A couple of weeks ago I went with the family to spend a weekend near the small village of Carvoeiro, in Algarve. I am not very attracted to the region as whole, because throughout the years construction has ruined the place (it is probably the tourist hot spot in Portugal - sun, beaches, good food, wine, beer, and so on, you get the drift. Not my cup of tea...).
Anyway, there are still some isolated spots in the region where you can get a flavour of what it used to be before the "development" kicked in 30 or so years ago. Carvoeiro is one some small village. To get there, you can take the side roads and go across the "Serra Algarvia", a region so remote it makes you wonder you are in another country altogether. These are rough hills, with isolated small villages, well worth visiting.
The trip was mostly "family time", so I packed only my EOS 60D and my newly acquired EF 28 2.8 IS lens, travel tripod, polarizer, and GND filters. The first photo is overlooking the Arade dam, where we stopped for lunch. The second photo is a panorama (3 photos taken on the horizontal) of the village of Carvoeiro, with its small beach.
Kind regards.