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.