Old Meets New in Portugal's Algarve
S A G R E S, Portugal, March 2 -- It wasn't what we'd expected.
Instead of a little speck on the horizon, a small fishing hamleton the most southwestern edge of mainland Europe, all we could seeas we approached was a line of white villas and holiday apartments.
That morning, we had left nearby Lagos looking for our treasuredrecollections from 15 years ago: a village square with one bar anda lone hotel high on a bluff overlooking the bay where fishermenused spotlights at night to attract their catch.
We would have Vinho Verde on the hotel terrace in the eveningbefore going to Carlos, the restaurant owner who would treat us tomore free aperitifs until the catch of the day arrived straightfrom the beach. One day it was a swordfish so big it hung heavybetween two fishermen dragging it in.
The spectacular beaches, apart from a few surfers and nudists,were all ours. "Tourists seem to be visitors here, not the ownersof the village," I wrote in my diary then.
Now, the tourists have taken over.
We drove in, passing the Pirate Gift Shop sellingskull-and-bones black T-shirts. We saw an Internet café and aninternational surfing school before we finally hit the villagesquare. Even there, our beloved Dom Henrique hotel was underrenovation.
There were three restaurants in the square now, and instead ofthe elderly of yore, with their leathery faces, dressed in black,the square was catering to the international crowd at severalterraces.
Sad? Sure. Bad? There are two sides to the debate.
Still Nature Aplenty
Fifteen years ago, the old fort on the cliffs was basically adump, anything but an homage to the famed Henry the Navigator, aprecursor of the great explorers who is thought to have had hisancient seafaring "school" around Sagres.
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