Rent a Car?

Olhao Water Taxi

 When we research places to stay on these month long trip to Europe, one of the criteria we use is that the place has to be advertised as “Car Not Necessary”. Having to rent a car for a month, would make the wonderfully affordable apartments we find, not such a bargain. Now Regis also has a swimming pool and an outdoor grill on her criteria, and we have never had those. . . . . Being able to walk to get most of the necessities, is nice. You get your daily exercise and you really get to know the neighbourhood. After a week here, we were giving advice to other tourists and filling in information that the Tourist Information Offices didn't know.

No having wheels however does limit the amount that you can do and see. You get to know the area around you very well, but there are things out of range of your 'hikers' that you do not get to see. This is OK with me; I really do not care if some “Must See” does not get seen, but Regis works under the “You can't come all this way . . . .” strategy.

Faro Train Station

As a compromise we pick a time and rent a car for a couple of days. This did not prove so easy here in Olhão. You cannot rent a car in the town at all. It is not a tourist town, it is a fishing town; it is harder to get a regular taxi here than it is to get a water-taxi to the islands. I could probably rent a boat no problem, but a car - not going to happen. There is one big new hotel in town, and we heard that they might be able to 'arrange' a car, but a walk down to the hotel produced the same result – they 'might' be able to find a rent-a-car. Most of their clients drive in as a stop on a Algarve tour, so renting a car is a service they only 'sort-of' provide. We finally determined that we would probably have to take the train to Faro, and then a bus to the airport to even talk to someone about a car.

Loading the Water Taxi

Then when Regis and I went to visit Faro for the day trip on the train, I noticed outside the train station a sign; “Car to Go”, and a little green booth that rented bikes, computers and apparently cars, although only bicycles were present. After trying unsuccessfully to contact the rental places at the Faro Airport via e-mail or phone call, we decided to just go and try our luck at this place.

So all four of us took the train to Faro and visited the little green booth. Indeed, they could get us a car – they actually operate from the airport, but the car would be delivered to us here. Of course the “Economy” one was unavailable, but they would give us the standard model for the price of the second cheapest. This was perfect, we got four doors, diesel engine and a station wagon for the price of the a two door Fiat. Three days was the same price as two, so it appears I will be doing more 'Road Trip' than I wanted, since a passport and a driver's licence was required and I was the only one so equipped. We only had to wait two hours for it to be delivered, but that just means there is not hurry to return it. And Pete and Linda get to tour Faro with two experience guides while we wait, since they were too travel-weary as they came through three weeks ago to even notice the city.

I should have rented that boat. . . . . . . .

Monday in Faro

Faro's Walled City

 When we flew to Portugal, Faro was where we landed, but we were picked up by a taxi arranged by Colin & Suzanne, and he was an efficient driver, but not exactly a tour guide, and his english was not really even good enough to ask simple questions. We therefore zoomed through Faro without seeing much. We were also too tired to really pay attention to much.

Today we went back to Faro on the train to actually have a look at the city.

Faro is the major transport hub on the Algarve. It has a rail hub where Linda and Pete arrive from Lisbon, and the airport in Faro has a constant stream of planes arriving from all over Europe. From the apartment, we see planes all day flying into Faro bringing people to the Algarve to enjoy a Portuguese holiday.

The train only takes about 20 minutes to go from Olhao to Faro, so it is a simple trip. Although the train station is bit out of way, the walk to the centre of Faro is a pleasant one along the waterfront through to the old city centre, and it is easy to find your way to the major attractions in Faro.

Do not however expect to find a Tourist Information Centre if you go on Monday like we did – it is not open. At least we were able to find the place following the signs, but as has been our general experience, we were not able to actually get any information.

Beautiful Pipe Organ filling Cathedral with sound

There is a walled fortress which the old city seems to revolve around, but it is not really an attraction. It seems that the actual city has taken over the fortress. You can see the walls from the outside, but if you enter through one of the gates, you find yourself just in the inner city with restaurants, shops, art galleries and a beautiful cathedral, but no actual fort or castle. This may actually have been a walled city rather than a military fortress, which would make sense. We might have been able to find out if we could have visited the Information centre. . . . . .

The visit to the Cathedral was nice. You could climb the bell tower for a view over the city, and we were told by another tourist couple there that you could have pressed a button to actually ring the bells but I had my doubts since the church bells tell the time in Olhao. I could imagine the poor citizens of Faro being constantly confused about what time it was. “Is it two o'clock, the bells chimed twice? Oh no, it's just those damned tourists ringing the cathedral bells again . . . .” we could visit the main cathedral , the gardens and the museum. The highlight was the actual church, because there was a beautiful old pipe organ, and someone was actually playing it. The museum was a bit disappointing, and I hope that some of our 3 E entry fee might be used to restore the paintings in the museum with holes in them – they could use some work.

The Bell Tower

Following our tour of the cathedral, we wandered down through the old city to find a place to stop for lunch. Here we discovered another advantage to living in Olhao. Food was generally at least 20% higher here than back in Olhao. For example the Cataplana Regis has wanted to try was 45 E compared to 29 E in Olhao. We decided to stick with the “Menu of the Day”.