Silves

Two very peaceful days later we move on to Monchique and the weather is quite hot and sunny. Most of the time is spent cleaning the van and washing. I have a man moment and decide to disassemble the Thetford toilet cassette as its scaled up badly and needs some man love. Crouched in the sun, burning hot, and merrily scraping away limescale on my own was strangely satisfying in a sad way…

We leave Monchique and trundle down to the Fiat garage at Portimão where we are told they can book us in six days later!

Earlier calls made to the garage via our Portuguese host at Monchique obviously did the trick….not

More huffing and puffing later we retreat the 16km to Silves

This was the scene pretty much last year but in the rain I recall

We had found out recently that a new purpose built motorhome park had opened down the road a little from here so we went to take a look

The site is silves-motorhome park and its spot on. For just €4.50 or €6.50 inc electricity per night and all services its a complete no brainer to the scene above which we were uncomfortable with last year. Our attitude is that if its a designated site, has facilities or you are genuinley welcomed there then thats OK. We felt crowding in to the swimming pool car park next to a busy main road just doesn't put us in the best public light, particularly when there is a purpose built place just half a km away. The general rule of thumb is that if the car park doesn't display a 'no overnight parking' sign then you are Ok to park but this here is taking the mickey we feel.

This is the alternative further down the road, organised and very clean

Top marks to the owners!

En route in to town next day we are treated to more Bellamy moments

Hasselhof looking rather relaxed…..the reason was Co-Codamol actually

The State Polizei, mean guys with shades

Retro bar seats on a motorcycle theme

Amber nectar

Quite bright this idea hey, girlies go shopping, men folk relax at the bar. If only Sainsburys was like this!

Can you see the holy grail?

Top shelf far right, pay homage...

Oh no another castle!

As ever the castle thingy on the top of the hill is steeped in history and kinda dominates the town

A former glorious palace stood here

This was interesting though, what we thought was a temple or shrine of some sort was actually a former  cork museum and retail outlet.

Shut down in 2008 due to lack of funds...

This was some form of underground water storage facility but could be wrong as it was all in Portuguese and quite empty of artefacts 

Bygone days in Silves

It Fig-ures

It was hot and it had to be done..

This is a barbers..last decorated many years ago and very barren inside. The old guy was very hands on bless him...

This way home..

Privileged 

Working class...