The
tourist trick of grabbing the best available sunbathing spots by
laying down early morning towels is said to have been pioneered long
ago by the Germans, but they have met their match.
The
competition used to be fought over poolside sun-loungers and the
British learned to become even better at it.
Nowadays
the beaches have become hotly contested battlegrounds and the
Portuguese have become wily protagonists.
That
is certainly the case on the long and lovely beach front by the
high-rise resort of Armação de Pêra in the
Algarve.
For
the second year running, and despite much criticism and ridicule,
many towels and sun-umbrellas are in place in prime positions on the
otherwise empty Armação sands between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.
each morning. They remain there, deserted, until mid-morning.
The
pre-breakfast predators must wake up early or go to bed very late to
ensure success.
Armação’s
predominately Portuguese population swells from about 5,000 in winter
to more than 120,000 in mid-summer. Tower blocks of vacant apartments
suddenly become full when the holiday hordes descend from Lisbon and
elsewhere in the north.
In
August the beach becomes packed from one end to the other. Barely
sardine-sized patches of sand are at a premium, especially at high
tide.
And
never mind the prolonged heat wave, high ultraviolet alerts and the
danger of skin cancer. Live for the moment! Rising sea levels due to
global warming may mean that within a few decades there will be no
beaches or seaside resorts in southern Portugal at all.
The
Brits, the most numerous of the foreign holidaymakers in the Algarve,
used to compete with the Germans by laying down early morning towels
emblazoned with the word “reserved”
Such
Rule Britannia arrogance has been curtailed. Indeed, in Albufeira,
just east of Armação, some holidaying Brits seemed
uninterested in seeking any sunlight at all.
Having
voted to leave the EU did not inhibit a festive “Portugal Invasion”
of late-night revellers, some of whom became drunken louts on the
rampage and requiring the attention of riot police.
More
Brits than usual chose to stay at home this summer, only to be
inundated by rain and unusually miserable weather at times across the
UK.
Many
of those who did come abroad his year have had genuine grounds to
grumble about such things as the fall in the value of the pound and
the long delays for non-Schengen passport checks.
There
are plenty of other moans from visitors every summer, of course.
Before early-morning towels and sun-umbrellas became an issue on
Armação beach, one holidaymaker staying in a
beach-front hotel had objected to the sound of the waves flopping on the shore. There’s no pleasing everybody.
