Algarve, Day 11 - restful day

After our usual relaxed morning routine we set out to follow a path we had seen yesterday that had a sign   indicating it lead to the beach.

There are not as many barking dogs here as I have heard visiting other European countries but this fellow and his 2 compatriots do occasionally start up when another dog passes their balcony.

The path followed the edges of apartments and houses, steps and flat, wood in some places, cement in others,

giving us glimpses into patios and little gardens. This plant had purple/green rosettes of leaves and yellow flowers that didn't look as if they belonged to it.

The path ended at the patio of the restaurant at the east end of the beach.

We sat and read, listening to the waves breaking on the beach at high tide

until the cold of the cement bench crept through the towels we were sitting on.

Realizing it was lunch time we walked into the little beach beside the main one, to this restaurant.

It was their first day of being open this season. Good timing.

There were a group of para-gliders over the beach near Villamoura

and one played the updrafts all the way to us.

Walking along the main beach we were amused by the Sanderlings

 

The sanderling's typical feeding behavior is to scurry onto wet sand as waves recede to probe for small mollusks and crustaceans, fleeing as the waves crash down and the surf rolls toward it. From Birdwatchers.com

That was exactly what they were doing

running up the beach so fast that their little legs were a blur of motion.

Home again we read on the balcony for a while but a cool breeze drove us inside and around 6pm it started to rain. The forecast for our last few days here doesn't look as nice as last week but still a lot better than the snow we are seeing in the weather reports from Southern Ontario.