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SAGRES, Portugal -- The wind picked up after we left the last trees behind and the narrow road stretched out over the misty, scrub-covered plateau toward the end of Europe. At Sagres, the road stops at the walls of Henry the Navigator's fortress. Beyond, the land runs out and the continent drops 150 feet into the roaring Atlantic. After this there is nothing but ocean until New York.
Europe's southwestern tip is a place of stark beauty, prone to sudden fogs and blustery sea breezes. Jutting into the sea, the twin headlands of Sagres and Cape St. Vincent were places of mystery and awe to ancient Romans and early Christians. For Prince Henry the Navigator, this finger of land pointing into uncharted waters was the obvious place to site the school for explorers that kicked off Europe's age of discoveries 500 years ago. History buffs can visit the clifftop chapel where Henry once prayed, walk the walls of a fortress sacked by Sir Francis Drake or look out over waters where Lord Nelson battled the Spanish fleet. Birdwatchers flock here to watch waves of migrators on their way between Europe and Africa. But most visitors come here for neither buildings nor birds, but for beaches. The 60-mile coastline running along the far west of Portugal's Algarve region offers some of the continent's best bathing spots with an amazing variety of beaches from the translucent shallows of the Ria de Alvor lagoon to the thunderous surf of west coast strands like Bordeira and Arrifana. European vacationers have been flocking to the Algarve since the 1970s, and mass tourism has turned much of the region's central strip into an unsightly jumble of towering hotels, pizzerias and Irish pubs. more at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/FEATURES07/802170526/1025/FEATURES |
