Paderne features a 12^th century castle, and is one of the castles depicted on the national flag of the country. The castle isn’t exactly in the village, but it’s just a little way out of the village and is easily accessible by car. The castle is usually lit up at night and can be seen from the A22 motorway.

Taking a rental car on the road toward the castle will have you find a natural spring set in a square, a rather odd discovery but nonetheless interesting, and one cannot wonder how come Paderne is overlooked by tourists. The thing is that the spring is still sued today by people in the surrounding areas coming here to collect drinking water and there’s also a public laundry here with about 18 stone thoughts, scrubbing boards and tiled floors in a wooden enclosure. The river then continues on toward a park area.

Water is a great theme in the region, with locals from Paderne and nearby Alfontes battling each other every July in a competition of mini water sports, all of which ends with a massive barbecue and beer.

The village also features a still-intact Roman bridge, which was restored back in the 1860s and today it’s classified as an ancient monument.

There’s a church that sits at the village centre in a rather small square and it’s well worth the visit because it dates back to the 15^th century. The carvings on the inside stem from the 17^th-18^th century and are part of the priceless heritage of the church.

The village is composed of a number of narrow back streets, many of which are up a hill and some are one-way or no entry actually. The place has a solid selection of cafes, bars and restaurants that will satisfy many food craving.

According to Antonio Romalho – president of the National Road Authority – the current system requires 43 million Euro to maintain, thus absorbing a whopping 29% of the tolls’ value charged to drivers, and it’s 4% of the company’s expenses.

While at a press conference to present the company’s results, he added that they are working on a new model alongside the Via Verde with road operator Ascendi in order to cut costs to around 10 to 15% of the company’s revenue.

According to the Portuguese business newspaper Dinheiro Vivo, the new system will work like the one currently used on large motorways and is due to be implemented in 2014.

The new system is being tested on the A23 – connecting Torres Novas to Guarda – in order to test its various features. The new system is being described as being simpler, and will feature toll gates with only one camera, because the vehicles will cross the gate at slower speeds.

The new gates will be installed in every entrance or exit of the road in question, and this means that all road accesses which are currently free will become paid in the future, and that the 77 toll gates will be replaced by newer ones.

According to the same newspaper one of the solutions is to make the electronic devices – similar to Via Verde – mandatory in every vehicle. This sounds like a tall order but when you consider that the government said they will this in their talks with Troika, there doesn’t seem to be any way back from it.

Sergio Monteiro – the Secretary of State of Public Works – while refusing to make a comment on the matter did say that the new system will lower the tolls because the same amount from the first to the last kilometer will be charged, which doesn’t happen with the current system.

According to the Tourism Board, the indicators are very positive in relation to the upcoming tourist season, especially when looking at the hotels’ preliminary spread sheets.

Desiderio Silva – the head of the regional Tourism Board – mentioned that there are units that are expecting their occupation rates until September or October to be much higher than what they initially predicted.

Speaking at the presentation of the Algarve Tourism Memorandum – a document lsiting various proposals as to how tourism can be improved within the region of the Algarve, Mr. Silva mentioned that this year both the French and the German markets have picked up after dropping in the number of tourists coming to Algarve in the past few years.

According to his estimations, the Algarve will most likely see more visitors from neighboring Spain as well, because due to the economic hardships they’ll opt for closer holiday destinations, and there are none closer than Portugal of course.

It is expected that more residents from Galicia and the Spanish Estremadura would more likely visit the Algave than those from actually neighboring Andalucia because they won’t have to pay any tolls on the motorways as opposed to the tolls required to get on the A22/Via do Infante.

The Algarve Tourist Memorandum features proposals based around the five pillars of air accessibility, touristic promotion, tax competitiveness, tourist products and the modernization of the destination as a whole.

We’ll just have to wait and see if these predictions actually come to fruition.

It turns out however, that the Algarve peak season tourism numbers have met the expectations of the local Algarve Hotels and Resorts Association, in fact they were slightly larger than the numbers in the same period of 2011.

The occupancy rate for August reached 90.7%, despite the many economic issues that have been hitting the region over the past year, including increased IVA rates, the rather controversial introduction of tolls on the A22 – which created a number of difficulties for those travelers who didn’t have a Portuguese plated car – the overcrowded EN125 as well as the overall Euro crisis.

As said earlier, despite all of these economic woes, attendance actually saw a substantial increase during August, seeing a 17.3% increase in Dutch tourists, 16.1% British, 15.7% German and 4.6% Irish. It should be noted that these increases came at a great time in order to counterbalance the rather significant decrease in the number of Spanish visitors – 29.1% actually – and the domestic Portuguese market decreased as well, by 6.3%. The domestic and Spanish decrease doesn’t come as a surprise though, as this was a natural consequence of the economic issues that both countries are facing, especially the austerity measures in Portugal.

We have to mention that the slight increase in occupancy rate that we’re referring to is of only 0.1%, but considering all the things that should’ve stopped them for even reaching last year’s rate, it shouldn’t be neglected. It is believed that the occupancy rate was helped by all-inclusive holiday packages and accommodation, which come with reduced prices overall. Interestingly enough, the year on year revenue of the region to increase by 4.3%.

Of course some regions saw an increase in occupancy while others saw decreases, in the first category you’ll find Lagos, Sagres, Vilamoura, Quarteira and Quinta do Lago, and in the second Carvoeiro, Armacao de Pera, Monte Gordo and Villa Real de Santo Antonio.