March 2025 in Portugal and Southern Spain – Jennifer and Zach's Adventures

Time for a change in the blog…

In 2010, we went on a 6-week bicycling adventure in central Europe. Internet access along our route was very spotty (we didn’t even have access every day), our phones didn’t work in Europe, and good photos required using a stand-alone digital camera instead of a phone. So we set up this blog and made posts every few days along our way, in order to keep our friends and family updated, share photos, and post information for others who might be interested in a similar trip. We’ve kept up the blog ever since, making posts whenever we went on a Grand Adventure, and also sometimes making composite posts with photos from smaller trips and adventures.

But this is not 2010, and things have changed. We just spent the entire month of March 2025 in Portugal and southern Spain, where we had decent cell network and internet service most of the time we were traveling. We’ve both given up carrying cameras separate from our phones, and combining that with the network service, it was relatively easy (apart from time zones) to stay in touch with people and send photos. Also, anyone can do a web search and find photos and information covering anywhere in the world pretty easily. So, we aren’t feeling all that compelled to do the same kind of blogging that we used to, where we put in every detail of our itinerary and information for other travelers. Instead, we thought we’d post some photos (not necessarily in chronological order) and a few things that, some days after returning, we are still thinking about. You can also see our itinerary on the map at the bottom of the page.

Spending time with (and without) friends and family

We spent the first 11 days of March in Lisboa, Lagos, and the SW coast in Portugal with our friends Gwen and John. This photo is the view from the Castelo de São Jorge in Lisboa

Faro, Portugal — In the middle of March, Zach and Jennifer went back to Lagos, and then visited Faro (where Zach nearly got eaten by a giant snail) and Tavira in Portugal, Cadiz in Spain, and Gibraltar, before heading to Sevilla, Spain for what turned out to be two days before Zach’s family arrived.

After a one-day airline delay, Zach’s mom (Virginia), his older sister Valinda, his younger sister Emily, and Emily’s husband Jimbo joined us in Sevilla. We also visited Granada, and took several side trips (we rented cars). This photo is from the the Moorish castle in the town of Salobreña on the Mediterranean coast

We’ve adopted a flexible travel style over the years we’ve been together: figuring out where we want to go next, figuring out how to get there and where to stay, and deciding what to do each day without set plans is fun for us. We enjoy traveling on trains and buses as part of the experience, and we don’t mind walking some distance with our luggage to get where we’re going. A setback or challenge just means we’ve had more of an adventure, and Jennifer always enjoys talking to people we meet, learning new languages (Portuguese), and practicing ones she knows better (Spanish).

Traveling with other people is quite different. Everything takes longer when 4-6 people are involved, people have different preferences when it comes to travel style, you tend not to meet as many people when you’re in a bigger group, and it can be difficult to make decisions and satisfy everyone’s goals — even picking out where to eat dinner can be a challenge. Also, securing lodging ahead of time, not moving lodgings too often, and booking some activities ahead of time really helped when we were with Zach’s family, and rather than using public transport to get long distances, we rented cars.

All in all, this trip was a great opportunity to spend time and share the experience of exploring a new place (culture, food, sights) with people we care about, away from the concerns of usual life. And it was also good to have some time where it was just the two of us on this trip.

5000+ years of history and architecture

The area we were traveling in has a history that is different from other places we’ve been, and it is possible to see artifacts, ruins, and intact structures from several periods of history (I’ve left out a few periods that we didn’t really see):

Neolithic: we visited the Dolmens of Antiquera (around 3700 BC)
Phoenicians (from around 1000 BC): the city of Cadiz on the south coast of Spain was founded by the Phoenicians, and the archaeological museum there has artifacts ranging from neolithic to modern days
Romans (from around 200 BC): there are Roman ruins in many towns and cities in the region, and many later structures incorporate Roman foundations
Moors (from around 800 AD): many buildings we saw are from this period, and they are of a style we hadn’t seen elsewhere in our travels
Catholics: the so-called Reconquista ended in 1492 when Granada was conquered from the Moors
Gibraltar has its own history since then: it was taken over by England in 1713, and then suffered several sieges and attacks.

The Moorish architecture of the Alhambra in Granada. Note the intricate plaster work, which would have been colorfully painted at the time.

Ceiling in the Alhambra — Many of the Alhambra rooms also had carved wood ceilings.

Real Alcazar of Sevilla — The Real Alcazar (Royal Palace) of Sevilla was formerly a Moorish citadel, built in the 10th to 12th centuries. Much of the Moorish architecture and decoration remains.

Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba — The Mezquita-Cadedral (Mosque-Cathedral) in Cordoba was first constructed in the year 785 as a mosque, and then expanded and remodeled, and then taken over by the Catholic church in 1236. It contains a unique mix of Moorish and Gothic styles.

Bone chapel, Faro, Portugal — This chapel at the Igreja do Carmo Catholic church in Faro is decorated with human bones.

tunnels in the Rock of Gibraltar — The Rock of Gibraltar has many tunnels, which were used to defend it from attacks.

Tiles, decorative pavement, and mosaics

Home exterior in Tavira, Portugal — The outside walls of many buildings in Portugal, including this home in Tavira, are decorated with patterned tiles

Bishop's Palace, Faro Portugal — The interior walls of the houses of wealthy people (such as this Bishop’s Palace in Lagos, Portugal) are decorated with pictorial tiles

Cathedral of Faro, Portugal — Church interiors in southern Portugal are also decorated with pictorial and patterned tiles, such as the cathedral in Faro.

collage of pavement in Portugal — In southern Portugal, most of the pedestrian walkways in the older parts of the towns were paved with stones, each about 3 inches square, in beautiful designs. The images in this collage are mostly from Lagos.

Mosaics at Italico near Sevilla, Spain — I suppose the sidewalks were inspired by Roman mosaic floors, such as these ones we saw at the Italico site near Sevilla, Spain.

Nature

Ponta da Piedada, Lagos, Portugal — We hiked out to Ponta da Piedada (Point of the Pious) in Lagos, Portugal, on a windy day with Gwen and John.

Rota Vicentina, Portugal — We spent about a week with Gwen and John hiking the southern part of the spectacular Rota Vicentina on the SW coast of Portugal.

creek crossing — The rain we experienced on the Rota Vicentina was apparently the most they had had in about 9 years. There were some places we had to take off our shoes to cross water.

At one point on the Rota Vicentina, we came across a train of caterpillars in the road we were walking on.

Stork nest on church steeple — We saw storks building nests all over southern Spain and Portugal, on cliffs, utility poles, and this one on a church tower in Faro, Portugal

We wanted to take the cable car to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, but it wasn’t running the day we were going to go, so we ended up walking up instead.

Cierro del Hierro, Sierra Norte de Sevilla — We visited the Sierra Norte de Sevilla National Geographic Park in Spain with Zach’s family, and walked up a short trail to see Cierro del Hierro (Iron Peak). We got somewhat wet, but found some shelter when it really started pouring.

Torcal de Antequera — We went for a hike in the Torqual de Antequera Nature Reserve in Spain with Zach’s family, where we saw some deer and/or goats (not pictured)

Arts and Culture

We arrived in Portugal around the time that people were celebrating Carnival (also known as Mardi Gras). Jennifer searched on the web and found a listing for a local group in Lisboa who we thought might be having some sort of an event, so we took a local bus to a park and watched this parade, complete with random costumes and very well rehearsed percussion.

Carnival Chiquita, Cadiz Spain — Two weeks later we were in Cadiz, Spain, and the streets were full of people in costume, celebrating Carnival Chiquita by wandering around, drinking, and occasionally doing a rehearsed performance of a song or some percussion.

Casa de Flamenco, Sevilla, Spain — We went to a great flamenco performance at La Casa del Famenco in Sevilla, Spain with Zach’s family.

Flamenco at Cueva la Rocio, Sacramonte, Granada — A few days later, we all went to another great flamenco performance in a cave at Cueva la Rocio, in the Sacramonte area of Granada, Spain, after visiting the Sacramonte museum about the culture of the people who dug out and lived in caves in the hills above the city of Granada.

Picasso Museum, Malaga, Spain — We enjoy making poses to imitate artworks… This is in the Picasso Museum in Malaga, which we visited on our last day in Spain before we flew home. The title of the painting is “Woman with arms crossed”.