Sagres, Cape Saint Vincent, and Other Adventures

Today was our first full day in Portugal. When we landed last night and were picking up our rental car the guy at the counter mentioned how it’s supposed to rain all week. So we came somewhere warm and sunny for spring break just to have it be grey, rainy, and cool. It was so stormy last night while we were sleeping that I woke up from the sound of the wind rattling the roladens (yes! Roladens!!) and the rain pounding against the roof. I took a peek out the window at the storm and the palm trees across the street were going crazy in the wind. 

Just to give you a mental image of this place, it’s way better than last years trailer accommodations. We’re in a two bedroom apartment with a nice living room, dining room, kitchen big enough for a big table, and two balconies. I think there are nine apartments in the whole building. It’s decorated nicely and is pretty comfortable. There’s a roll away bed in the second bedroom so the girls are all sharing one room while Jared and I have the other. We park in a parking garage under the building and we can just see a sliver of the ocean from one of the balconies. 

So back to today, yeah we woke up to pouring rain. But this part of Portugal is where people come to enjoy the sun so there’s not a lot to do indoors. We got a break from the rain mid-morning so we headed out to find a grocery store and stock up the kitchen. While we were out we grabbed breakfast from a cute ice cream shop because it’s a vacation and ice cream for breakfast seems okay (or crepes, which is what we ended up ordering). We found an Aldi and got some foods and then came back to our place.

The rain was still holding off so we went for it and set out for some adventures. We decided that we’d go to the far western point of Portugal, and of Europe, to visit the fortress at Sagres and the Cape Saint Vincent lighthouse and that we’d also stop at anything along the way that looked interesting.

This place looked interesting! It was filled with pottery at great prices and in so many beautiful colors and styles. I think we would have actually bought something if there was even an inch of room in our backpacks that we've packed a week's worth of clothing into and if we didn’t already have more pottery than we really need. 

Next stop was the fortress at Sagres which is just perched on top of cliffs sticking out into the Atlantic. It was so windy! There was a path that followed the edge of the cliffs around the perimeter of the peninsula and at one point we were pushing against the wind with all we had to move forward. And then it was pushing us forward from behind. I decided to go with it and run while the wind was at my back. I was faster than I’ve ever been, but it was a little crazy when I realized that I could not stop moving forward when I wanted to. 

Samantha's hair in this picture!

Abigail wins the craziest windy hair contest!

After the fortress we drove three miles along the coast to the Cape Saint Vincent lighthouse which is the westernmost point in mainland Europe. On the way, we saw another small fort and a beach with tons of surfers. We decided we'd stop at both places when we were driving back from the lighthouse and check them out. More interesting things to see!

We couldn’t actually go into the lighthouse or even get up that close to it. But it’s really cool to think that the light can be seen 35 miles out into the Atlantic. It was also really windy here. Abigail’s hair was down all day which might not have been a good choice given the weather! We grabbed some postcards and a bumper sticker for Jared’s car from the gift shop and then got some ice cream at the little cafe. It was a quick stop really, but it was a cool place to go. 

It's like Abby doesn't even have a face in this one; she's full Cousin It from the Adams' Family.

We stopped at the fort we’d seen along the way as we were driving back. The fort itself was closed but there was a little path along the cliff that we decided to explore. It started off great and pretty flat, but quickly became a steep, rocky, narrow, slightly scary path that went all the way down the cliff face to the ocean. We weren’t expecting that level of adventure today and nobody had the right shoes for what we were doing but we just kept working our way down the cliff. You’ve got to love Europe though, no warning signs, no railing, nothing. If you think you can, you can. And if you can’t, well, that’s on you. The bottom was just a big rocky area where we sat for a while enjoying our surroundings and each other’s company. Samantha said it, “Just listening to the waves is the best.” But man, that climb back up was a beast. Much less scary because it didn’t feel like we were going to fall to our deaths at any moment, but a workout that I was not ready for. 

Then we headed a little further down the road to the surfer's beach. It was another walk down to the ocean from the cliff tops, but this time there were actual concrete steps and everything. We played in the sand until the rain returned and drove us back up the steps to our car. The girls all ended up getting a little further into the water than they should have in jeans, but it was fun and a good chance to get our feet wet (literally!) before we spend a day at the beach next week.