Author: bbpeck

Bob and I have had a number of opportunities to explore our latest home town.  Below are some photos from our meanderings.  We are definitely into fall here with highs recently in the 60s and lows in the high 30s.

 

 

On Saturday, Bob and I headed out for our first out-of-town adventure.  We headed to the town of Sarlat, about a 30 minute drive from Souillac.  Sarlat (full name is Sarlat-La-Caneda, with a tilde over the n) is located west of Souillac in the Dordogne region and is known for its Saturday market.  We had to check it out

We loved the drive there through the gorgeous countryside, walking (and tasting) our way through the market, and enjoying the cute lanes and plazas in which the market was located.  After perusing and shopping in the market, we explored a bit of the old town.  We were charmed by the town and were again impressed by how many languages the store employees could speak.  Bob and I have decided that we need to find jobs in a town that caters to international clientele to help encourage our learning of new languages.

The following are photos of the market as well as some of the specialty food stores that we popped into along the way.

Some non-food photos of Sarlat.

On the drive back to Souillac we saw a number of hikers on an extensive  pathway that paralleled the road.  We decided that hiking on part of this pathway we be a good way to spend some of our Sunday,  so we did.  More on that hike and more photos of Souillac in the next blog.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a more active photo of some of the chickens that we are watching.

 

Our current house sit began on October 11 when we brought the train in from Toulouse and were picked up at the station by our home owners. The train ride took about 2 hours and went by some lovely countryside — rolling hills, lots of trees, charming cottages, and some lakes (or rivers).  We arrived in Souillac (pronounced Sue-yak) round mid-day.

The home that we are caring for is a lovely house about 5 minutes by car out of the town center.  It is up a steep, windy road.  We are caring for the home, 2 dogs, and 24 chickens while the owners are on holiday in Spain.  We enjoyed our day with them, and they made us some lovely sandwiches for lunch and a great salmon and veggies dinner before they left a little after 8 am on the 12th.

The dogs are lovely.  They play great together, and they have a nice, large yard to run around in. We take them for a daily walk as well.

Finn is a rescue dog and is a Jack Russell mix.  He is 7 years old and loves to be loved.  He likes to rub against you to have you pet him.

Diesel is a 4 year old American Staffordshire.  While he is not fond of other dogs (except Finn) and is amazingly strong, he is actually a gentle giant who is less fond of bad weather than Finn.  Bob and I have both played tug with him with an old tire, and he is a great strength builder.  Sometimes walking with him on the lead, he can almost pull you off of your feet if he gets a sudden interest in something.

The chickens are new for us.  We collect eggs, feed them, pick up poop, and let them in and out of their coop each day.  They are fun to watch out in the yard, and the dogs let them be.  It does seem appropriate that the Pecks are caring for animals with peck-ability.

We are enjoying the amazing views from our home and are getting to know the charming town and hope to further explore the area, as the homeowners have generously left a car for our use (an automatic!). Souillac is on the border of the Lot and Dordogne regions of France.  Both are popular tourist areas with lots of history.

We will get some good hill work in on our walks to town.  I have run twice since we have arrived, and it’s about a 14 minute run along a residential street (versus the highway) into town.  This almost completely down hill, so the uphill route back has been a challenge.  It may be the longest up hill I’ve ever done, and I’m hoping it feels easier by the time we leave.

Some photos of the hills and countryside around Souillac —

More from Souillac and our travels in the next blog.  Yesterday and today have been rainy, so we’ve been catching up on tasks such as laundry, blogging, and haircuts (Beth this time — set up by our homeowners before they left).

 

On Sunday, we flew from Granada, Spain to Toulouse, France via Barcelona on Vueling Airlines.  The two flights were short — about an hour and 20 minutes from Granada to Barcelona and just an hour from Barcelona to Toulouse — but we had about a 4.5 hour layover in Barcelona.  The flights, check-in, and security processes were easy for both flights.  The only strange thing was that there was no formal boarding announcement.  Everyone just got up at the boarding time and queued in the appropriate line according to seat number.

We arrived in Toulouse a little after 4:00 (or 16:00 as we are getting use to saying) and then to a tram into town and then changed to a metro to get to our hotel.  All very easy with ticket machines in about 5 different languages.   We had a day and a half in Toulouse — not nearly enough time for what proved to be a beautiful city.  Sample photos below.

Some of the great public art that we saw around Toulouse —

The other thing that we really enjoyed were our walks and runs along the canal paths.  Beautiful!

As we do our walkabouts, it is always nice to find public bathrooms — especially free ones.  Toulouse was good about this.  This one was geared just for men, and a bit too public for my tastes, but Bob gave it a go.  Can you see his feet?

We have completed our quick, 2-city visit in the Andalusian region of Spain.  As mentioned in the prior blog, our initial stop was in Seville.  Neither Bob nor I knew much about it, but we both ended up really enjoying the city and hoping to be able to return sometime.  Photo highlights are below.

The Metropol Parasol, or the “mushroom of the incarnation” was one of our favorite things.  It’s the largest wooden structure in the world.  It looks cool when you come upon it in the plaza, but for 3 euros you can go up for a good view of the city and get a free drink.

As per usual, we saw some very ornately adorned churches.  Apparently, God blesses those who spend on decor rather than helping the needy.

We were really impressed with the Plaza de Espana which was originally built for a world expo and is the entrance to the large and lovely Maria Luisa Park which runs partly along the Guadalquivir River.  Below are photos of the Plaza —

Below are photos of the park and the river —

Our second stop in Spain was to Granada.  I had wanted to visit this city to see the Alhambra when I studied in Spain for a semester in college but never got there.  A group of us even had bought train tickets for an overnight trip to Granada, but something happened with the train (can’t remember if it was a strike or other issue).  The departure was cancelled, and the trip never got rescheduled. So, this was my chance to complete the mission.  Granada was lovely, though not exactly what I was expecting, and I never really bonded with the city.   Lots and lots of tourists and touristy restaurants, etc.  (I think I do better when I go in with fewer expectations.)  But still some lovely photo ops –click on the smaller photos for the captions.

Snippets from La Alhambra —

Bob and I left Olhao, Portugal for Seville, Spain on Wednesday Oct 5 on a 4:00 pm bus from Faro. It was a quick and lovely approximately 2 hour trip on a nice new bus with no stops.  We lost an hour en route and arrived at 7:00 pm Seville time.

We began the day at the Sea View Guest House so that our home owner could sleep in her own bed on her first night back after having traveled from Los Angeles to London Heathrow and then London Gatwick to Faro and then a train to Olhao. Whew! The Sea View Guest House provided a lovely end to our whole Portugal experience with a large room, including our own balcony where we ate our dinner while taking in the neighborhood sounds (which included the neighing of horses along with the usual dogs and residential people noise).

A couple of views from the top of our guest house —

Our last few days in Olhao were taken up with long walks and prepping for our departure. On Sunday, we walked approximately 2 hours to the town of Moncarapacho, a small community a bit northeast of Olhao. I was really just wanting a long walk, but we happily stumbled on a very large market which we enjoyed poking around. It had everything from produce to crafts to clothing to household goods as well as prepared foods. TMI Alert — I even bought 4 new pair of underwear for 5 euro!  This was great for me, as I have always felt that life should just come with underwear as it isn’t something I ever get thrilled about spending money on.

Scenes from walk to and in Moncarapacho —

Scenes from the market —

On Monday, we walked to the community of Estoi, also about 2 hours one-way, but this time a bit northwest of Olhao. On both walks we passed various orchards, although the walk to Estoi was along more rural roads. The goal for this walk was to see a former palace that has been converted into a pousada (usually a building of historic significance that has been converted into a government-owned inn). As with the pousada we visited in Tavira, we were able to walk through the lovely main rooms of the building and enjoy the view out back (although we couldn’t get down by the pool). It was another lovely outing.

The outside of the palace (now pousada) —

Some of the main rooms that anyone can tour -–

The lovely gardens and pool —

On Wednesday, after our free breakfast at the Sea View Guest House (for a $45 a night room), we had a great post-house sit transition with our home owner. We learned a lot about her visit to the States and realize, yet again, that the world is so big and there is much we have left to explore — even in our own backyard. She made the house sit very easy with her detailed instructions, and we feel like we have gained another friend through our house sitting adventures.

One of our main resources for our travels in Portugal has been Rick Steves’ Portugal book (Eighth edition). In this book, he describes the Algarve section of Portugal as stretching for some 100 miles along Portugal’s southern coast with beaches along the water’s edge and rolling green hills with orchards farther inland.  The actual coastline varies from lagoon estuaries in the east (like Olhao and Tavira) to sandy beach resorts in the center (Faro to Lagos) to rugged cliffs in the west (Sagres).  Based on this, he provides a map of the Algarve which divides and categorizes it into three areas — Worst (central section from Portimao, which is just west of Lagos to Faro), Better (Faro west to the Spanish border, including Olhao and Tavira), and Best (from Lagos to the western edge of Portugal).  We are not sure we would agree with this rating system, and haven’t had enough exposure throughout the area to say, but it made us curious to visit at least one town in his Best section.

With Lagos (LAH-goosh) being the town in the Best section that is closest to Olhao, we decided to head out for a visit.  This would be a quick visit, as travel time one-way is about 2 hours by train (actually 1.5 hours by train with about a 30 min layover in Faro).  It was worth the trip, as Lagos was a fun, active town to stroll around and we got a glimpse of some of the craggier coastline that marks the western shores.  The train trip itself was fun, as we got to glimpse other lovely  towns along the way (such as Portimao with its beautiful bridge) as well as a number of attractive golf courses.

See the photos below for some highlights of our quick 4 hours in Lagos.

There are two barrier islands off the coast of Olhao; although they get referenced as three.  Armona, where Bob had the grilled sardines last week, stands alone.  Then there is one island that is discussed as two islands — Culatra and Farol.  You can take a ferry to either one.  Culatra is on on the northern end of the island and Farol is on the south.  It costs a bit more for the ferry to Farol (though the same ferry stops at both places), so we have always (the 2 times that we’ve gone) purchased the round trip ticket to Culatra and then walked the beach to Farol.  The first time we went we didn’t spend anytime in Farol after we got there as we were trying to catch a 1 pm ferry back (didn’t happen), so we got to explore Culatra.  This week we went back to check out Farol.

The walk to Farol from the Culatra boat dock took us about 50 minutes.  You walk through town (village?), then along a boardwalk to the beach,and then a shoeless walk along the beach for some free exfoliating (sorry for that mental picture).  Neither of us really have swimsuits with us, and we prefer the walking to the lying out (or getting into the cold water).  Once in Farol, we checked out the lighthouse, walked out along the pier where there were people fishing, and then walked by the local restaurant and inns.

While the ferries have always been pretty full on our trips to the islands, the beaches have not been crowded.  Part of that is likely due to the time of the year and part to the fact that some of the ferry traffic is locals going about their daily business that takes them back and forth to the island and mainland.

It was another lovely walkabout on Farol.  See highlights below.

Two views of people enjoying different parts of the beach —

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a lovely day Monday in Tavira, Portugal, a 25 minute (or so) train ride out of Olhaio along the Atlantic Coast towards Spain.  Rick Steves described it as a “sleepy town,” but we were charmed and found it to be in the midst of some refurbishment/construction.  We again were aided in our town walk about by the map left by our home owner along with Rick Steves 2 page write up.

After walking into town from the train station, an easy 5-10 minute walk, we started our tour of Tavira at the castle.  The base of the castle walls are supposedly Neolithic (ending about 4,500 – 2,000 BC!) with Phoenicians, Moors, and Portugese adding their own layers as time progressed.  What remains of the castle are portions of the wall that enclose a lovely garden.  From the top of the walls, you can also get great views of the town.

After the Castle, we walked to the nearby old water tower to view the camera obscura.  This was an impressive presentation using a mirror and 2 lenses to show you a real-time view of the city.  We liked the thought that by walking around town, we might be part of the next show.  We were also I,pressed with our young presenter’s ability to talk through what we were seeing in three different languages — English, French, and German for our group.

Other town sites that we enjoyed were the Church of Santa Maria and its bell tower, the former convent which is now a pousada (government-run inn), the Church of the Misercordia, and the bridges and promenades along the Rio Gilao.

The other activity we really enjoyed was walking out along the river to the marina.  It appears to be a newly developed area, and we had a lovely picnic lunch overlooking the water.

Over the past three days we have continued to explore various parts of the greater Olhao area.  One day we visited the Environmental Education Centre of Marim that is a large designated park area that contains education and representative samples of the biodiversity and historical and current uses of the Rio Formosa, the estuary between Olhao and the Atlantic Ocean.  The information is provided through exhibits in the visitor’s center but also along a 3-kilometer nature path through the park.  The trail features aspects of the Rio Formosa ecosystem such as salt marshes, dunes, and pine woodlands.  There is information on local birds to be seen within the park.  There are also buildings such as a traditional farmhouse and waterwheel, a mill that ran on the power of the tide (aptly called a tidal mill), and the lovely former villa of a locally renowned poet that has been repurposed into an educational center for children.

The following day we got to see the Rio Formosa park from the water, as we took the water ferry to the barrier island of Armona — a bit east of Culatra and Farol which we had visited last week.  The ferry trip to Armona was very short — maybe 20 minutes at most.  In fact, on the way out, it seemed like you could almost walk there, as it was low tide so a number of men were out crabbing.  When we came back in the afternoon the tide was up, and you couldn’t see where the men had been working in the morning.  On Armona, we had a lovely walk on the beach before lunch at a local cafe.  Bob had to try the grilled sardines and local brandy that one of our homeowners had been telling us about.  You will see that he enjoyed it.

Yesterday we decided to walk to, and climb up, a hill that we can see from the place we are staying.  It is one of the hills that run behind the town of Olhao, and we noticed it because of the long poles that are atop it.  Bob had read about the possibility of going up it, so we had to do it.  It was a fairly urban hike in that the majority of it was along roads (but not sidewalks) though towards the end we were on a gravel road for a bit before the final ascent along a rocky path.  Apparently others have done this, as we noted some helpful arrows and cairns along the way.  It took us about 2 and 1/4 hours to get to the top from where we are staying.

On our way back to town, we saw a number of discarded cigarette packages.  Smoking is still very popular here even with the disgusting photos that must be required on the packages.  We were a bit dismayed at the name of these butts.