Late in May 2023, our grandkids visited us from the US in our permanent home in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal.
After some time in Madeira & Lisbon, they boarded an Express train from Lisbon to Faro. We met them at the Faro train station and accompanied them on the Regional train station to our home in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. After they unpacked and settled into our apartment, we did a walking tour of the area near our apartment in VRSA and returned home for a relaxing dinner in.
Next day was a beach walk followed by a stop on the Guadiana River for a pitcher of great Tinto Sangria on the riverfront rooftop at 818 Centro Nautico. More walk touring followed by a wonderful Portuguese dining experience at Di Vino on the riverfront near the Praça Marquês de Pombal town square.
Next day was EBike day. We rented 2 ebikes from BCool near the town square and joined the kids with our ebikes for a ride to nearby Monte Gordo, a beautiful beachy town about 2 kms from VRSA. We lunched at Willem, a Dutch restaurant on the main street facing the beach in Monte Gordo. After returning to VRSA for a mercado visit, we did a bike trek to nearby Castro Marim which was a former stronghold of the Knights Templar in the 140os. We toured a medieval Castle from the 700s/800s and then toured the quaint streets of town. Then home for grilled shrimp and steaks with accompaniments and bebidas.
On their last full day in the Algarve, we all went over to Ayamonte Spain by ferry for a day of shopping, walking and taking in the sights. Samplings of Jamon Iberico and a nice lunch near the town Marina made for a relaxing way to absorb local culture and architecture. A meat and cheese board, snacks and Port sampling was followed by some really good thincrust pizza 1 block from our apartment. They returned home to the US the next day.

This video documents much of our travels during the week. This video is a shorter version that highlights all the towns and places that we visited without many of the personal interactions that we had with our family. We hope Caity & Chris had a wonderful time in Portugal and we hope that you enjoy this video.