movingtoportugal

I mentioned in my Portugal A to Z post last week how much we like the simplicity of popping over the border to Spain for a change of scenery. Well, last weekend we did just that.

Tempted by a ludicrously cheap Travelzoo hotel offer, we set off in the car to spend a weekend in the city of Jerez de la Frontera – the place where all the sherry comes from.

I’m ashamed to say that we returned home yesterday without having visited a single sherry bodega. A combination of one of us driving and another suffering a mild case of “tapas tummy” meant that sampling a range of different sherries seemed an unwise decision – and there’s always next time.

We did, however, have a pleasant and relaxing weekend with weather that was bright and sunny despite being rather cold for this part of the world.

From Portugal to Jerez

This may sound odd, but going to Spain always makes realise that we’re not doing too badly in terms of settling into life in Portugal. An example: Lack of a menu in a Portuguese restaurant is now no problem to us – we know what’s likely to be on offer and how to ask for it. (In most cases, this just involves us saying “tem ameijoas?” which means “do you have clams?!”)

Put us in a Spanish tapas bar with no visible menu however, and we’re in all sorts of bother. Over the weekend, it became something of a running joke that our lack of language continually resulted in our sitting and eating something we didn’t particularly fancy, while the locals unknowingly taunted us with delicious plates of cuisine we didn’t know how to order! Perhaps this is how tourists feel when they see us eating clams in Portugal?

Anyway, we did still manage to have our fill of paella, tortilla and, for our sins, a pair of Dominos pizzas on Sunday. We just won’t speak of the whole meatballs-in-strange-fishy-sauce incident.

Lemur at Jerez Zoo

A highlight of our trip was a long wander round Jerez zoo. This was a very pleasant way to spend a morning, and we were particularly impressed with the low cost of entry (9€) and the almost total absence of the in-your-face commercialism that pervades UK tourist attractions. It actually took us a little while to even find somewhere to have a drink and a snack, and attempts to separate tourists from their money with gift shops and tat were almost non-existent.

Less pleasing was the fact that all the children in attendance seemed hell-bent on tormenting the caged animals as much as possible with noise and taunts. It turns out that a “do not feed the animals” sign means NOTHING in a Spanish zoo, as you will see from this photograph of someone holding their child up to hand-feed a giraffe, right next to the sign!

Do Not Feed the Animals!

We also saw someone dangling their toddler, Michael Jackson style, over the walls of the hippo enclosure. It was actually pretty disturbing, and highlighted some major cultural differences when it comes to raising children. While it was refreshing to visit a child-friendly attraction and not witness a fierce bollocking every five minutes, as I imagine we would have done at London zoo, we didn’t see so much as a mild telling off in all the time we were there. And believe me, some of those children, and indeed their parents, badly deserved one!

The rest of our time in Jerez was spent wandering and enjoying our bargain priced hotel – no big nights out, no hangovers, just a perfect, relaxing weekend. Just what you end at the end of January.

While I was in Spain, I finally finished an eBook I started reading some time ago (I really need to start charging my Kindle more often!) I thought I would give the book a quick mention here as “Conquering Babel” is a great little read about tactics for learning languages. It has really helped me to motivate myself to accelerate my learning of Portuguese, and I’ve enjoyed reading something that is more fun than the essential but depressingly difficult “501 Portuguese Verbs.” If you’re trying to learn Portuguese, you probably need both! Links are below:

Conquering Babel: A Practical Guide to Learning a Language

501 Portuguese Verbs (Barron’s 501 Portuguese Verbs)

Technorati Tags: algarve to spain, jerez, jerez zoo

My wife and I have never really been hostel-type people, preferring the minibars and pillow menus of good hotels, even when we can’t really afford them! However, when we first moved to Portugal a couple of years ago, we lived just around the corner from the pousada da juventude, and every time we wandered past the large windows we were always rather taken by its plush reception area and open air patio.

You see, Portugal does youth hostels rather well, with one in Lisbon being named amongst the very best in the world. In these times of economic hardship, it is easy to see the benefits of staying in these places, either for a very inexpensive holiday, or as an extended stay for those exploring the area with a view to moving to Portugal permanently. The best part is that off-season, there is a high probability of plenty of availability, which means lots of space and privacy once checked in.

Tavira's Plush Youth Hostel

The local press has drawn our attention to a couple of new hostels in the past few weeks, including a new music-themed establishment down the road from us in Tavira, with its walls adorned with murals featuring the Beatles, Bob Marley and other music legends.

Faro, the Algarve’s “capital” has also just opened the doors of its first hostel, giving people the opportunity to come and enjoy our Autumn sunshine via a cheap flight, and find a bed for the night for under 15 euros! Both of these new places offer ensuite rooms as well as traditional dormitory accommodation, so those of us insistent on our own toilet facilities can be happy too!

I like the thought that these new places will bring young people to the area, and add the certain vibrancy that they bring to Lagos, down the other end of the Algarve. And, who knows, if the local magazines and papers keep printing pictures of these shiny new establishments, I may one day “feel the fear, and do it anyway” and actually stay in one myself. Perhaps.

Technorati Tags: algarve youth hostels, faro hostels, portugal youth hostels, tavira hostels

This post continues from where I left off with my last post, describing our visit to Lisbon and the surrounding area. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s probably best if you read this first, then come back here.

Sintra is a beautiful hilltop town on the outskirts of Lisbon. Luckily our hotel was located near a station with convenient trains. The journey surprised us with the sheer density of housing in the suburbs between the city center and Sintra. After 30 mins of travel past countless tower blocks, we suddenly arrived in Sintra, a total contrast to everything we had seen on the way there.

Beautiful Sintra, near Lisbon

Sintra is a UNESCO world heritage site and boasts a range of palaces and museums. The town is beautiful and the architecture really different to the Moorish influences we are used to where we live in the Algarve.

We really visited to get a general sense of the place, rather than visit specific attractions, but unfortunately, our failure to properly read the guidebook resulted in us visiting on the one day that the main Palacio National that we did wish to walk around was closed to the public. We did have a good look around the outside though, and were a little surprised how poorly maintained it seemed to be – certainly not the bright white Disneyesque building shown in our guidebook!

View of Sintra Portugal

After visiting a pasterlaria and stocking up on seriously delicious queijadas (super sweet cheese-based sponge cakes), we strolled around the “semi-tropical” gardens and up through the town, visiting a range of tourist tat shops, and a fabulous antique shop specializing in scientific instruments and old fashioned technology. We then headed to the wonderful toy museum.

I’m not a great one for museums, but I loved the toy museum, although it was quite depressing that so many things I had as a child are now considered museum pieces! The museum has everything from vintage Hornby train sets to Barbies, Action Men and 3000 year old stone toys. It is well worth a visit – my only piece of advice would be that all male visitors should perhaps start on the top floor and work down. After getting very excited about Star Wars figures and toy cars, I was quite disappointed when I got to the top and only had dolls left – I should have saved the best till last!

Sintra Toy Museum - Hornby Trains

We headed back to Lisbon by train, stopping for a quick expresso and pastel de nata before heading across town on the metro to Cais de Sodre, ready for the train out to Cascais.

The train to Cascais is a “must-do” for visitors to Lisbon. The views are incredible as you leave Lisbon, initially right next to a major road, which delivers the strange sensation of travelling on a road whilst on a train. The train tracks then hug the shore, nearly close enough for waves to break against the train carriages.

We passed through some far more upscale, and no doubt very expensive, suburbs on the way to Cascais, the beach resort of choice for Lisbon residents.

A lot of people had recommended Cascais to us, and it did deliver, in all but two respects: beach space, and sea water temperature, which was bloody freezing compared to the Algarve, which itself isn’t really all that warm!

After a quick walk round the town, which included a stroll around an antiques fair and a stop for bifanas (pork sandwiches) and beers, we walked around the marina, which was preparing to host the Americas Cup. As such, it was also hosting a large collection of ostentatiously wealthy Europeans and their spoiled and noisy children, so we quickly got away and searched for somewhere to have a rest.

Cascais - Our Secluded Beach Spot

We found just the place, a tiny “beach” on the edge of a park on the way out of town. It was really just an inlet, where the sea was still flowing into the land between the parts of the marina, but it was an oasis of calm that seemed undiscovered by the tourists. We finished the rest of our quiejadas and had a dip in the water.

With our energy restored, we found the main seafront and joined the hundreds of locals in the early evening promenade tradition, stopping for a drink en route to Estoril, a couple of miles away.

We didn’t explore much of Estoril town, other than to buy an ice cream and sit on the pretty park in front of the huge casino, said to be the inspiration for many of Ian Fleming´s James Bond tales. We then rejoined the prom back into Cascais, which by now was packed with people looking for somewhere to have dinner.

We were lucky enough to grab the last table at a low priced grill restaurant and tucked into some very succulent piri piri chicken, chips and salad. The clearly very wealthy English family who came to sit at the next table towards the end of our meal provided some entertainment, and their embarrassing, squabbling behavior while we drank our coffees gave us something to talk about on the way home!

We boarded quite a late train back to Lisbon, with surprisingly few people on it considering the number of people in Cascais. A late night underground train then dropped us almost at the door of our hotel.

Our stay is Lisbon was over when we awoke the following day, so we checked out of the hotel and headed out of the city, this time choosing to drive over the stunning, seven mile long Vasco de Gama bridge instead of joining the horrific traffic for the 25 de Abril bridge.

On the way back to the Algarve we stopped at Freeport, a huge outlet mall for designer goods, which proved to be a huge waste of time, with nothing seeming to be particularly good value. Promises of shirts from 10€ and jeans from 15€ on the windows never seemed to materialize in the shops themselves-we wouldn’t bother with a repeat visit.

After this stop, our journey back was over very quickly, with a planned detour to the west coast of Portugal proving unsuccessful when we realized our borrowed satnav didn’t contain beaches as points of interest. So we headed home, tired but content after our break in Lisbon, and ready to get back to work.

As I mentioned in my previous post, our chosen guidebook was really accurate and helpful on our trip to Lisbon and the surrounding area. You can find the book we used here:

Rough Guide Directions Lisbon

Technorati Tags: cascais, estoril, lisbon day trips, sinta

We had a week off work last week, and beyond a vague intention to have a break in Lisbon at some point, we had no firm plans.

Our plans accelerated on Friday evening, just hours after switching off our laptops, when a quiet drink on our terrace was disturbed by the appearance of a scuttling rodent. Long term readers of the blog will be aware that I am not exactly a fan of these things, so I quickly found myself safely locked indoors, booking a hotel in Lisbon for the following day!

We spent five days in Lisbon, a brief account of which follows. I do intend to write a more detailed account of our stay there, which will form part of a forthcoming Kindle book – stayed tuned for details.

SATURDAY: After arranging for our relatives to remove some plants from our balcony, with our beautiful peach tree believed to me the main attraction for the newly discovered vermin, we headed off up the A2 toll road to Portugal’s capital. Our planned arrival time was scuppered by the level of traffic approaching the main 25 de Abril bridge into the city. So after a couple of hours of traffic jam, we only had time to settle into our hotel and enjoy a light dinner, consisting of a Greek mezze platter (something we would never find down here in the Algarve), and a couple of very overpriced cocktails.

SUNDAY was exploration day. We purchased a one day public transport pass and boarded the clean and efficient metro into the Baixa area. I was delighted that, although it had been some time since I was last in the city, I instantly knew where I was, and had a rough idea of my way around.

After a scarily expensive toastie and iced tea, which reminded us instantly that we weren’t in the more affordable sticks any more, we set off on a wander to explore downtown Lisbon.

Santa Justa Elevador

First stop was a free-to-enter design museum, which included some fascinating exhibits including iconic 70s furniture and HiFi systems. We then boarded the Elevador de Santa Justa, a huge vertical lift that, in seconds, takes you from the low-lying baixa district to Chiado and Barrio Alto, located on a steep hill above. We walked though Barrio Alto, Lisbon´s main nighttime restaurant and bar area, which is strangely quiet and residential during the day, and onto the pretty park at Praca do Principe Real, where we stopped at the Esplanada café for a cooling drink.

When we settled at our table, I was a little disconcerted by the guy sitting across from us, who kept catching my eye, but all was explained when I read my guide book and found the café described as a popular gay pick-up spot!

We failed to find our way into the very well hidden botantical gardens, and started to get hungry, so we decided on a picnic in the Parque Eduardo VII, which we reached via metro, stopping en route at the huge Corte D’Ingles department store for provisions. We enjoyed our picnic of cheese, bread, chorizo and bola de berlim (Portuguese cream donuts) in blazing heat….or at least I did – my wife ate most of her food standing up to avoid the ants….

Amazed at how much we had achieved in one day, we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim before dinner, which turned out to be a very quick swim due to the vast numbers of noisy children in the hotel pool.

Late in the evening, we ventured out, again by metro, to the completely transformed Barrio Alto district. Packed with tourists when we went into our chosen restaurant, these were largely replaced by locals by the time we left around midnight.

The noise and atmosphere carried us along and we visited several bars and drank numerous cocktails. By the time we stumbled out of a cab and into our hotel, people were already in reception checking out ready for early morning flights.

MONDAY was a bit of a write-off, after the excesses of the night before, so we enjoyed the TV in our room, a room-service pizza, and several overpriced but rehydrating juice drinks from the minibar. In the afternoon, we started to feel guilty about wasting our holiday time, so set off by metro to Centro Columbo, a shopping center described in our guidebook as the largest in Iberia, located next to Benfica football stadium.

Benfica Stadium Lisbon

I don’t know how much of our distaste for the place was due to the hangover, but we couldn’t get away quick enough. It was packed with people and almost impossible to find our way out of. Our shopping trip turned into a military operation to source a DVD, bags of popcorn and soft drinks. We were quickly back at our hotel, the only saving grace of the entire jaunt being a large tub of green apple sorbet which finally started to make us feel human again.

TUESDAY: Cautious of having squandered one day of our break, we were up early and headed off to the Parque das Nacoes, a huge area of Lisbon developed for Expo 98 and dedicated to leisure. We enjoyed views of the river and the stunning Vasco de Gama bridge whilst walking around and then headed to the large Oceanarium via the rather disappointing and poorly maintained water gardens.

Lisbon Oceanarium Penguins

The queue at the Oceanarium looked horrendous, but actually moved very quickly, and we were soon inside to look at the marine life in Europe’s second largest aquarium. We enjoyed the Oceanarium, but it was packed, and quite hard to get near the windows to the main tank. However, we were particularly taken with certain species, particularly the impossibly cute otters, who I swear were enjoying the attention, seadragons, and brightly coloured jellyfish.

For what its worth, although we enjoyed the oceanarium, I probably enjoyed the aquarium at the Algarve’s Zoomarine more, because what it didn’t have in sheer scale, it made up for in additional space to relax and enjoy looking at the fish. Had we visited at a slightly quieter time, I may have had a different view.

Otters at Lisbon Oceanarium

After a quick mobile lunch of crepes and waffles from Oriente station, we headed back to the hotel, aching all over from walking up and down the steep hills of Lisbon. It seemed like a good time to visit the hotel´s spa. After this we didn’t fancy going far, so took the chance on a local Chinese buffet restaurant, which was surprisingly good quality, compared to the disastrous meals we have had in similar establishments, such as the one I talk about here.

WEDNESDAY was our last full day in the Lisbon area, so we decided to venture a bit further to explore Sintra, Estoril and Cascais. Details of our explorations of these areas follow in next week’s blog post. Please come back and read it!

Technorati Tags: algarve zoomarine, benfica lisbon, benfica stadium, lisboa, lisbon, lisbon oceanarium, oceanarium

Following our previous visitors by just one day, my niece arrived last week for a very different kind of break in mind to that of the friends who had just left.

Foia - Algarve's Highest Mountain

My niece decides on a new challenge (or crazy idea, based on your point of view), every year, and tenaciously works towards it. This determination has seen her do various things in past years, from marathon running to skydiving. This year, she is undertaking the three-peaks challenge, where, for charity, she will climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales in a 24 hour period.

So, she visited the Algarve to do some training, and I made the perhaps foolhardy decision to say, “yeah, of course, we’ll come with you.”

Our walks built up from a fairly easy ramble around Mata de Conceicao to a picturesque cliff-walk from Luz to Lagos, and culminated in “the big one” – climbing the Algarve’s highest peak, Foia, on Sunday.

The first lesson I learned is that a 28C sunny day is not idea for mountain climbing. The second lesson was that if climbing Foia is described as merely “moderate” by my Algarve Walks book, I had better not attempt anything described as “strenuous.”

I don’t think any member of our party of four climbers would claim that it wasn’t pretty hard work, with relentless uphill climbs and not a lot of shade.

There were also rather more bees and wasps on the route than we expected (we were warned to expect barking dogs, of which there were none!) The bees were particularly taken with my white t-shirt, and I must confess to a rather childish strop at one point when they chased me for a prolonged period and I didn’t have the energy to outrun them!

After five minutes to drill two cans of Lipton Ice Tea at the top, the feeling of achievement arrived and we were elated to have made it to the top, especially as we seemed to be the only people up there who had been mad enough to climb rather than drive up. We climbed up the rocks to the summit and enjoyed views of the coastline, and were able to see down to the clifftop route we had taken a couple of days previously.

The downhill ramble was enjoyably easy by comparison, despite the rainstorm and threatening thunder halfway down. Steep descent after steep descent emphasized to us how much we had achieved on the way up.

Foia - The View From the Top

Lovely as it always is to see my niece, we have urged her to simply come on holiday to Portugal next time, as she does seem to break us when she visits! Despite two 11-hour sleeps since the climb, we have yet to return to 100% in terms of energy and motivation! Luckily, thanks to a UK bank holiday, we have a three-day weekend to look forward to this week!

I should mention that en-route to climbing Foia we stopped in the charming town of Monchique – and the surrounding area has much to offer visitors (despite a distinct lack of shops selling the local presunto (cured ham) that I had expected to see).  The area is highly recommended for a day-trip, and if you are not foolhardy enough to climb the mountain, you can always drive up and admire the views.

My niece has started her own blog about her three peaks adventure. Please pay her a visit and show your support!

All of our recent Algarve walks have used routes from the book below, which comes highly recommended:

Algarve Landscapes: Car Tours and Walks (Landscapes)

Technorati Tags: algarve mountains, climbing mountains, foia, monchique

Only time for a quick post today as it’s changeover day for us here in the Algarve. Some friends of ours left here yesterday and my niece arrives in just a few hours – so all hands are on deck to sweep the sand from the floor and restock the fridge and wine-rack ready for round 2!

One thing that surprised us when we moved to Portugal, was that over a year into the experience we still hadn’t once experienced that deeply happy “I’m on holiday” frame of mind we felt when we used to come here on holiday. It’s not quite the same when you live in a holiday destination as, for one thing, you are not protected from daily sightings of bills, emails and credit card statements!

Approaching Ilha de Tavira Beach

When we have guests here, it’s the closest we come to that wonderful holiday vibe, as we get to piggy-back on their holiday mood. On that note, the last week or so has been fabulous, with gorgeous sunny weather and plenty of good times.

There have been some real “Wow, I LIVE here, I’d better pinch myself” moments over the past days. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Seeing the sun set over the river whilst driving back over the bridge to Portugal after a day in Spain.

2. Seasoning vast piles of meat and fish to share with our friends and three generations of extended family.

3. Making mojitos outside late at night with the temperature still comfortably into the 20s.

4. Escaping the beach on Monday due to exfoliatingly high winds to find the waterfall at Pego do Inferno almost deserted, and swimming in the crystal-clear pool below.

5. Falling into bed each night and sleeping almost instantly with the type of tiredness that only comes from long days swimming through the waves and throwing a Frisbee around a hot beach.

Pego do Inferno Waterfall Portugal

Sometimes I post on this blog and complain about various things: bureaucracy, poor quality meat or having to travel to London too often. Sometimes though, I get reminded why all of it is worth it—this was our dream, and every now and then we have enough time to realize we are living it. We have plenty of blessings to count.

The arrival of my niece heralds an active week ahead—long-term readers of the blog may recall her last visit involved us going kayaking. This time we’re climbing mountains—just what’s needing to shed the last week’s excess barbecue weight—expect a mountain-walking-related post very soon!

Technorati Tags: algarve beach life, summer in algarve, summer in portugal

We’ve spent the last week or so exploring Spain, on our first “proper” holiday since we moved to Portugal 18 months ago.

We had a great week, despite the weather’s best efforts to spoil it for us. I can testify that being on the southern coast of Europe offers no immunity from the whims of clouds and pressure systems. We joined thousands of tourists on the coast, running from tapas bar to tapas bar in search of shelter from rain and apocalyptic thunder and lightning. Knowing that all our friends in England were basking in unusually warm April sunshine at the time didn’t exactly help with our morale, not did the marble-sized hailstones that abruptly ended the one good day we had by the pool!

We made the best of it though and explored a range of towns and cities in Andalucía. Spain has a great road network, and all the places we visited are easily accessible from the Algarve, if not for day trips, then for weekends.

Flowers in Marbella

From our villa, which was ear-poppingly high in the hills and exposed to plenty of rain and wind, we ventured out on day trips, which typically involved a scenic drive, the exploration of a city and plenty of stops for tapas and strong little Spanish beers.

Our stops included chav-chic Marbella, which we liked far more than we ever expected. We decided to go somewhere “a bit English” as it was the day of the royal wedding, and were surprisingly charmed by the place, especially the narrow streets of the old town, which were festooned with flowers. Sure, there were a few noisy stag parties and plenty of “is she a hooker or is she actually dressed like that?” moments, but we had a fantastic day there, despite torrential rain. I’m sure for some, Marbella is a tacky nightmare, but it made a great day out.

Castle in Tarifa

Tarifa, just a short ferry ride from the coast of Africa, was a great contrast. Tarifa has a very laid-back, hippy vibe, and is packed to the gills with all kinds of surfers from wind to kite. The seafront, with its views of Africa, is extremely down-at-heel and covered in graffiti, but you can’t help but think it would lose its vibe if it were cleaned up. The old-town is charming and similarly chilled-out with lots of good-looking trendy young things zooming round on mopeds and popping in and out of the quirky shops.

On our last day we visited Cadiz, somewhere we had popped into briefly on a previous holiday. I’m glad we made a return visit armed with a guidebook, as the city is quite sprawling with distinct old and new towns. The old town made me think of a less touristy Seville, with plenty of tapas bars, and monuments and churches at every turn. I am a big fan of cities-by-the-sea and Cadiz offers a great beach, which stretches the whole length of the rather less appealing “new” town. Cadiz was lively and vibrant and had the added benefit of providing us with the best tapas of the holiday. It’s hard to believe that it is largely bypassed on the tourist trail when it has so much to offer. We will be back.

Tapas in Cadiz

Our holiday gave us the chance to regroup and reprioritize after a hectic year and a half of moving abroad. The main thing that came out of it is that we need to make sure we frequently stop, breathe, and remember why we moved to Portugal in the first place. We seem to have a natural inclination to “revert to type” and focus too much on work, money and bureaucracy, when we should be paddling in the sea and watching the sunsets.

Today was out first day back at work and we got up very early for a run as the sun came up over the Ria Formosa. (Oh yes, the weather is perfect again now—isn’t that ironic?) I certainly feel re-inspired after our break. Let’s see how long it continues!

Technorati Tags: portugal near spain, portugal to spain, spain holiday

I don’t have an awful lot to report from Portugal for the last week. The disaster in Japan makes it feel a touch self-indulgent to complain about trifling little problems with bureaucracy or the weather. The scale of the tragedy there is incomprehensible, and should be a lesson to everyone that life is not a dress rehearsal. Needless to say, the people of Japan are in our thoughts and prayers.

So, rather than providing any frivolous updates this week, I will draw your attention to a couple of “guest spots” I have done on other websites in the last week or so:
The author of the Quiet, Simple Life blog interviewed me a couple of weeks back after she requested guest posts from writers on a freelancing site I work on sometimes. The interview can be found here: From London to Portugal

Expats Portugal Life is a new magazine-style website from the people behind the very popular Expats Portugal forum, and the wonderful Emma’s House in Portugal blog. Expats Portugal Life features articles from a range of popular writers about topics ranging from Portuguese cuisine to life and events in Portugal. My first article there is now available to view–find it here: So Why Portugal?

Expats Portugal Life

In other news, I am excited to announce that a printed article about our life in Portugal will soon be appearing in a popular UK magazine – watch this space!

Technorati Tags: articles about portugal, japan tragedy, life in portugal

Last weekend in Portugal was one of those times when I kept feeling very thankful for the life we have in this country.

On Friday evening we finished work and drove in convoy with the family over the border to Spain to do a pay-day shop in Carrefour in Cartaya. It takes upwards of 2 hours to get round this gigantic hypermarket and we left with Iberico ham, the most incredible bright green hand-produced olive oil and, most importantly, a large supply of traditional Spanish cider

On Saturday we took advantage of the wonderful (23c) weather and took a drive to Praia da Rocha. The drive was particularly fun as the warm day meant it was the first chance we had had to drive somewhere in the mother-in-law’s car with the roof off, so we went the long way along the N125 through the touristy bits of the Algarve which are yet to be mobbed for the summer.

Portugal Weekend - Praia de Rocha Sunset

Praia de Rocha was as beautiful as ever—a sunny day at this time of year is the best time to visit as very few tourists are about–there were however a couple of the usual hustlers on the main drag trying, with increasing urgency, to sell us fake iPods, bootleg cigarettes and pretend drugs.

Our barbecue on Saturday night didn’t go quite to plan. We had planned to shop in Portimao’s E LeClerc hypermarket but we completely failed to find it despite dozens of signs. After lots of 3 point turns, we ended up shopping very late in Olhao and eating at getting on for 11pm!

Sunday may well have been the best day of all. A perfect sunny day tucked away in the countryside where our family live. Bacon sandwiches, juice from oranges picked from the trees and a fun couple of hours of washing cars and playing with the hose to a soundtrack of Norman Jay and Dimitri from Paris CDs – bliss!

Portugal Weekend - Sunday Salad

After a fine lunch of cold left over BBQ and salad, and a quick taste of the lemon marmalade being freshly made on the terrace, we headed home via the garden centre, and abandoned plans for Sunday dinner after a couple of hours of planting, choosing instead to let the tiredness win and eat nachos

Sometimes things come together and feel just right. Weekends in Portugal like the one just past were exactly why we moved here…roll on the next one.

Portugal Weekend - Orange Picking

Technorati Tags: perfect weekend, weekend in algarve, weekend in portugal

So, it’s all over for another year. Time to dust off the laptop, and the running shoes, and return to normality.

We had a wonderful Christmas here in the Algarve and I think and hope that the extended and blended family we had with us enjoyed it as much as we did. I should give a special mention to my mother who conquered a forty-year fear of flying to make it here which made it all the more special.

Tavira at Christmas

Along with all our other wonderful gifts, my mother also brought a nasty flu-bug with her, which struck down 90% of us shortly after the big day, but at least we avoided the bugs until after the main event.

With fingers firmly crossed, I can report that so far although the Algarve weather has been mixed, we haven’t experienced the constant rain of last winter. In fact some days have been glorious. On boxing day (26th December,) we showed some of the family the beautiful hamlet of Cecela Velha (see photo below.) The following morning I was struggling to work out why my nose and forehead was dry and sore, until my wife pointed out I was mildly sun-burned – not what you expect straight after Christmas.

Moving into 2011, we unfortunately have to dedicate a lot more time to the more infuriating parts of Portuguese life – dealing with accountancy, tax and other hateful things – so expect a couple of grumpy, rant-filled posts in the coming weeks. My other big objective is to lose some more weight – I still seem to be in the Weight Watchers mind-set, so health and fitness is top of my new-year agenda, or at least they are once I finish eating my way through mount-chocolate in the living room – how dull and unoriginal!

Only time for a quick post today, so I will leave you with a few snaps of Christmas, Algarve style. Bom Ano Novo (Happy New Year!)

Flamingoes in the Ria Formosa, 23rd December 2010

View from Cacela Velha, Boxing Day, 26th December 2010

Montegordo Sunset, New Year's Day 2011

If you are in the mood for some more Algarve Christmas photos take a look at this post at Food and Wine Portugal!

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