The day after we arrived in Tavira, my friend and I went to the market, catching the local bus. We had learnt that both the Linha Azul and Linha Vermelha buses stopped close to our apartment, at the Estacao. For a couple of euros we bought a ticket that allowed us to get on and off all day.

The Municipal Market like any other, is best visited early in the morning, but I’d had my walk around town, so the bus dropped us nearby at around noon. I’d been careful to fix landmarks in my head from the bus, but we knew they were frequent and planned to jump on another in about an hour, and see where it led us.

Although it was winding down for the day, there was still lots to see there. The building itself was modern and very well designed.

The array of fresh fruit and veggies was wonderful, but we were only having breakfast in our apartment so we didn’t buy.

Of course the local honey was a necessity for breakfast!
The Algarve is renowned for its fishing, so there was an abundance of the freshest and choicest on sale.

There were fish I’ve never seen before, some of which I wouldn’t want to try, the shiny eel-like ones for instance!

I like these though.
There were several stalls selling spices and herbs, some with leaflets explaining the medicinal properties, sadly no English versions.

We left the market, hungry and walked back to where we got off the bus, to travel on round the circuit, hoping for fish for lunch. The sun was full on and we soaked it up, summer at home hadn’t been very hot. We waited, nothing happened. There was hardly a soul around and not much traffic. We checked the sign and our bus map, yes both red and blue routes stopped here, including on Saturdays. After perhaps half an hour we started walking, back towards the market and in the direction of the river, it runs through the town so we couldn’t go far wrong. Getting ever so slightly lost uh, misplaced is a great way of discovering a town so we weren’t concerned. Before long we found ourselves in a square, a bit sleepy but with an Italian restaurant – tut! that served our purpose very tastily.

Then we were off exploring again, in and out of the narrow alleys until we reached the Praca.

Tavira is a city of white towers and blue sky.

A nice view across the river, to an Irish pub, Tavira is definitely cosmopolitan.

This shiny Beetle was lurking in a back street, waiting for someone.

Here she is! It makes me very happy if I see a bride when I’m in a different country, and just look at the pure joy on her face, I love her bouquet of sea shells too.
We couldn’t hang around any longer as we had to rush up the hill to the Egreja in time for the Fado performance, but the atmosphere in Tavira was great. I’ll be back with some more about the city soon.