Salema, a Rest Day

 Oct 9 2023



Today we took a break from biking. We hiked a short while this morning, discovering a piece of the Eurovelo, the Europe-wide network of cycling paths, and a piece of the Rota Vicentina, the Fisherman’s Way. The latter is a 750 kilometre trail along Portugal's west and south coasts. We saw a number of cyclists braving the gravel of the EV, which we are actually considering for tomorrow. While we didn’t encounter hikers today, we have seen many on the Rota along our way. It’s hard to imagine walking all day carrying backpacks in this heat, but the walkers we’ve met seemed in good spirits. We probably seemed in good spirits, too, to them. Maybe we’re all a special kind of crazy.

Anyhow, this area is breathtaking, the cliffs, the beaches. Salema is, in a way, tiny. It has a couple of minimarts and a few narrow cobbled streets. It is a fishing village taken over by tourism, however, bustling with hotels, restaurants, and bars. The condos of North American, British, and European expats prickle the slopes above the town. This, apparently, is typical of the South Coast Algarve: condos and golf courses.

Our hotel is pretty ugly from the outside. Our room is the 3rd from the left on the top floor. That red booth is a book-exchange library with dozens of books in English and other languages.

The view is quite acceptable, as is the functionality.

Laundry (how to class up the joint, right?)

Blogging

Laundry and fishing poles

Old Town Salema

Looking west towards Salema, condos on the cliffs

Same spot, looking east

The Eurovelo, with cyclists. That red path heading up to the left is the Rota Vicentina.

Salema from the Rota, town by the beach, condos above.

The blue and green lines represent the Rota

We saw 3 of these cairns on our short walk.

The business end of the beach. Not many fishing boats left.

The main catch is octopus, which they trap in clay pots.

For evening, we the had made a reservation at a highly recommended restaurant where the fish is caught by the husband, cooked by the wife, and served by the son. That was the story, and that may have been the case at one time, but now it's upscale, with more waiters than you can apparently summon. We sat in a leafy street-level terrace, and were shown a platter from which the catches of the day stared at us. The specialty was a platter for two, with fish chosen from the glassy-eyed ones, one kg of fish for two people. That's a massive amount of fish. We chose something different, but we watched the platters-for-two delivered to other tables. In fact, we watched for an hour, until Elly decided they'd forgotten us, that our meal wasn't valuable enough to bother with. Given a nudge, the waiter brought our food almost instantly. My seafood spaghetti was tasty, but over salted, and Elly's piri-piri shrimp were delicious, she said. You know how you read those many 5-star reviews on travel sites, and then come across the one that claims the service was the worst in the world? Ours would have been that one rogue review for this restaurant. It's a shame, because the dishes we saw go by looked spectacular. And the fish, obviously, was fresh.