Portimao

Our last trip to the Algarve was over twenty years ago - a two week holiday in June, and one of the things we did on that holiday that we were looking forward to repeating was to eat Sardines in one of the restaurants on the quayside in Portamao.

We had fond memories of watching the sardines being hauled up from the fishing boats straight on to the waiting charcoal barbecues that each restaurant had set up to cook the fish, the sight of row after row of tables and chairs set out for lunch and the unmistakeable smell of woodsmoke and oily fish.

The modern map we were using had "Sardine Restaurants" marked on it so we headed for that area but it didn't look the same as we had remembered it.  Gone were the restaurants next to the fishing quay and instead a new block of restaurants had been built upstream, away from the harbour.  Gone too were the outside barbecues - all the cooking was now done indoors in conventional commerical kitchens.

We decided to stop for lunch anyway and went for the traditional dish of grilled sardines, boiled potatoes, bread and salad while our waiter explained how and why everything had changed.  He looked to be in his 70's and spoke with fondness about how things used to be.  Apparently, seven years ago it was decided that the combination of wet fishing nets, tables and chairs next to a steep quay, hot unguarded barbecues and hundreds of people milling about was too dangerous to continue. 

So now the fish are landed on the quay 300 metres away from the restaurants, delivered by roadway to the backs of the restaurants, cooked in convential kitchens and then served.to the customers.

It's still a nice place to sit and have lunch but the magic has gone.  I know some people say "you should never go back".  I'm not sure if that's always true but perhaps if you do go back you have to expect that it won't be the same.