Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

The sun came out for Christmas Day so in good traditional Yuletide style we hit the beach for a chill out day and a dip in the ocean while huge steaks sizzled to medium rare on the makeshift BBQ on the beach.. ...Merry Christmas.....and that's all folks until the next trip! This final post blog title was inspired today by 'Stereophonics', and a track off the album 'Just Enough Education to Perform'....croaky old Kelly still sounds cool .

Off to Quarteira today for a mooch around the town and see if the traditional market is on cos you really feel the need to find a purveyor of overpriced artisan handicrafts when your on this kind of trip.....once again, the vibrant, colourful market stalls sadly didn't exist so instead we treated ourselves to a interesting walk around some rickety old trestle tables with weathered, wrinkly faced peasants selling misshapen organic cucumbers and little pointy carrots!...oh, and I almost forgot the highlight of the gentleman that had proudly tied his massive cock to a crate!.....Merry Christmas! Quarteira is a coastal fishing town and probably a nice place to sample some freshly caught seafood in its tiny restaurants but as we still have yesterday's catch from the supermarket still clogging up the fridge we settled for just looking at the crabs and not eating any. Vilamoura was the Panda's next destination, and I have to say the drive was  noticeably smoother today wi...

Apart from buying a nice new warm coat and scarf in Guia, the day didn't materialise at all...an al fresco lunch took up most of the afternoon and then of course the statutory two hours of sleep almost seemed inevitable..... ....most places are closed anyway so inspiration would have to come from within, with that lacking its easy to chill out and let the day pass without any surprises... This post blog title was inspired today by...'Radiohead' and a right good miserable contribution with a track that basically says 'we did nothing....and we didn't want to do anything......"No Alarms and No Surprises please....." Oh, yeah...and the fact that this is BP's most hated band in the entire world.....enough said! http://youtu.be/ZL6qzcQ_nxs

Scattered clouds gave way to another sunny morning, sat with an expresso to kick start the day into action. The Panda's engine roared into life and it wasn't long before we were bumping along the potholes as we headed north into the hills....today's plan was loose so anything could happen.....we just needed to drive and find it.....! Orange and lemon trees lined the roads as we sped along on today's bespoke cultural and historical rural tour of rural Algarve in search of peasants... Silves was the first stop, with a massive fortification on top of the hill and then on to Montchique, with it's little cobbled streets, famous water feature and hilltop monastery. Peasants were few and far between but there was a few selling sacks of oranges at the side of the road and occasionally tilling a field.....but then we stopped for a late lunch in a traditional hilltop taverna and stumbled across a peasant hideaway. They had gathered from miles around and were all sa...

Due to a metabolic imbalance from consuming a heady mix of the Portuguese grape and copious amounts of Johnny Walker Red label during the previous evening, yesterday started somewhat later than normal and went rather slowly. The mid morning transaction to obtain ourselves a showy set of wheels went smoothly and by lunchtime we were the proud owners of a sporty grey Fiat Panda with an economy trim, albeit a few years old but with an extended contract and a quality insurance premium that would cover us until Christmas Day. Now there was no stopping us, it was time to don the shades and hit the road and pose down the promenade,'Crockett and Tubbs' stylee with the Panda's beatbox cracklin' out some of our favourite smoochy Portuguese soft rock ballads from the wireless. Lurching away from the embarrassed hire shop manager, the sheer power from under the hood was instantly recognised and as we set off in the wrong gear, mounted the curb and stalled in front of him I could...

One thing that you can't do in the UK is have your breakfast sat outside in the December sunshine so to be sat here taking coffee is a real treat..especially when your mate is as cute as this.... This post blog title was inspired today by 'Florence and the Machine'

In the cold light of day the little studio at the resort is perfect, but like I say, in the cold light of day it's bloody freezing! My cheery 'good morning, mon ami' was greeted with complaints of frostbite and the merits of having a snugly fitted patio door! Still, the place had started to look quite homely, with the contents of the massive luggage strewn all over the place and yesterday's underpants hanging from the chandelier. The 1000 room apartment complex has a lovely pool and plenty of plastic seating, easily enough to cater for the 17 elderly coffin dodgers that would appear to be staying here with us over the festive period. The problem being that until the sun gets up over the yard arm none of us are likely to be brave enough to slip into the speedo's and do a few lengths. Breakfast was taken in a nice terrace lounge and a stroll around the grounds revealed that we were probably going to be bored stiff unless we upped our game. The ' every 15 min...

Holidays are here again but this time I have a massive idiot in tow. Having managed to get to Liverpool airport and parked up nicely in the car park it was time to trundle into the terminal to check in for the 17.30 flight to Faro. No hold baggage had been booked so we had to accommodate everything into the10kg cabin allowance which would have been fine had one of the party not been to the incorrect shop to buy his desired luggage carrier. A local shoe shop, for some reason, had been the obvious choice of luggage purveyor and then I can only presume the shop assistant heard the destination as 'Antarctica' instead of 'Albufeira'!...and probably the word 'expedition' in place of 'quiet beach holiday'. This resulted in the purchase of the most enormous coffin shaped body bag known to man with wheels that looked perfectly at home on a farmers land-rover, being filled with freshly laundered underpants and the odd string vest. Unperturbed we shuffled towar...