Lying in the Sun...

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.

Mansize Rooster....

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 with me at the helm. Resisting the temptation to rent out a couple of Pashley push bikes we found ourselves strolling around the marina in search of the celebrities that were the owners of the impressive power yachts that were parked up in the harbour was the order of the day....none were to be found so we set sail back....This was a flashy place and a playground for the stinking rich and slightly famous so it didn't need the likes of us messing about with the statues and spoiling the ambience.....

                                 

This post blog title was inspired today by an old indie track 'Mansize Rooster' by Supergrass....something lively to have a jig about to on Christmas Day.

http://youtu.be/dHlLcVHncDw

No Surprises...

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

Anything Could Happen...

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 sat about eating grilled meats and washing it down with Mendohna, the local firewater.....time to join them for squids in garlic and parts of a grilled pig...
Cork trees were now a feature of the area with huge lumps of bark piled up at the side of the roads as we set off back.

Castelo de Aljezur was the next medieval stop on the return journey and then down the south side back through Lagos and Portimao and finally returning back to Albufeira in the dark.

This post blog title song was inspired today by...'Ellie Goulding' from the album 'Halcyon'. Not my normal sort of tune but I just can't stop myself from feeling I should be leaping about to this and singing at the top of my voice, really quite brilliantly.....try it!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rqVG9hCUPMM

Don't Stare at the Sun....

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 tell that this beast was a handful and it was not going to be a smooth ride, un-deterred we headed off for downtown Albufeira armed with only one thing on our mind......the shopping list!
It wasn't long before the euro was slotted in the trolley and we were shuffling around the Pingo Doce supermarket taking in all the promotions like a couple of Old Danish house-husbands. Hours later, with our local speciality goat cheese selection firmly in the fridge we left the flat again and jerked along the main road and round the corner to take in the sights and sounds of the Old Town, the Marina and then finally and romantically we had a magical moment as we watched the sun go down over St Eulia beach together.  By now it was after 5pm and far too chilly to be out without a knitted cardigan so we headed back for the 'All you Can Shove Down Your Neck' Chinese buffet with the rest of the wrinklies......another successful day in paradise, and no mistake!

This post blog title was inspired today by...'Don't Stare at the Sun',  another helping of one of my personal favourite artists, Richard Hawley....one of the best voices you will ever hear folks!

http://youtu.be/BguyBo-PamE

Dog days are over...

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'

Nobody move, Nobody gets hurt.....

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 minute free bus' beckoned and we just didn't care where it was going to take us....so we waited.....and waited.....and waited......when it didn't arrive after 2 hours we set off walking to take in the sights and delights of downtown Albufeira and managed to get about 300yds away from the hotel.....the 'all day happy hour' signage had worked it's magic and found us settled down with a glass of Portuguese red in the December sunshine, under the scattered clouds, all was peaceful in the world.....tell you what, let's just stop here.....

 


This post blog title was inspired today by...'We Are Scientists.......Nobody move, Nobody gets hurt......a single from the album 'With Love and Squalor'....and a memorable night at 53 degrees in Preston with the fellow I'm sat next to......

For Reasons Unknown...

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 towards the 'have you got anything in your bag that the whole world knows not to set foot into an airport with' signage and discovered that the massive sack also contained 'banned substances' of varying quantities. The 100ml allowance was swiftly attained so the overpriced Arm&Leg toothpaste along with the Oil O'ulay defoliating foot&face balm and the African Sexy Spicy deodorant had to be ditched awkwardly at the final hurdle. Concern continued to mount at the sheer size of the trunk and no amount of 'stuffing it as hard as you could' methodology was able to get it to fit into the statutory allowance display. Heated discussions then took place into the benefits of butchering the wheels and undercarriage off which were the parts that seemed to be sticking out about 2ft over the allowed parameters. Airport staff had to be consulted at this point and verified that if the bulging trunk could be persuaded to bend in half then with some degree of lateral thinking it might stand a chance of being allowed onto the aircraft but not inside the sitting bit....basically it had to go as hold baggage with all the other 'massive' suitcases that folk take on holiday full of their worldly belongings when they visit the sunshine.



This first post blog title was inspired today by...'The Killers.....For Reasons Unknown'' ....basically I have no idea why you would go to a shoe shop to buy luggage?....but what do I know?