Quarteira Market, Portugal

On Wednesday morning, Mom, Himself and I could be found 30mins down the road from our villa, perusing sellers wares just outside of Quarteira.

As OG readers will know, Himself and I are married and we recently celebrated our Third Wedding Anniversary which, for those who don’t know is usually a gift of Leather. With this in mind, our first port of call was Gany’s, a family run stall of handmade leather belts.

 

We got two for Himself, a brown and a black, both with stainless steel buckles, one needed a slight alteration so the main man Gany, got to work measuring, cutting, burning (to close up the cut etc…), the craftsmanship is quite something to watch

Thrilled to bits with our buys – we said our thank yous and headed off

and stopped short because I realised, this year – the Mr Gany’s daughter was selling her own items

An assortment of absolutely beautifully constructed delicate bracelets made with (of course!) leather, but also stainless steel and sterling silver

Well I couldn’t not get involved could I!?! (Himself said I could…I gave him a side eye). Anyway! I bought one of her dark brown leather bracelets with an infinity charm at the end of the latch. I am besotted with it and also super proud of this incredible woman who has taken what her Father does for a living and reformed it into something that she loves, it’s just so impressive and she was clearly delighted with the sale which was very touching too!

The market has improved so much in recent years, no longer a dirt road, the area is now paved making it far easier to navigate, the majority of stalls are also now covered too, which also helps in being able to stay out shopping longer before needing to seek some shady refuge!

If I could have stuffed a bit of everything in the pottery wheelhouse into my bag from the market, I would have, but I managed to keep away from breakables on the whole because my wee heart would be crushed if I opened my case in Dublin to an assortment of smashed up bowls!

Mom picked up a few of these coasters (the plain white ones) I can only imagine how many hours were involved to create this entire basket of coasters!

The next stall that grabbed my whole attention was The Coin Man‘s stall because I saw some old Irish coins in the mix!!

We poured over what The Coin Man had in stock – particularly the older Irish coins – I settled on the gold threepence, which was the smallest coin available out of his Irish collection (the hare). After handcutting each coin he either gold or silver plates each one and I thought they were a beautiful way to preserve the past and I’m delighted with my purchase, I just need to get a necklace for it now!

Anytime we go to the market, we always take a little break half way through and pick up the very best thing available for purchase

The biggest, softest, light and fluffiest warm doughnuts I’ve ever tasted. Literally not for sharing people – buy your own – JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD! 😉 After our break I went over to a stall I’d clocked the moment we entered the market, requesting one simple thing of us all, which I couldn’t have agreed with more

This gent of a man sketches areas within The Algarve and colours them vibrantly

I was so delighted by his work, as was Himself – that we picked up two of the pieces on show (which are meant to sit side by side) and we’ve already planned where they’ll hang in our home.

If you find yourself in Quarteira, I do hope you’ll stop by and check out his work, it really is beautiful and he’s a wonderful conversationalist to boot!

With that, we took another lap around the market – Mom picked up a gorgeous white table cover with white embroidered flowers dotted around, to dress a massive 8ft table that gets used every Christmas at my parents house – so she was beside herself as apparently she’s been on the hunt for one for quite some time!

With the hottest part of the day on our heels, we ducked into a cab and scooted back to the safety of our sun loungers umbrella, pool and ice cold beverages, thrilled with our purchases and all the people we met on our journey around the market. It’s a lovely way to spend a morning, just remember: bring little, wear comfortable shoes, suncream, your sunglasses and wear a cross body or rucksack to the front of you (just to be extra safe!)

Find the market here if you happen to find yourself in The Algarve on a Wednesday, I’m sure you’ll love it!