Luz and Surrounds In Years Gone By

I am fortunate enough to have been visiting Praia da Luz since I was 18 years old. My first visit was driving down from the UK with a school friend in her mini with my then boyfriend's (now husband of 33 years ) windsurfer strapped to the roof. This must have been around 1982.

Her lovely parents owned one of the old Luz Bay Club villas just off the Rua da Varzea. It was a beautiful village and the villa was lovely. We used to love walking through all of the little bougainvillea lined paths that ran between the villas to the pool or to play tennis at the Luz Bay Club which is now the Hotel Luz Bay at the bottom of the Baia development.

We also spent many happy days on the beach and regularly ate dinner at the old Rocha Negra beach bar which was located further onto the beach and had to be demolished sometime later in the 80s when regulations prohibited any construction within a certain distance of the sea.

This is a tourism map from around that time to give you an idea of what was around in Praia da Luz in the 70s/80s.

A favourite day out was to go to Boco do Rio Beach just a bit further West along the coast.

The photo below shows how you used to have to rebuild the bridge to get from Burgau to Boco do Rio. Everyone out of the car-chuck the logs that had fallen out of the bridge into the dry river bed from previous traffic back up, and remake the bridge so it looks (almost) safe enough to drive over!!! Oh and refill the overheating radiator on your mini while you are waiting!!