Day 3: Albufeira

When we woke up in Portugal this morning, we could see that the weather was nowhere near as good as it had been yesterday. The sky was overcast and cloudy and it looked like it was quite windy outside. It was still quite warm outside though, even with the wind, and the weather forecast suggested that the day was going to remain dry at least.

Our plan was to drive to a beach called Praia da Marinha, around 40 minutes from where we were staying. There was supposed to be another walking trail here with spectacular coastal views. Once we parked the car and walked towards the first viewpoint, we could confirm that that was the case!

Although we were missing yesterday's blue sky, the views were fantastic.

In fact, if anything it was more fun seeing the sea like this than completely calm.

We set off along the trail, which was a little bit more strenuous than yesterday's.

Even away from the sea, the landscape was quite dramatic and we could see so much evidence of erosion.

I particularly loved finding sea arches again.

Look how strong the waves are around this one!

The waves inside this one were even more dramatic.

The path was becoming a bit more rocky and challenging at this point. We'd only come on holiday with trainers rather than walking boots, so we decided to turn around.

On the way back we spotted a couple of large holes in the rock which we hadn't noticed first time around.

We could see right down to the sea at the bottom of this one...

...though this one seemed dry.

We stopped to admire the rocky landscape again on the way back towards the car.

It was reminiscent of some of the national parks we hope to visit in the USA next year.

Once we got back to the car we drove for another 20 minutes or so towards the town of Albufeira. This is one of the more popular resorts in the Algarve, so we figured it would be a good place to get lunch. We parked a little way outside the town, then walked down through the centre and onto the beach.