New Years Eve.

We went on a car tour up to Mertola a site that has been occupied for over 2000 years.

Placed well above the Guadiana River it was a major trading post for many years.

The Moors expanded it, placing a Mosque on top of the hill below the castle.

As you all must know by now, we are both foodies, and needless to say we stopped for lunch before visiting the castle. The chosen restaurant was one Dee has read about in the tour book called the Alentejo Restaurant. It serves up hearty fare, one soup containing tripe, blood sausage, chrousso sausage with beans and broth. I have to say seeing the blood sausage -- a serious bone of contention with my mother and me, when I was a kid due to my unwillingness to eat it -- kind of turned me off. Unfortunately -- as my wonderfull children pointed out -- one cannot tell your kids to try everything and then not do it yourself. GULP!

Turned out to be great! In fact the whole meal -- we ordered enough for 6 to 8 people -- was excellent.

The castle is ringed with high walls on shear drops on three of the sides, it is a pretty impressive place. And somewhat -- for me -- troubling, in the high winds. Haven't felt scared of heights in many years, but wandering along the parapets with little protection, gave me a bit of a chill.

Just outside the walls of the castle is an old settlement, used by Romans, Moors and Christians, with mosaics dating back to the 6th century AD. Additionally there is a huge cemetary on top of the hill.

After the castle we hit the Mosque, now St Mary's church, where the church has tried its damndist to get rid of all Islamic markings, but a few still survive.

The roads inside the town are seriously rough, but this didn't seem to stop Anwen from falling asleep in the stroller. She amazes me in this ability to just have a nap when she feels like it, no matter where.


By late in the afternoon everything was closing down so we headed back to Espiche, about 150 kms away.

We dove through sun and heavy, heavy rain. All said it was a great day of exploring in a beautiful part of Portugal.

In ending, we'd all like to wish you a Happy New Year.

Ciao

December 30th

Not surprisingly the day started of raining and blowing.

We waited until early afternoon and headed down to Luz to see if the local junk shop was open. It wasn't.

I met my Ma,Pa and Kate for coffee while Dee took the kids to the beach.

We all met up later at the beach and watched the surfers get driven into the sand by the large uneven surf.

After a half hour of this, we went for lunch at the beach restaurant called Cafe Bel Paraiso. I was expecting an Willows Beach Tea Hut type lunch. Happily the Swordfish with potatoes and salad was very good. Boyo had the ham and cheese sandwich while Anwen had fish and chips, smiles all round.

With full stomachs we headed to Lagos, due mainly to the blue skies SHOCK that had appeared, and hit the small beach we had previously visited.

Anwen and G had a great time "baiting" the waves, screaming and laughing even after they both go soaked by a "rogue" wave. With all the noise emanating from the two of them, more and more people came down onto the beach to watch.

An hour was spent combing the beach and running up and down, with us then returning to the house for dinner.

We were all thankful for the lovely blue skies, lasting till we had arrived back at the car in Lagos.

A little sun does a lot to cheer one up, but tomorrow's weather looks seriously wet, here's hoping it won't last all day. Really crossing my fingers.

On the 2nd of January we are heading to Seville for 3 days, giving the older members of the family a break from the mayhem that are grandchildren. Seville will give us our last place to troll around and take in the sites. Everyone is very excited.

Ciao

Carvoeiro

The morning started out dark and stormy. The afternoon was dark and stormy.

So to gee ourselves up, we decided to go to ABC (Algarve Book Company) books in the village of Carvoeiro.

Oh Carvoeiro where has your soul gone? We wondered your narrow crater infested streets looking for insperation. What we found was a naf book store (5 euro's each no matter how rubbish the book was) and a beach the size of a pool table surrounded by bars with great Portuguese inspired names like "Cheers" and "The Dog and Piddle", where unlucky hour started the day the tourists arrived.

We struggled back up the main drag from the beach. The drag has a whimsical Berlin spring 1945 inspired architecture -- after the Russians redesigned it. Which stands side by side with the ugly, rubbish apartments in white with yellow highlights, next door to wine and t-shirt shops.

83% of the GDP of Portugal is tourism, I think the deal with the devil needs a rethink. PLEASE.

There was a ray of light in all this rundown ticky tacky. Its name is the Fabrica Velha coffee shop. Light, inviting, friendly staff with great coffee and some of the best pastries we have had. Why they set up shop in tacky town is a mystery, but thank god they did!

Happily G did love the surf at the beach. With its diminutive size and cresent shape the waves got quite large due to being stuffed into such a small space. He'd run at the ocean as it receded and then tried to stare it down, only to beat a hasty retreat when it came back in. Fun, fun, fun.

Oh well another tastles piece of Portugal done with, never to be visited again.

Always remembering that if you don't go looking, even in what turns out to be the most unattractive places, you don't find the Fabrica Velhas of this world.

Tomorrows another day.

Ciao

New Fiat 500. Must have one!

Two day blog today.

Yesterday (27^th) we went into Lagos for a walk around. The weather was overcast with a bit of wind. We, all except Anwen of course, went down to the Marina, where there is easy parking and then headed for the causeway to take in the sites.

As you can see from the first two photos there are two histories. The Portuguese, which has usually been bulldozed and the British.

We all headed for the little beach which was very cool and Dee got some nice shells. After the beach we had coffee and headed back to the house.

I also relented and bought mum and dad an espresso machine. They needed it. Honest. It was hard for them to get up in the morning without their shot of black, delicious espresso. They just didn’t know how badly they needed it. Thank god I was able to help.

Today (28^th) Anwen came with us!

We drove to Faro… what can one say about Faro…It has an Airport. Actually it is the main hub for the Algarve.

Although I wouldn’t have believed it, it is even more of a total maze and, even more of a mix of derelict and newer done up buildings, than anywhere else so far. We thought Portimao was more attractive, and that is saying something.

Lunch. For lunch I had the Cuttlefish and it was rubberized and burnt, Dee was kind enough to coat it with some of her sauce, I added olive oil , salt and pepper. It then tasted like yummy tire!

Dee had the clams and pork, Kate had the Cod Portuguese style which I think was the best. The boy had pizza and the girl a plate of fries.

The rain all day (which wasn’t mainly falling on the plain in Spain) was of a new quantity and style. I think the Ark would have had a hard time. Even the two rats on board would have been jumping overboard. But would have been blown away before touching the water. Ah the lovely Algarve winter weather.

When you speak to people about the weather they just looked stunned and say “it’s never like this”. The good side is, is that the south has been in a drought for quite a few years. Problem fixed!

Even with all the griepping I have done we still enjoyed the day out.

Ciao

Dessert, take one package of sugar and a spoon.....

Comments?

Anyone have any comments to make on the blog? Ideas? What do you like, want to see more of?

All but Anwen travelled down the coast to Portimao. Anwen has found her extended family more fun than us.

So we made do with coffee and treats.

Portimao, is an odd mix of industrial and tourism. One minute we were driving down a wide well surfaced road only to find at the end an old narrow "traditional" Portuguese road.

One of the more odd shops, was the christening shop, if your baby needs a white dress like outfit or a suit only in black, they have it, and more, in white and black.

We stopped for lunch at a fish restaurant "Strong and Ugly". Dee had read about it in one of the guides. G had the pasta dish, we had a kind of fish stew. Bread at the base with the seafood and

veggies mixed in. To top it off two eggs were mixed in at the table. We did take a picture of it but decided it didn't do it justice.

Oddly Portimao has been the only town where we both felt uncomfortable while walking along the main tourist area. People "talking" on public phones then putting it down and following us until we turn and make eye contact. Where they peeled off and headed away from us.

After lunch we headed for the spectacular beach on the outskirts of Portimao, where G had his daily fix of sand castle building. Dee even found some shells that were keepers.

Our first full day of beautiful blue skies.

Ciao

Merry Christmas Day!

Spent the day opening presents, eating and even got a walk in. Surprisingly the walk happened in sunshine that broke out for 40 minutes in the late afternoon.

During the walk we found a cafe' that was open, decorated in fishing nets! The cafe was filled with what looked like the Portuguese fishing mafia. The coffee wasn't great but it had been 24hrs since we had our last one, so it tasted fine.

Kids enjoyed themselves the whole day. Watching TV, eating, oh and unwrapping anything that looked like it was wrapped, at all!

Alan and my mum cooked a huge Christmas lunch. It could of easily fed the whole of Espiche, including the ferral cats and dogs that roam the streets barking and hissing at anyone and anything.

So there you go Christmas 2009.

I hope yours was as fun as ours.

Ciao.

What's that in the sky?

Sorry for the sarcasm in the title but I couldn’t resist. We went for a walk today down to Luz, which is just across the highway and down the road from my mum and dad’s place. It started to rain not long after we left but cleared up till it was pretty darn warm. Only for the clouds to let go this afternoon -- after we had returned to the house -- like Noah was retesting the Ark.

Luz is right on the water and, as you can see from the pics, the surf was huge! G managed to get a bit of castle building in. Anwen had decided to stay at the house with everyone else and be entertained by her adoring fans.

It is very British in this part of the Algarve. Actually that’s an understatement, English pubs and restaurants are everywhere -- along with right hand drive cars and pale people. All in all, I’d have to say I’d steer clear of the south coast, unless you have a desperate urge to see “Little Britain”.

If you drive North into the hills you begin to get back to Portuguese Portugal. It is much more rustic and attractive with less concrete and more green.

It finally dawned on me why it feels so different here, and it comes down to the lack of Christmas lights everywhere. They decorate the center of their towns but nowhere else.

We did some shopping the other day for G -- we had brought very little for him -- the cool thing was that they wrapped everything for us in the store, no charge and with a little balloon for each present.

Anyway we have yet to finish the wrapping and getting ready for tomorrow, so we’ll leave you for now and wish you all a Happy Christmas, relax and eat a lot… we will!

Jak, Dee, G and Anwen

December 23rd

Sorry for the delay in new posts. Let's just say that Portugal internet service providers are slow to react when your (in this case my dad's) internet goes down.

Since we got down here the weather has just got more and more terrible. Lots of wind and rain. Temperature has stayed up about 20 deg, so it's kind of odd being out in Dec with wind and rain but hot!

Went to the beach yesterday, in the background is the castle Cape St Vincent on the southern tip of Portugal. As you can see, quite the surf but some blue sky.

Then drove back to the house. On the way passing a "hotel" perched on the cliffs... and I mean on the cliffs.

It was oddly isolated and looking kind of run down.

Once back at the house we managed to assemble a wonderful lunch with a very quaffable Vinho Verde. A little too quaffable it turned out. Dee required the rest of the day to recover.

Today the IT guy turned up, not believing that we had a problem, but, after much hand waving and pigeon english, he finally working out how to get the electrons to behave.

In the afternoon we visited the castle in Silves, quite the place, except it was raining, of course, more like a warm shower than a nasty squal.

Luckily beforehand we had stocked up on the most fabulous lunch. I had the whole squid (about 10) with potatoes in a mix of olive oil, garlic and anchovies. Dee had a Morrocan Lamb, G had pizza and Anwen the Carrot soup. For dessert Dee and I had a very thick mousse made of chocolate, brandy and almonds. G had the orange chocolate cake, very good. Coffee finished it all off. We believe it to be the best meal we've had to date. The rain could do no harm.

All in all it has been a wet couple of days but with the on and off sunshine and warm temperatures we can't complain. Especially after seeing the weather for North America and Northern Europe. Snow, snow and snow.

Don't know what we have planned for tomorrow, maybe Faro or further East.

Ciao.

december 19th and 20th

Left Lisbon at about 12:30 on Saturday, after a great stay in the apartment. Travelled across the long bridge to the north of Lisbon. I think it is the longest in Europe, certainly feels like it.

The whole route from Lisbon to the Algarve can be done on toll roads and we figured we'd give it a try. Going south there are no tolls on the bridge, you then hit the A12 which ran into the A2 where we picked up a ticket from the toll booth.

The road south was amazingly empty, I doubt we saw a 100 cars from lisbon to Lagos.

We stoppped near the end of the A2 at a road side pull over for a snack. I asked, in my terrible Portuguese for the lamb ribs. Thinking I was getting a piece of the cage she was pointing at, but no it was the whole cage, we all ate some and it was hard to finish. Still pretty good for a motorway stop.

The day was beautiful so Anwen and G had ice cream.

The total fee for the road down was 18.60 euro's. Not bad for the 240 km's.

Got down to ma and pa's in under three hours which wasn't bad.

I can't really relate this trip to the last time I was here, mainly because most of the infastructure wasn't here back in the late 80's. I remembered holes in roads and cops every where. Never saw either on the way down, what joy.

The weather has changed for the worse, with heavy rain and cold weather, no snow though which is nice, and there are loads of small coffee shops to keep warm in.

We plan to spend Monday driving around, maybe hit Lagos and do some christmas shopping.

Fish n chips n birds.

We went to one of the coolest places we have yet visited. It's called the Oceanario De Lisbon.
I had personally sworn off Aquariums after seeing Vancouver's. But boy oh boy, you gotta see this place. There is one massive central tank with all kinds of fish in it. Surrounding it are multiple rooms where unique fish and plant life are held in their own little watery environments. Clean and beautifully presented, we ended up spending something in the region of 3 hours in the place.

None of the pictures I took will do it justice. You could just sit and watch the huge really old (and we were told not too bright -- no pun intended --) sun fish float by, or lean away when the sharks appeared. Huge tuna, a lively Octopus, sea horses and sea otters. Just a very few to mention. This is all based at the old 1998 Expo site and for fun on outside on one of the main plazas are three water volcanos. They would go off at random times, starting with water flowing down the site and then there would be an almighty WHUMP and water was blasted out of the top. In one of the shots you can see G tempting fate, with some coaxing from me I must admit, "go on that's not close... I need a good shot for everyone... go on!" He is brave, and lucky!

We then had lunch at a pretty nice restaurant near by. After lunch G and I took off to the Science world and Dee and the princess hit the mall (amazing, the same shops -- only prices in euros -- very disappointing!). G found the science world entertaining - especially when he got to do a high wire bike ride exploring the concept of center of gravity from 25 feet in the air. I saw him go from oh no I'm gonna die to riding it with arms out straight and full of confidence that he would be meeting his maker today!

We used the Metro today which was very clean and each station had a different "look". Of course, all of them tiled - but with different patterns and themes.
Ciao