The Last Post

Now, I know you have probably misconstrued the title, "The Last Post". It actually means that this is the last entry in our Portugal adventure. No one died.

During our month we certainly missed Sue and Bob's company, but we did enjoy our time in the Algarve.

Again, we were off through the streets of old Albufeira, and where did we end up!!
At Flavours of course. They were still celebrating the Loule carnival so we got into the spirit of things. Not sure if you can see my mouse ears, but they are there.

We thought we might have another dish of cataplana for lunch, but looking at the size of the cataplana dish, we decided on something a little lighter.

I said on the last blog, that there would be no more pictures of the tunnel, but I lied. Here is a couple more. I am sure Peggy will like them.

Back at the Sunset Bar and Grill, we stopped for our last time for a libation. A large beer for me and "sex on the beach" for Bonnie.
The sea was a vibrant colour today so we got a picture of it in all its glory.

I once again, tried to get a sunset picture, and this is the best (and the last) sunset picture on this trip.
That's the best I can do.

So, tomorrow we are up at the crack of dawn, to catch our 11:35 bus to Lisbon.
From there, a taxi to the Raddison hotel, and Wednesday, a shuttle to the airport, landing at Pearson at 6:45pm and, hopefully Laurie and Rob will be there to pick us up.
Then home to Mount Hope.
All in all a wonderful month in Albufeira, but it will be nice to get home
See y'all in the spring or summer.

Nearing the end

Today is Sunday the 26th of February. We leave the Algarve on Tuesday to head home.

The weather today is wonderful. All sun, low wind and the temperature is nearing 20C.

We realized that this is Carnival time in the Algarve. A lot of the festivities are in a town called Loule, which is a short distance from Albufeira. Back in 2006, Bonnie and I, along with our friends, Bob and Doreen Collins, took a bus tour to Loule to view the parade. It was quite spectacular. The floats included a number of painted young ladies. As it turned out that is all the young ladies wore that day. Paint!!!!

The Loule carnival festivities continue into Albufeira.

All the bars, including our favourite, Flavours, are sporting carnival costumes.
Even Bonnie got in the act.

Just in case you wondered where the hell we are, here is our GPS coordinates.

One more view of the tunnel that leads to the beach where our hotel is located.

Tomorrow we prepare to head for home.

A Good Day in Albufeira

We woke up to an excellent day in Albufeira. The weather was all sun and close to 20C. What else could you want.

One problem cropped up this morning. You will remember that in the last post, we decided to get a little more exercise. This was to be done swimming and surfing. In that vein, we had commited to join the surfing competition that was on for this morning. We even had asked our waiter friend, Romeo, to photograph the event. You will recall Romeo a couple of posts ago sitting with Bonnie in the comfy chairs. With my beer in front of him I might add.
In case you forgot, here it is again.

We had booked our surf boards and were ready for the great adventure.
Down to the beach we went, only to discover that with this wonderful weather, calm wind and all, had meant the waves were insufficient for the competition to go on.
Oh well, maybe another day.

As we needed some exercise, we headed to Fisherman's Beach, and up the mountain to the lookout spot. I know we were there earlier, on the "hop on hop off" bus and the "hop on hop off" mini train, but I neglected to include pictures of them. You may have noticed that the original picture of the bus was a picture from the brochure, because I forgot to take a picture of the bus at the right time.
Here are the pictures.

While we were up on lookout point, we took a couple more pictures, as we needed to rest before the trek back down.
The 1st one is looking east. The 2nd is Bonnie and some of her new friends.

Time for some refreshment and lunch.
Off to the square and Sir Harry's. This is the place where a couple of locals play the pipe music. Sound is wonderful, so that is where we stopped.
While we were having our lunch, we noticed the square started to fill with people. I asked the waitress if anything was happening. She said, not that she was aware of.

Shortly after, a parade started. Apparently it was kids from the local school, all in costume, parading through the square. The costumes were fantastic.
The pictures are only of a couple of the many groups.

All in all, a wonderful day. Hopefully the surfing competition will be back on before we leave.

By the way, we have heard that some folks are having trouble commenting on the blog, but we are receiving comments from others. Do any of you computer folks have any ideas?

Let's try the mini train again

We thought we might as well check the escalator today as we still want to take the mini train around Albufeira. You can travel around all day hopping off whenever you want and then on again.
And the price is only 3 Euros each.

We thought we would take the shortcut to the escalator. The shortcut is up the giant hill and down the other side, but only takes 5 minutes (that's 15 for us).

Along the route, I took pictures of some of the narrow streets in the old town.

Finally we made it to the escalator, and wonder of wonder, it was working. Up to the top we went and  boarded the mini train for our great adventure.
We went around the complete route, and on our second go around we hopped of at, wait for it, McDonalds!!!
Lunch at McDonalds and then some shopping along the strip. We also found the Albufeira mall and checked it out. We cannot purchase too many things as we only have so much room for the trip home.
Anyway we did buy a diet pepsi. haha. (That's what Joe's keeps telling me anyway)
On the way back, sitting in our car on the mini train, a couple jumped in asked where we were from. Hamilton, we said. Hamilton, they said as well. What a coincidence, only 2 couples on a mini train car and both of them live in Hamilton.
Only problem is he was a tiger cat fan, and I am an Argo fan. Lucky for him that he is a lot younger then I am or we might have come to blows. No, just kidding, they were a very friendly couple and we did get along very well.

Once off the mini train, we headed back to the hotel and passed the carmel popcorn shop. I reckon you can tell that this guy works there.

The next picture is the place that Bonnie and I have frequented the most since we have been here.
Every day we head to the health club to do our 3 minutes of finger exercise.
The picture is small but you can read "Health Club" in the centre right. Harder to read is the "beer corner' to the lower left. That is a much better place to do finger exercise.

We booked our hotel in Lisbon for February 28th for the night before our flight home. We will take the bus up to Lisbon on the 28th and fly home on March 1st.

The weather in the next few days promises to be excellent, so we will probably forgo the health club and spend our days in the Sea swimming and surfing. Until tomorrow.

Off on the Minitrain???

Today promised to be a wonderful day weatherise. A high of 19C and all sun. What could be better for a minitrain trip around Albufeira. The minitrain is another hop on hop off tour of the local area with only 4 stops. The highlight of the trip was a stop at McDonalds. That was worth the price of the train on its own.

We took the "over the mountain" road to Fisherman's Beach and took a couple of pictures along the way. You have probably seen similiar pictures in the previous days, but "what the hell", here is another couple.

Off we went to the scenic lookout, high above the cliffs of Albufeira. How the hell can you get up that mountain, you may say. Well there is a double lonnggg escalator that takes us right to the top where the minitrain awaited.

We got to the escalator and up we started. After the 1st escalater stopped, we headed for the second.
The second escalator was out of order.
Oh well, back down we went, and off to Sir Harry's, for refreshment and musical entertainment.
Once again we were disappointed as there were no seats at Sir Harry's. Fortunately, Vertigo is right next door and had empty tables.

You may or may not know that at this time of year, the Algarve is not running at full capacity.
Even though there is a lot of shops and a lot of restaurants open, there is also a number under construction.
Some are shown below.

It is hard to believe that this is the off season, when the restaurants that are open seem to be so busy.
I guess we would have to come in the summer to realize the difference

Anyway off to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the sea. Fish and Chips for Bonnie and a Portuguese   steak for me. A little wine and back to the hotel in time for the Eastenders.

This and That

We are sort of winding down in Albufeira, as we are not embarking on any great adventures in our last week here.
Yesterday we made our way back to the "hop on hop off" bus, and went for another go round.
We "hopped off" at the scenic view, just above our favourite hangout. Fisherman' Beach.

I know we have put these photos on before but it needs to be show again. Not the same pictures, but the same perspective.

We found that at the scenic view area is a minitrain that takes you on an Albufeira Tour.
It is also a "hop on hop off" aspect to it as well. It only has 4 stops. However, much to our delight, stop 4 is at McDonalds. OK!!.
We will try it out on Tuesday.

We spent the early afternoon walking through the narrow streets of the old town.

We ended up at our favourite restaurant/bar around 2:00 PM. What is our favourite you say. Of course, Flavours.
A couple of pictures of the restaurant area at fisherman's beach

Back to our hotel to relax for a bit and then down to the sunset bar and grill.
Bonnie and our favourite waiter enjoying a moment. That's my beer, by the way.

Still trying to get a decent picture of the sunset. I will keep trying.

The next few days should be the best weather since we arrived. Hopefully so.

Sunny day in the Algarve

Today promised to be a real sunny and warm day, so we thought it was time to take the "hop on hop off" bus.

This is a picture of our ride.

The bus goes around the city of Albufeira and the surrounding area. The ride takes about 2 hours and has 18 stops. You can "hop off" at any stop and next bus comes in 1 hour and then you can "hop on".

We took numerous pictures during the trip. Hopefully we will not bore y'all with too many pictures, but that's  the way it goes.

We passed the orada apartments that we stayed at 11 years ago. Because of the multi pastel colours, they called it "Legoland". We had many a Sangria at this place back in the day.

We "hopped off" the bus, as one of us needed to use the ladies room.
However we did find a nice bistro, and there were a couple of guys playing wind instruments.
Of course, we had to stop for refreshments, and listen to the wonderful music.

Back at the beach at the Hotel Sol e Mar, we discoverd that they were giving free wind surfing for any one who wanted. Up we went, and we did get a picture of the beach and our hotel from about 300 feet up in the air.

Now it is time for a late lunch (early dinner?) at the Rainbow Sunset bar and grill.
Here we are with our Sangria waiting for the food.

I could not resist one more picture of the coast from the restaurant.

Tomorrow, back on the "hop on hop off" bus for more adventure.