in the cargo van and dropped us off at a breakfast place he recommended. Once again, a Waffle House would have been just the thing for my dumb American palate, but the place had artisanal toast and whatnot.

After we got back to Lagos and the Airbnb, I caught a nap. The rest of the family went out for supplies. Remembering how well it hit the spot during our boat tour in Lisbon, they brought back Bugles! I was so happy. After quite a bit of downtime – early mornings create a lot of extra time in the day – we went on a food tour in Lagos.

Our tour guide was Juan. He’d been doing this for about five years and said that he’d been doing lunch and dinner 6x per week. He made a lot of jokes about his wife. In our group were two groups of Canadians – one with four teachers from Ottawa and one group of four from Toronto. The teachers were just having the best time. It very much felt like they were taking advantage of being away from the responsibilities of home to cut loose.

The group from Toronto was a pair of friends and their two daughters. Very Kate & Allie! Apparently they figure out where Pearl Jam will be performing out of the country and make a destination of it every year. This time, it was Lisbon. Rounding out our group was David from Bristol, England.

Our first stop was Matobiche where we had fish soup, green wine, chorizo, and octopus salad. The fish soup was so good!

Our next stop was Cervejaria Ferradura, a small bar with a giant, horseshoe shaped bar top dominating the room (“ferradura” means “horseshoe.”) It was run by, as Juan put it, “the grumpy lady.” One member of our group got in trouble with “the grumpy lady” for using too many napkins. It was hot in there, but of all the places, probably my favorite ambiance. Here we had Sagres, razor clams, and bifanhas. (Best bifanhas yet, with mustard and hot sauce.) While we were there, a group of on duty cops came and had some beers. At the end of the meal, we capped it off with a shot of “moonshine.” It was supposedly 120 proof and tasted like vodka.

 

Our third stop was the “Imperio” which, I thought, was a little touristy. But, what are you going to do? Lagos is a tourist town. To eat, we had green beans tempura. They were good. Juan told us these were influenced by the Portuguese / Japanese connection during Portugal’s imperial period in the 16^th century. I always take these tidbits with a grain of salt, but it seems plausible anyway. Those were paired with white wine.

At the end of the day, if you ply the people on the food tours with enough booze, we’ll probably end up happy no matter what the food is like. We were all getting pretty full at this point, and our last stop was for dessert at a place where I neglected to take note of the name. (Possibly the alcohol contributed to this oversight!) Dessert was an almond tart, I believe.

As we were walking through Lagos during the food tour, the kids and I started joking about the “ATM Cash Zone” in Mountain Dew commercial tones – “EXTREME CASH!” Laughing about how it would be funny if the ATM just releases your savings at high velocity and you had to capture it before it blew away.

It was a good day. We capped it off with yet more Cobra Kai and then bed.
The full series:

• • Day One: Travel to Lisbon
  • Day Two: Lisbon Street Art and Sunset Sail
  • Day Three: National Tile Museum, Tropical Botanical Garden, and Food & Fado Tour
  • Day Four: Travel to Lagos
  • Day Five: Catamaran from Lagos
  • Day Six: Seven Hanging Gardens Trail & Caso Do Prego
  • Day Seven: Sunrise Kayak and Lagos Food Tour (You are here.)
  • Day Eight: Back to Lisbon and Return Home

This was another early morning. Our big plan for the day was to hike the Seven Hanging Valleys Trail. We ended up going to the breakfast place that we’d skipped the day before. Still a little fancy for my taste in breakfast, but not bad. The kids and I got peanut butter and banana bagels. After that, we caught an Uber to the trailhead at Praia do Marinha which was about a 45 minute drive to the east of Lagos.

The trail is about 6km with a lot of ups and downs. The views are absolutely spectacular. The coast is rugged with high cliffs, interesting rock formations, blue skies, and blue ocean. The trail features a lot of up and down. At one point while we were hiking, we lost Harper. She walks faster than everyone. When Google Maps says something is a 20 minute walk, we joke “that’s a Harper 15.”

There was a parking lot near Alfanzina Lighthouse where the trail wasn’t especially well marked and there were a couple of paths where you could get past someone without seeing them. She had gone a little ahead of where we started looking for her, so we were back tracking without any success. Eventually, a woman asked if we were looking for our daughter, and we reunited.

The trail ended at Praia do Vale de Centianes in Carvoiero. We were pretty gassed at that point and hungry. Restaurante O Stop was right there, so we figured that made as much sense as anything. The views were outstanding and the food was decent (we had bifanhas again), but the service was glacial.  After eating, we caught an Uber home and had ourselves a rest.

That evening we went to dinner at a place called Caso do Prego which was a lot of fun. The atmosphere was lively and the service was incredibly friendly. The food was pretty good too. When we arrived, there weren’t any tables, so they shunted us up to the rooftop bar. (Oh no!) The music was good and we had some beer and green wine.

 

When we got a table, Harper and I had the “O Prego” which was basically a steak sandwich. The “chips” were a good middle ground between a chip and a potato. At one point, we think Amy got someone else’s wine – which evened out when I never got the beer I ordered. It’s good the staff was so friendly!

When Harper ordered some wine, the server asked for her ID. She started pulling it out and he laughed and said he was just kidding. We had a pretty good laugh about that all around.

Once again, we rounded out the day with a couple of episodes of Cobra Kai.

 

The full series:

• Day One: Travel to Lisbon
• Day Two: Lisbon Street Art and Sunset Sail
• Day Three: National Tile Museum, Tropical Botanical Garden, and Food & Fado Tour
• Day Four: Travel to Lagos
• Day Five: Catamaran from Lagos
• Day Six: Seven Hanging Gardens Trail & Caso Do Prego (You are here.)
• Day Seven: Sunrise Kayak and Lagos Food Tour
• Day Eight: Back to Lisbon and Return Home

The activity for the fifth day of our trip and our first full day in Lagos was a catamaran tour of the coast. The tour departed from the nearby marina, but we had to figure out breakfast. Difficulties getting everyone out of bed and moving made the timing of breakfast fairly stressful. By the time we got to the breakfast place we had scoped out the day before, there was a wait that we didn’t think we could swing. The second place was o.k., but a little pricey for bacon and eggs. (I think some American could probably make a decent living with a low-rent, Waffle House style breakfast place in Portugal.)

Ultimately, we finished breakfast, walked over the footbridge, and made it to the marina with a fair amount of time to spare. This isn’t really that unusual for us which is probably part of why our kids don’t always feel a lot of urgency when we stress out about leaving the house.

By joining the catamaran tour, we were probably part of the problem when it comes to tourism in this part of the world. The trip was fun and gave us a good view of the amazing cliffs along the coast. But it was jam-packed with other catamarans, kayaks, and generally just a lot of people doing what we were doing. This has an environmental impact and, I’m sure, crowds out the locals who probably like the economic impact but would just as soon not have to deal with the mobs.

We sat on the top deck of the catamaran, joined by a big Spanish family, a Japanese family, and a group of three women from the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Eventually, we stopped at a cove for swimming, drinking, and eating. The music was festive, and the water was cold. Very cold! When Cole jumped in, he had trouble breathing. Harper’s skin burned from the salt. I took a swim around the circumference of the catamaran and it ended up being more of a workout than I expected. I imagine it had to do with the temperature of the water, but it took me a while to get my heart rate down. And this is this stuff we do for fun!

Amy volunteered Cole for the hot sauce on the chicken. It was very hot – initially, it looked like more than he could handle, but he rallied. In the process, he had quite a bit to drink (we’ll just blame the hot sauce and not him being a 20 year old college student) and was getting pretty chatty. Which was kind of fun, but as a parent, you worry about things getting out of hand. (Never mind what I was like at his age.)

When we got back, we picked up some post cards on our way to the Airbnb. Everything is so interconnected at this point, that we could easily text pictures of our trip to whoever we wanted and they would get it more or less immediately. But, there is still something kind of fun getting a card from a distant land, so we have gotten in the habit of sending out cards to a few people we know will enjoy them. Once we had filled them out, I walked them down to a mailbox in the city center and, while I was close, got a new bag of Grefusa “Palomitas de Maiz.”

For dinner, we went to a place called Calhou. Amy and the kids all got pizza. I had some tuna which tasted good but the bones were pretty tough to navigate. And, we split a bottle of green wine. By the time we got home, Harper was pretty gassed and maybe needed a little break from the family. She retired while Amy, Cole, and I watched a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I like all of the things we do and places we see, but part of the joy of these vacations is just hanging out and doing the mundane stuff – watching TV and whatnot – with my family.

The full series:

• Day One: Travel to Lisbon
• Day Two: Lisbon Street Art and Sunset Sail
• Day Three: National Tile Museum, Tropical Botanical Garden, and Food & Fado Tour
• Day Four: Travel to Lagos
• Day Five: Catamaran from Lagos (You are here.)
• Day Six: Seven Hanging Gardens Trail & Caso Do Prego
• Day Seven: Sunrise Kayak and Lagos Food Tour
• Day Eight: Back to Lisbon and Return Home