Looking Out to Sea

Ended up spending the day in Sines, birthplace of Vasco da Gama, discoverer of the route to India in the 15th century, hugely important in Portuguese history. Here he is, looking out to the sea he spent so much of his life on, from the castle where he was probably born.

Sines is also Portugal's top container port, and has a huge industrial complex that we drove through. When Mourão's paper factory was inundated by the Alqueva, the 200 folk who worked there were offered jobs here, and many accepted. We were interested to see the place, but hadn't expected it to be as attractive as it was, helped by very warm sunshine, we walked round in T shirts.

I had a exceptionally bad night last night; so decided to spend another night away, in Porto Covo, a small village 10km south of Sines.

Gratefuls:
- gorgeous, warm sunshine
- using our method of finding good places to eat (asking elderly men who look like they eat well), found A Tasca do Fisgas, where I had a prawn and squid skewer, it was superb.
- being able to stay away another night, hoping for good sleep