Up at the crack of dawn... couldn't really tell what time the sun rose up due to the clouds.

Anyway we headed back to Belem to visit a few museums. Firstly the Coach, then the Archaeology, finally the Maritime.

The coach was great, didn't know there was so much to learn about the horse draw mode of transport. Dee and the kids found the second, not so good (I was looking for WiFi to book our seats on the flights home). The Maritime was also very well displayed and informative.

Funny story about the WiFi. There is a Starbuck's in Belem -- we knew this from our previous visit -- and with the purchase of a not too bad espresso we got access to the WiFi. Actually we didn't, and neither could the staff... oh ho ho ho! We were informed that the centre across the way had a hot spot, it didn't. Finally we were told McDonald's had it. The problem, well one of them was that it was hidden. McDonald's has never been one to hide its presence, but boy they really tried in Belem.

The second problem is I think McDonald's is to cuisine what Hitler was to world peace. So having paid money for shit fries we got access and booked our seats home.

After taking a cleansing was in a torrential down pore we hit a restaurant that Dee had read about in her ever present guide book, called Nunu's. Nunu's specialise in sea food. We had a starter of proscuitto on toast and a whole crab mixed with mayo and other stuff then served back in the top of the crab shell. For main courses, I had the squid with prawn on a skewer, Dee had the lobster. Anwen and G split a battered fish with s bread soup, which was more like a stew. White wine for those that were old enough. Dessert was Mango mousse, Chocolate mousse and

Nunu's pudding, which was cream caramel in anything but name.

We then hit the gift shop at a gallery we had previously visited at the start of the trip and bought all sorts.

For the trip home we decided to take the tram all the way back to the apartment, it was our final tram ride, and is always great.

So there you go, our final day in Portugal, very sorry to be leaving, I think, even with the not so great weather we have had, we have seen lots, eaten lots and enjoyed the whole experience as a family.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog, and well be seeing you all soon.

Ciao

Around Lisbon....

The day began with a beautiful sunrise.

We then set out to get tickets for the metro, and with the aid of a very helpful metro person, got some.

Jumping onto the underground --would that be jumping down to the underground?-- we headed over to the main part of Lisbon's shopping area/older town, in the Baixo/Rossio part of town.

Dee wanted to visit a market which as it turned out had fruit,veg and meats all in one huge single story building. The meat section went around on all four sides of the market, in from that was the fruit and flowers, and in the central square was the vegetable sellers. We stopped for coffee, surprisingly, and pastries at the market.

After the market we picked up a lift from one of the greatest rides out there, the funicular. If you don't know, this is the tram that takes you up and down the side of hills saving your legs from the excruciating climb. Note: When you look at the picture of the funicular look at the writing next to Dee's head.

Wonder how it finished, didn't notice

it till I was looking through the photos.

Got up to a new view point. It is opposite from where we got to on our little walk yesterday.

We wandered around from store to store finding one after another was closed, even though the guide books say they will be open. Shop hours in Lisbon are like the maps, kind of vague.

To get over this disappointment Dee found us a restaurant that provided us with one of the best meals we have had.

Called Cervejaria Trindade, it is based in what was a monastery. A monastery that used to make beer. For a starter Dee and I Split the Octopus salad, yummy. I then had a steak, Dee had a sea food --shell fish-- with rice mix, Anwen the soup and G hamburger -- without bun-- with salad and fries. Dessert was chocolate mouse. Dee and I tried the beer just to make sure the monks knew what they were doing. They did. In fact everything was excellent.

The waiter we had could speak six languages, with a little Japanese added on. Makes you feel rather bad for not trying a little harder with the local language.

After lunch we hit a few more shops, some were open and then headed home on the tram.

I have to say Lisbon is one of the great cities out there to visit. With the added sunshine it just gets better.

More walking and visiting tomorrow.

Ciao

Everyone is better.

Didn't do much yesterday. G and Dee took it easy, so mainly spent indoors.
Back to Lisbon today (8th).
Will have pictures for you to see then.
Ciao.

Back to the Algarve

The lady -- in the building across from us -- in the back of the picture is holding a conversation with another lady in our building, two flights up from us.

We hit the road about noon after saying bye to Jesus. G was showing signs of not being his usual happy self and by the time we got to el parents house he had temp of 102.

He's had an uncomfortable night but now seems ok-ish.

Now Dee is showing signs of illness.

I think all the walking in the rain is starting to take its toll.

So for today (6th) we will be relaxing.

Ciao.

Didn't rush to get going today (4th). Everyone seemed a bit tired. So the first stop was the coffee shop visited yesterday. Turned out the chocolate and churros are VERY good.

While there, the skies opened up and we got to watch a HUGE amount of water fall to the ground and produce rivers of water through the plaza. After about 15 minutes it had stopped and we plucked up the courage to hit the road.

The Cathedral is impressive alright, remembering that all that splender was in some way stollen from other cultures by way of natural resourses. G and I did the climb to the top of the minaret that was the original building on the Cathedral site. The climb consisted of 36 levels to the top. It was quite entertaining as G counted off the levels not knowing how many there was on the way up. He pretty much ran back down, much to the amusement of the people in front of us.

From the cathedral we headed to the El Corte Inglés, there are two of these store, actually three if you include the seperate book store, in a small area. Hit the first shop looking for a knife, then hit the second looking for the grocery department. Dee was in second heaven due to the vast choice.

She did make the mistake of picking up an Advocado and fondle it, that brought out the clerk to jabber at us in Spanish take the veg, weigh it, bag it and tag it. All in a Spanish style huff! Pretty funny.

The heavens opened up again so we headed out to find lunch, it was 2:30 at this point. We settled on a place called BOBO. Very pretentious and not great food. After this we dashed to the sports store, again, bought more track suits, then a shoe shop, bought shoes.

We had not stayed for coffee at BOBO but stopped once the rain had stop, in a small plaza. It had a small coffee shop with a serving window on the street side. You could just sidle up to and get served.

The old guy at the window said he didn't speak English, I tried to use my Spanish on him. I think he started to laugh on the inside then he started to speak English and laugh on the outside. He looked and acted like kind hearted Mafia man.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped for some butter in the old town and as we three waited outside under cover for Dee, a hail storm errupted. Not small round hail, but chucks of ice as in, lets put it in a rum drink, kind of ice. Everyone ran for cover. I half expected the four horse men to appear!

Also picked up a cake on the way home from the best smelling bakery any of us had been in.

Got home, got dry, had wine, had cheese, had spanish tortilla, had cake, watched Wallander (new season) and to bed, exhausted.

Ciao

The Palace of Alcazar took up most of the day.
But first the obligatory coffee shop was hit.
This one did what the Spainsh like to have for breakfast. Which is Lovely hot chocolate, about the size of a double espresso with Churros. The Churros are -- as you can see form the picture -- oval shaped, hand sized, made from a fried light donut batter, warm loveliness. Very addictive. Dee did the ordering -- coz I guilted her into it -- and it's becoming plain to all that the Spanish do NOT speak English, and why should they. Having it easy in Portugal has made us soft.
The translation book has been used a lot. It has been fun and it seems, if you try they seem to be happy and helpful.

The Palace is an amazing mix of Moorish and Christian arts and crafts. Unfortunately none of the pictures will do it justice, it's impossible.

After the walk around -- the kids were very patient -- we found the restaurant Robles by accident.
Took the plunge and ordered Tapas. Surprising how such a small amount of food can fill you up.
It was a varied selection and very good. Sorry about the after picture again. We, sorry, I am getting worse as times goes by.
The Spanish take there food VERY seriously and I mean VERY. One guy got really MAD due to

this plonkers kids making too much noise. They were brats. In Canada we would have stared and tried to use our none offensive telepathy to get the parents to get the kids to SHUT UP. Not this guy, he had the backing of the restaurant, you could tell. The kids shut up and the parents weren't happy.

As we headed home the clouds really opened up and we all got soaked wet through. It has become the norm, ah well.

The main shopping area was only about 80% of yesterday, but still nuts!

We are unsure about tomorrow. Maybe have to go back to the coffee shop, just to make sure the Churros were as good as we thought they were. Travelling is hard.

Ciao.

We're off to sunny, sunny spain! January 2nd

Seville.

We had an easy drive from Espiche to Seville. Lasting all of two and a half hours.

When I was down this way in the late 80's there was no bridge just a open car ferry, kind of like the one's you see crossing rivers in John Wayne movies.

Surprisingly, the bridge was the only piece of rough road, seems like neither country wants to pay for its upkeep, a tad concerning.

Found the apartment without too many wrong turns. Seville is very flat and in a sort of grid pattern. A grid layed out by Picasso maybe?

After meeting Jesus, nice guy not surprisingly, and getting the keys, we headed out.

The period between Christmas and January 6th --when the Spanish really celibrates something or other to do with Jesus and god and stuff -- is spend like crazy getting presents and stuff time.

There is supposed to be a 20% unemployment rate in Spain, you wouldn't guess it from the number of people out and about, all done up with shopping bags in hand.

One of the stores had an escalator that was busier than a London tube station at 5 pm. We headed home.

We saw a cool exhibit call "Guardians" its the rusty fellows in the picture, they were pretty impressive in person. Included in the same square was a craft market. More like Gucci than Galiano crafters.

All around the city are racks of bicycles for rent. The system seems to be pretty well used as we saw many people riding around on them.

On the way home we walked pass a grocery store knowing full well that there was one near to the apartment. It was closed, nuts! So we looked on the Google God and found a LIDL not far away.

The LIDL was rubbish, looked rubbish, had rubbish product and terrible staff. There payment system was so old it couldn't take VISA, after telling us they could, GRRRRR!

We got what we could -- with cash, nothing is very expensive -- then found another grocer down the road a bit. It was a bit better but not much. Portuguese shops are better in every way, SHOCK!

The apartment is very nice if noisy. The windows have all the noise insulation effect of rice paper and the woman up stairs likes to ware her heals all evening.

Cats fight, people whistle at each other, cars with hip hop blarring go by, dogs howel, old men hack up a lung, the airport is busy and you cannot sleep. Back to living in a BIG city is a shock but that's ok, it is SEVILLE after all.

Ciao.

January1st

Not much of a post today, due mainly to spending most of the day on the beach.

Being true Canadians the kids did there Polar swim... Except it was 20 deg under blue sky!

It finally happened, a day of blue skies and calm-ish seas.

We had lunch at a beach restaurant. Can't remember the name, sorry. Also we ate most of the food before we remembered to take a picture. Sorry again, I guess we were to giddy from all the sun we had!

Dee and I split the sea bream with salad and potatoes, Anwen and I split the chicken with fries and salad. G had a ham and cheese sandwich, he didn't let me have some, ah well.

Tomorrow Saville!

Ciao

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.....