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Not pictured, my sleep deprivation  This is our last full day in Lagos, so we decide to take a bit slower. The weather has taken a decidedly spring turn, with rain, wind, windy rain, and just generally, The Weather We Are Vacationing From. My wife is a big fan of sun. Full sun, sun sets, sun rises, sun sun sun sun. Whereas my affinity for sun sits somewhere between an albino hermit and those sea creatures that evolve at the bottom of the ocean, surviving only on the sulfureous fumes from underwater vents, never seeing a ray of sunshine their entire, very lucky, lives.  But, we are in Portugal, and on vacation, and she wishes to see the sun rise, so we do. We wake up at some ungodly hour at which only early morning radio DJs and probably vampires are awake and trudge out, leaving our kids blissfully asleep. Now the sun could stay where it went to sleep for all I care, but we are up, and at the cliffs. Cliffs into the Sea is the majority of what I've seen of Portugal.  It's...

 Today  was the day that the boat charter said would be good to go. We wouldn't be able to .. sail.. boat.. move the boat into the caves, but we'll be able to see it from outside. We are disappointed, but I'm sure these salted, veteran sea farers with hundreds of years of water exploration know what they're doing. Me, I've been on a few car ferries.  We head to the dock, it's a normal drive, until the last 200 metres or so that seem like it was developed for experimental tank training. Potholes and mud and gravel and I can see why most people are wary about buying rental cars; because I just gun that Skoda through the patch of road like shocks are for free and tires are optional. We meet the guide.. the guides. The boat is a very very large zodiac, maybe with a seating capacity for 20 folks. But it takes something like 10 staff. Ten thirtyish to middle aged well-salted, tanned to mahogany sailors all with a grim expression like they've just lost 3 tourists o...

We had planned to take a boat to see all the pretty coastal caves but the spring weather, wind and waves had other ideas, and our trip was cancelled. At some point we realized the trip from Lagos to the cave is likely the longer of the trips we could take. It'd be easier to get a boat trip from a charter that was closer to the caves. Less water to cross, etc. Anyhow, the important thing is that my wife and I, as we often do, found a small little loop that'd we repeat ad nauseum, along the lines of:  "Ohh, so, it's you know, BECAUSE it's so far away.." "Right, right, we should get a boat trip from a company CLOSER" "Totally, because then it would be closer, right, less water, less likely to be cancelled" "Because Lagos is, you know, so FAR AWAY." And somehow find a way to loop it back or give it a rest until we bring  it up again. Merely to troll our teenagers. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, our kid...

 This is the day my wife has been waiting for, walking along cliffs and enjoying the view! Hiking, but slightly less strenous, less gear, and almost no goretex. We head out dressed for chilly, windy weather. But when we  arrive at the first choice, it's crammed with cars. Of course, it's the weekend, so the tourists and the locals will be cramming to the hot spots to get their nature time in. This must be a popular spot because we counted at least 10 cars idling in the middle of the lanes, hoping for a parking spot to open up. We go to a different spot. But it's hot. Well, it's warm. And, as I've said before, I tolerate heat like a chocolate Easter bunny. So I end up having to roll my sensible slacks up and just grin and bearing it along the way. Yes I look ridiculous and someone that perhaps mothers with young children should give a wide berth but I'll probably not drop from heat exhaustion and who am I here to impress anyways. My kids, perhaps inoculated to my...

 And here we are at the slower part of our trip, our time in Portugal, where we will stay and just chill for a few days. Our itinerary is mainly finding lovely cliffs/beaches to wander along. Was this iternary created by my hiking wife? Yes. Does she do every iota of organizing for our trips? Also yes. Do I then deserve any opinion about this 'hey aren't we just hiking but in a different counry?' trip? No. No I do not. Hokay, another set of busses, nothing to repr, but this bus station was quite pretty: We find out way to the Faro airport, to pick up our car, the scene looks something like this: This seems like something you'd see at the turn of the century when things like the BBB or car safety regulations didn't exist. Who knew there were so many car rental company's I have NEVER heard of. The misspelling of "Shuttle" did not fill me with confidence either. Or the general disarray of the line (not pictured), there were real concerns we'd take the...