Another mammoth drive of about 20 miles, this morning, brought us to the town of Tavira. There is both an official aire and campsite in Tavira but both are a fairly long walk from the centre so for out sightseeing we headed for a large, quiet parking area next to the river and only five minutes walk from the centre.
Tavira has been occupied since at least 400 BC and at the time of the Romans was an important port. Over years the town’s river has silted up and now it is firmly an inland town.
A short walk brought us to the “Roman Bridge” which crosses the river right into the centre of the town. In reality only the piers are of Roman origin. The rests was constructed after the 1755 earthquake. It is now pedestrian only. When you step off the bridge you are immediately in the town’s large and pretty square.
Tavira again looks a prosperous holiday town. Every building is freshly whitewashed and the cafés and restaurants are doing a good trade. It must be ideal for a tourist based business: virtually a 12 month season.
We trundled along the handsome waterfront for Sarah to look in the old market building, which turned out to have little inside and then headed into the uphill area around the castle.
The large whitewashed Church of Santa Maria do Castelo, as the name suggests, sits adjacent to the old castle. It’s main tower dates from the 13th Century but the rest had to be rebuilt after the earthquake. The church is supposed to contain the tombs of seven knights killed by the Moors during Tavira’s reconquest, but it was shut so I never got to check.
The castle is very compact and only some of the walls are still standing. The courtyard has been laid out as a free beautiful garden and so for once we were able to let the dogs see inside. Sarah went scrambling on the precipitous walls while I waited below. I did go up on the walls but only so I could get a better photograph of the church next door.
Finally we did some downhill walking as we headed back to the main square via the town’s museum which is inside a lovely old palace and the Church of the Misericordia which has a famous, 15th Century, carved doorway.
Having stopped for a sandwich we pointed Basil in the direction of Tavira’s aire (37.132658, -7.631646) €8.50 without electricity. Portugal seems to be as busy as Spain and as we drove into the aire I was a little worried it was full, but in fact there were a few spaces. This aire is rather unusual in that it has many of the facilities of a campsite: wifi, showers and washing machines, but there are no real trees and the ground is all gravel. There is no problem getting chairs our here and since the weather is currently almost perfect we topped up our tans in the weak February sun.
Tomorrow we have decided to head to a campsite in the countryside, but I have been speaking to our English neighbours and found that there is another aire similar to the one in Tavira, further down the coast and with a great beach, so we may be back in the Algarve later in the trip.
