Exploring Algarve - Loulé
Loulé
Loulé was my favourite place that I visited in the Algarve.
It is a town best known for the market and I really enjoyed going there and checking out the wares.
The choice of fresh food, fish, meant and vegetables was excellent.
There was some fish on sale that I have never seen before.
There are shops that sell tourist trinkets and others that sell nice ceramic pottery, clothing and household stuff.
A mixture of produce for locals with a nod to the passing tourist without alienating either one.
But I didn't buy any of that.
I bought craft beer and Piri Piri oil and sauces.
You can see where my priorities are!
Marafada India Pale Ale which was very nice. Not as bold and hoppy as the craft beer that I'm used to in Scotland but very pleasant none the less.
I enjoyed watching people go about their everyday lives. Seeing the old guys in the square opposite the market sitting out playing cards or dominos or chess and just hanging out.
Seeing people do their shopping and take the kids to school.
Again this is less of a tourist place and more of a Portuguese place.
I liked it for that and would love to have spent more time there.
If I ever return to the Algarve I think I'll choose Loulé as my base.
There were lots of cafes and bars that I walked past but didn't have time to check out.
these semed more genuine than the endless places on the coast serving full English breakfasts.
I wanted a full Portuguese breakfast!
(I don't even know what that is)
Querenca
It wasn't possible to spend a lot of time in Loule as we were heading further north.
Next stop was the nearby villages of Querenca and then Salir.
One of the bottles of oil that I bought was made in Querenca but I couldn't find where exatly.
It's a tiny village perched on a hill with a big white church in the middle.
Around the church the steps are like an amptitheatre and I wonder if they ever have events there.
Nearby there's an outdoor stage which would be a wonderful venue for some kind of performance.
The buildings all look old and traditionally Portuguese with tiles decorating the walls.
They're never as bold and brash in the Algarve as they are in the other cities.
It is a much more subtle and laid back sort of place and by the looks of it always has been.
There is a cafe at the square where we stopped and had a coffee and a cake.
You can see it in the background here. It's a lovely place to sit in the sunshine.
Actually there's a couple of food places and for such a small place it has quite a few facilities.
While waiting on the coffee being made I noticed this above the doorway.
I always wondered what team teams would be supported this far south.
Portugal's big 3 seem very far away down here.
The church is very small and is not normally open. You can ask and someone will go off to fetch the key.
Inside it's very pretty and well kept.
Salir
The nearby Salir is a little village spread over a couple of hills.
It has some spectacular views out across the landscape.
I think this was the site of a Moorish castle and some of the ruin still remains.
There wasn't really much to do here. it looked pretty residential.
Simply a nice place to take a walk and enjoy the views.
Going through these places I basically photographed everything that crossed my path.
and then ran back to do it again from a different angle or with a diferent lens.
Sometimes it's good to just take a simple shot of a street before finding something interesting or a detail to concentrate on.
There are a couple of these that are panoramics.
I shot quite a lot of frames so that I could have a lot of cropping options later.
I find stitching images together works best if they aren't ultra wide angle images.
So I tend to shoot at 28 or 35mm. Lock the focus and exposure and take however many needed and try to keep the camera level.
obviously a tripod is the way to do this but if you're traveling light...
Take the last photo as an example. I have about 6 variations of that scene. Some with red flowers some with the focus on the foreground and others with the focus on the background.
Just don't forget to actually experience a place and not just look at it through a viewfinder or on a screen.
If you enjoyed this then please check out my other Algarve posts here.
https://steemit.com/travel/@andrewmckenna/exploring-the-algarve-alte