Thu 5 Nov - Faro R&R Day 2

Well, I didn't find Faro to be a very interesting town. So I decided to do a day trip. By train. To another town along the Algarve coast called Tavira. 

You see, I had even found the below opinion in a book about Portugal and the Algarve coast. Yes, Faro fits into the "worst of Algarve" while Tavira is "better".  
On the train with my return ticket. 
The views from the train were not that exciting. It looked pretty much like the below all the time apart from the train stations in villages and small towns. 
There was an interesting military themed statue outside the Tavira train station. Who is this soldier waving to?
The soldier is waving goodbye to his loved one, presumably to go somewhere to fight. 
Also next to Tavira train station is a good ol' Lidl. Yet to find its way to Australia as Aldi has done so successfully. I had to go in. 
Lidl had a large bakery section, not so surprising, but the way you get your chosen bread or pastry was quite innovative. 

At Aldi in Australia, you just grab your bakery item with a tong. 

Here you scope it to the side where you can grab it without touching anything else. Seemed to work apart from that some earlier customer had left their items there and walked away. 
OK, time to explore Tavira. I walked down to its Centro and to its river Rio Gilao. The old bridge is called Ponte Romana. 
There was a newer "temporary" bridge nearby. Ponte Romano was destroyed during flooding some 20 odd years ago and the military built this very temporary bridge. It can probably be "temporary" for a very long time. 
Views from Ponte Romana. 
On the north side of Ponte Romana is a big square filled with tourist restaurants (behind me), but down from up the hill comes a... Tuk Tuk. 
Down the other way. The tourist restaurants on the left side towards the river. 
There is a Swedish / Scandinavian connection here as real estate agents seem to target them as well as the Germans, British and Dutch.  
Love this knockers... 
Time for a cuppa. At this square and the cafe to the left...
...where I sat for a while relaxing and listening to the nearby Portuguese coffee drinkers all talking and nobody listening. 
This was a fun tourist attraction that I stumbled upon. In this old converted water tower there is a Camera Obscura as they called it. 
For a 3€ you can get in and take the lift to the top. There is this. 
Up there is one lense and two mirrors. And lights of course. 
The positioning of the lense / mirrors (not sure which ones, forgot to ask) can be controlled from below. Hence you can move around and get a 360 degrees view of Tavira. 
The lady operator thought this was a fun trick. She had pieces of folded paper that she put where the cars on the bridge would pass. Yes, that worked. Looked fun. 
One more photo for fun. 
Almost opposite the water tower is the "old castle" and the stone walls. Well, what remained of both. Which was really no castle and very little wall. 
The fun thing about the castle though was that you could wander up the stairs and up to the top of the wall. But you do it at your own risk. Nothing to hold on to. 
I tried it of course. Not as scary as it was made out to be. 
I then passed this place celebrating Fado and its history. For the uninitiated, Fado has been referred to as Portuguese blues, very sentimental music and seems to still be popular, not just with the tourists. 
Unfortunately, a show had just started and the next one was not until almost 3 hours later. So I passed. 

Hey, another Tuk Tuk. I'm not sure if you can see it but the company providing the service is called "Happytuktours". Should that not be "Happy Happy"?
I wandered around a bit more to find a place for lunch. I didn't find it along the Rio Gilao but I found plenty of vessels. Both fishing boats and tourist vessels. 
More Swedish and Scandinavian connections. The sign under the German flag and the number 104 says "Nordic Club"... In Swedish. 
I saw that they also had 3 Swedish dishes on the menu. Written in Swedish. But that's not where I was going for lunch. I went to this place. That's my glass of Vino Tinto to the left. 
I had the daily meal of chicken tikka misala, a bit hotter than normal, with Indian bread as it was described on the Dutch and Spanish menus. On the English menu it was described as Naan. 
The Indian waiter spoke good English and when he found out that I came from Australia, he just wanted to talk cricket. Another Indian cricket tragic. 

Live entertainment suddenly arrived. These guys were effectively singing karaoke. Accompanied by a tambourine. They were crap. 
I passed this church and heard beautiful piano music from therein. So I went inside. This guy was very good. I sat there for quite a while and listened to him playing classical pieces. 
The church contained this, in my view, somewhat macabre portrayal of Jesus. Yes, I assume that was him there inside. 
This is the Church of Santiago (I didn't pick up its Portuguese name) and...
...what was outside if not something very familiar... Yet again...
I was back in Faro by train just before 5pm, took the opportunity to settle my hotel bill the night before and then did some packing while enjoying a beer and some wine that I had left. 

Off to Lisboa tomorrow. Train leaves 8.24am. 

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