Prince Henry the Navigator's Discovery School

One of the other day trips we did from Lagos was to go to Cape St. Vincent and Sagres, Portugal.  In Cape St. Vincent we went to see this old fortress where Prince Henry the Navigator had a Discovery school.  Some of the most famous navigators went to study, like Columbus, Magellan, da Gama, etc.  The fortress has been restored and the only thing remaining from the school was a huge compass rose.  

Sagres, Portugal is about 10 minutes away was the last place Columbus saw as he left on his famous voyage and at one time was considered the "end of the world."  Needless to say, the endless miles of coastline are GORGEOUS.  It is so interesting to see so much history, things I remember learning about in school, but never thought I would see.  I hope my kids remember all these amazing places we are going.!

The fortress

The gorgeous coastline

They had all these random naked lady statues throughout this old fortress, so we had fun posing like them!

Kailey's pose!

Henry the Navigator's compass rose

Gorgeous water--I think they had the best beaches I have ever seen here with the clearest water.

Kailey and I posing

The kids on the cannon

On top of one of the walls

Where is Ethan, Kailey and Cade??

Everybody posing, except Cade, he is doing a ninja jump!!

Old chapel

Most picturesque coastline--so gorgeous!!

Grottos in Lagos

One of the most interesting things to do in Lagos, is to go on a boat ride through the grottos there.  So the second day we were there, we hopped on a boat to go see the famous grottos in Lagos and it was unbelievable!!  Gorgeous weather, unbelievable rock formations--we had a great time!!

Natural rock bridge

Us enjoying the gorgeous weather on the boat

The grottos

The kids and I in the little boat we took to go see the grotto up close

The boat we were on

Sandcastle festival, gorgeous beach and more!

Continuing our Portugal trip--we stopped at a giant sand sculpture festival on our way to Lagos, Portugal.  It was rather interesting.  The theme of the sculptures was heroes, but we saw a lot of sculptures that had nothing to do with heroes--like dinosaur train, frankenstein, Madonna, etc.  It was amazing to see what people can create with sand.  Here are a couple of pictures:

Albert Einstein

Star Wars--Ethan was in heaven--he loves Star Wars

Frankenstein

Princess Diana--Kailey wanted her picture in front of a princess.

Eric trying to be the vitruvian man!

 Here we are finally in Lagos, Portugal.  It is a big resort town on the southern coast of Portugal.  Here are some pictures of us at one of the beaches--seriously they have some of the most gorgeous beaches I have ever seen--here are a couple of pictures.

Bone Church-Faro, Portugal

Over Labor Day weekend, we headed to Southern Portugal for the weekend.  All I can say is that we had an AMAZING time and can't wait to go back and visit again.  We stayed in Lagos, Portugal and then ventured out to some cities around it.  The first place we went and saw was Faro, Portugal which is actually a pretty big city.  We went to go see the a church made of the bones and skulls of over 1200 monks.  They built the chapel on top of a cemetery where all of these monks were buried and decided to dig them up and recycle their bones into the church--it was creepy, but we LOVED it!

This was the main church and the bone chapel was behind this

Eric and the kids outside the church

Skulls all over with other bones around them--creepy!

What made it really kind of creepy, was that so many of the skulls had been picked out and stolen--who would want a skull?

The WHOLE chapel was covered in skulls--pretty awesome!

My new friend I made while visiting!