W e finally find the town we will be staying in for the next eleven days—Luz. The town of Luz sits on the beautiful Praia (beach) da Luz. We have a hard time finding our hotel and Amy decides to ask directions. We are quite nervous about the language barrier, as neither of us knows a word of Portuguese. Amy has been practicing from our dictionary, and carefully says to a local "Onde é Hotel Bela Vista da Luz".

H e replies in an almost Texan accent, "Lady, the hotel is up on the hill, about 300 meters". The moral of the story is that, unlike Madrid, pretty much everyone in southern Portugal speaks good English.

L uz is a gorgeous place. The town is situated about 30 kilometers from the southwestern tip of Portugal, Not too long ago, this was a quiet fishing village. Some of the quaintness has been obliterated by influx of tourists, but Luz has retained much of its charm. The town's streets are incredibly narrow and paved in cobblestone. The beach is beautiful tan-sand and the Atlantic is aqua-blue. Food is inexpensive, and wine costs less than soda pop. Our hotel, the Bela Vista is a small 38 room, family run hotel. The hotel facilities and management are top notch. We greatly enjoy our stay there.

D uring our eleven days we finally get a chance to unwind. We spend many hours at the beautiful pool soaking up sun and reading. It is between 85 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit every day (we were there in July). After basking unbearably in our own sweat for a few hours, we discover why one of the pools is unheated. The only way to survive at poolside is to take a dip in the cool pool every 30 minutes. Every day we go for a walk around Luz. There are many British and German tourists. We see hardly any Americans.

S ometimes, during the heat of the day, we will get in the Renault and head off for a day trip. We go to Cabo San Vincente, Sagres, Lagos, Portimao, Silves and Foia. Going on a day trip is always fun because it means I get to play Mario Andretti on the N125. Cabo San Vincente is the famous Cape at the extreme southwest corner of Portugal. To any sailor worth his salt, this is an awe-inspiring place. You can just imagine Henry the Navigator commanding his terrified captains to "explore Africa"—each of them never knowing when it was going to be their turn to fall off the edge of the world. This is also where that the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent took place. On a foggy Valentines Day morning in 1797, the famous British Admiral Horatio Nelson (then a Commodore) under the command of Admiral John Jervis gave the Spanish fleet a thrashing that they long would remember.

T oday, Cabo San Vincente throngs with tourists, not ships of the line. The powerful lighthouse is a worthy visit. The sea crashing into the sandstone cliffs is dramatic. Nearby is Forteleza de Sagres (Sangres Fortress). While this fort was actually built later, this was the site where Henry the Navigator housed his famous navigation school. Some of the features (notably the massive wind compass and the church) date back to Henry's era. Sagres is a town near Cabo San Vincente. We didn't spend much time in the town itself, but there is a nearby picturesque harbor that gives the first or last shelter to boats heading in or out of the open Atlantic.

L agos is a good-sized city six kilometers east of Luz. Lagos has dozens of chic dining spots and shops that seem cater to backpackers that look like they are backpacking on mom and dad's Amazon.com stock options. At Lagos, we went on a sailboat trip with a company called Bom Dia ("Good Day"). Bom Dia owns two classic Portuguese sailing vessels-the Bom Dia and the Falcao Veloz. Our vessel, the Falcao Veloz is a 76-year-old gaff rigged cutter that used to carry fish across some big body of water near Porto. We never learn our Austrian skipper's name, but he is the Generation X equivalent of the Old Man of the Sea. His scraggly beard and long hair make him look the part of an old salt.

O ur skipper sails us and about twenty young French tourists out to the "Grottos". The Grottos are cave formations about one mile west of Lagos. We anchor in the lee of the Grottos and then get a detailed tour in the Falcao Veloz dingy—the tour ends up being very cool. We motor in and out of the different sea caves that have been created by the eroding force of the sea. Most of the caves are named humorously by the local tour guides after parts of a house—the "living room", the "toilet bowl", etc. Above the Grottos is the stubby Ponta da Piedade lighthouse. We didn't have time to do it, but you can apparently drive out to near the lighthouse and then walk the cliff path to Ponta da Piedade. When we return to the Falcao Veloz, we find our skipper busting the French crowd for smoking some dubious looking cigarettes onboard. The accused Frenchman claims the cigarettes are "for medicinal purposes".

O n another day, we drive up to the castle at Silves. Blame it on the heat, or blame it on the two bottles of wine from the previous night, but we didn't really like Silves. It was a little boring. We had more or less the same experience at Foia. Foia is the highest point (2,959 feet) in the Serra de Monchique—the mountain range to the north of the Algarve. The drive to Foia was a couple hours and I had high expectations for the peak. Unfortunately, you really couldn't see jack—it was too hazy. Perhaps better on a haze-free day. However, on the way home from this trip we do find a cool beach on the west side of Portugal—just west of Vila do Bispo (about 5 miles north of Cabo San Vincente). I believe we ended up at Praia da Castelejo, although I am not 100% sure. Praia da Cordama and Praia da Barriga also look like they could be beautiful. It seems this whole area is a big park.

U nfortunately the days keep ticking by and finally it is time to head home to Seattle. We leave Luz in the Renault at 3AM in the morning. The night clerk at the Bela Vista looks at us like we are crazy. We drive to Seville where our flight to Madrid leaves at 11AM. The next 30 hours are a classic travel nightmare. Four planes and three connections later, we are home. We make a tight connection in Dulles, but our bags don't. We finally get home at 11PM Seattle time and crash exhaustedly into our incredibly comfortable bed.





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