Yoo-hooooo! Lagoa, here we come. We were quite chuffed that we planned it all so well. The last stretch to our “home” quarters was only three hours away. One of us even had two cups of tea for breakfast because in three hours the pee-bag would only have to be emptied once and then squeezed a bit until we got there. Easy peasy, and then it happened. A roundabout and a hand-written sign. So we do another round contemplating if we should go there. We were only twenty minutes into our journey, but whatever. Round and round and round we go, do we do or do we not. After roundabouting (yes, it’s now a word) four times, we exited at Porto Covo. A dizzy business, but the breakfast stayed put and the nag-bag sat-nav with its please-turn-around-please-turn-around German rant could successfully be ignored. Speak to the hand because we see the sea, baby.

It’s a straight road right into the village with the sea always in front of you on the horizon. The fun started when we needed to find a parking space. It was jam-packed but we spotted one, and…oopsy daisy…did we just drive into the wrong end of the one-way road? Yep! No problem. A toot-tooter with flashing lights and head-shaking gave way and let us pass. Friendly people, these locals. The next problem was that the parking space was way too tight for our car. Someone had parked like a ninny. One of us got out and the other one burnt the clutch and smoked the brake pads, but we were finally in. African style. Just then the ninny came and removed his car. Life.

With burning smells in our noses, we locked up and walked towards the village. Oh my word! What an amazing and unexpected surprise. You enter a huge main cobbled square, the Praça Marquês de Pombal, and see lovely blue rimmed white houses with doors and shutters painted in red all around you. This is what one thinks of when they say fishing village. It’s like wham! dreamy houses to the left and to the right, and the sea in front of you. We did not know what to expect here, but this was out of this world. A quaint kind of out of this world. The diversion was absolutely worth it!

We expected a lot of touristy people seeing that the car park was filled to the brim, but no, here were mostly locals. They seem to frequent here especially during lunch times. There were long queues at all the restaurants after we ended our visit. Yes, we stayed quite long exploring because it was so beautiful. There are many beaches to explore and you can also take a lovely walk along the coast. You might see one or two who are brave enough to skinny dip in the ocean. Keep your eye on the path, it’s steep. After walking around for almost two hours, we sat on a bench and simply enjoyed the fantastic views.

Our three hour trip to Lagoa was now longer, but we were happy and thankful to have visited Porto Covo.