SUNGRL

We had a relaxing day today. We started the day with a walk at Ria Formosa which runs along some of the holes on the San Lorenzo Golf Course, along some sand dunes and then out to the salt lakes.

We then hit the driving range for a bit of much needed practice.

We then decided to check out Maria’s Beach Restaurant at Garrao which is a beach between Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago. It is a stunning beach and we had a nice lunch at Maria’s.

True to form Steve befriended a Scottish couple, Gus & Sheila. It turns out they have a house just around the corner from us so we are going there for a BBQ on Monday night. They travelled by campervan from Aberdeen in Scotland – it took them 4 days. They have two Wheaten Terriers called Lucy & Matt who also travelled with them to the Algarve. They have been here for the past 5 months and told us the weather we have been having is unseasonably warm for this time of year – hey, we are OK with this.

A picture paints a thousand words but for those that don’t know Steve that well he is feeling much better and apparently the Corona’s have never tasted so good : )

Today we went to Vilamoura which is one of the largest tourist complexes in Europe comprising over 2,000 hectares of land. It has the largest marina in Portugal where up to 1,000 vessels can berth. There was some very nice boats berthed in here. It is surrounded by hotels, shops and restaurants. We heard a lot of english accents so clearly a very popular holiday spot with the British.

There are 6 golf courses in Vilamoura which we hope to play over the next three weeks. Altogether there are 37 golf courses in Algarve.

The weather was lovely again with the thermometer in the car registering 29 degrees. We popped into an Irish pub to watch the Liverpool v Chelsea match in honour of our Liverpudlian mate Paul but unfortunately it was not Liverpool’s day.

Steve is definitely on the mend although he still sounds very special. He is eating again but struggling with drinking beer – is this the turning over of a new leaf? I can only live in hope : )

We arrived into Lisbon at 8am on Tuesday morning. We flew Vueling Air which I think is a Spanish airline. There are so many different airlines over here which we’ve never heard of. Anyway the flight was good and all went to plan. Got picked up at the airport by the rental car company to go get our car. All good apart from the fuel tank was empty – a little trick by these rental car companies – you then don’t have to bring it back full but more often than not you don’t risk that so they end up with the gain. Anyway if driving a manual on the left hand side of the road in a city we’ve never been too wasn’t stressful enough we had to find a fuel station. Found a station, got fuel, dialled in the address in Algarve and off we went in circles until we eventually found our way to the highway heading south.

Crossed this amazing bridge – picture below. We had about 250km of straight roads. The Portugese are very good at building bridges and viaducts across streams & valleys – I say streams because they were quite small in comparison to the bridges.

The coast eventually came into view so we knew we were getting close to our destination. The weather is very pleasant – blue skies and about 20 degrees. The forecast for the next 4 weeks is more of the same with the temperatures increasing daily. I think I can live with that.

Found our little abode & settled in before navigating to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Not too hard. Found ourselves asleep again on the couch about 6pm, woke at 11pm and went to bed. Second night in a row doing this and not having dinner.