The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Is Tavira in our Future?
The last time we were in the Algarve we explored towns westward to Point Sagres, often referred to as the westernmost
point in Europe. Actually, I think there's a spot between Lisbon and Porto that extends farther out, but who am I to step
on someone else's marketing line?
But other than driving past as we came and went to Spain six years ago, we really knew nothing of the eastern Algarve. So
armed with Roy's short list of places he thought fit our criteria for potential landing spots, we drove an hour east to
Tavira for a look around.
I actually liked the general feel of Tavira although it's hard to get any definitive reading from
what is essentially a drive-by. Like any place, it takes awhile to get oriented and become comfortable with new surroundings.
So while I can't give Tavira a definite thumbs up or down, it did impress me as an area worth a longer look.
I hate to admit it, but a big advantages of living in Tavira is we'd only be an 90-minute drive from the Costco in Seville!
The closest Costco warehouses in this part of the world are in Seville and Madrid. After that, we'd have to go to the UK or
Paris to find one.
A few minutes east of Tavira is the town (area?) of Cabanas. Margene has been looking at real
estate possibilities and saw a lot of construction in and around Cabanas ... so we took a look. The area along the river
(beyond which were the barrier islands that had the beaches) was pleasant enough but the place really didn't speak to me.
Maybe it was just so new and uniform that it felt soul-less. We did see one of the tree-like cell phone towers that I
always found to be a cool idea. And Margene noted we hadn't included our trusty Fiat 500X in the gallery yet, so I'm glad
we could get that handled.
Tomorrow we have the long drive -- and big toll! -- from the Algarve north to Porto. At least we'll be there for a full
week. Could that be our next home? Stay tuned.
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