Author: Rudy

After breakfast today I did a load of laundry. The washer is S – L – O – W, so that meant we had to wait for a while until the load was done and I had a chance to hang the laundry on the lines outside on our patio, and THEN we could get into the car and begin today’s “adventure”.

The initial plan was to go up the west coast of Portugal for a way, but we changed it at the last minute and decided to go a bit further east and see the ‘Seven Hanging Valleys’. We drove out near Porches, the place where we visited Jim and Bonny a couple of weeks ago, and then down to Praia da Marinha, near a beach, where there was a car park. And from there we set out on the trail. 

We were just barely on the marked path and already our camera lenses were starting to wear out. So much beauty! Almost TOO much beauty. What am I going to do with all those photos?! Well, for now, I’ll try uploading them (although the internet here in the apartment isn’t fast, and our TV channels come to us via that same internet — so I can’t upload my photos right now because then the TV picture goes blank. I will wait until Dave has gone to bed before I upload my fantastic photos.

We walked from Praia da Marinha to Praia de Vale Centeanes, a distance of about 6 kms one way. The trail is winding and goes up and down a lot as it meanders around along the top of the cliffs. The scenery is great; not just the cliffs, or the sinkholes (where the ground has fallen into the sea), but also the vegetation. Flowers and interesting creatures can be seen along most of the walk. The day was perfect for our activity — sunny, warm, a refreshing breeze coming off the water.

We planned to stop for lunch when we got to the other ‘end’ of this trail, near Praia de Vale Centeanes, but it took quite a bit longer than we’d anticipated to get to the other end of the trail. So we were VERY thirsty and tired when we finally arrived at Centeanes, and so it was doubly frustrating that we still had to go up and down and around and back again a few times before we realized that there WAS NO RESTAURANT for us on that beach. So we ended up hiking up and around to the top of yet another big cliff where my GPS showed that there would be a restaurant. I think it was after 1 o’clock when we sat down for a large beer and a sandwich. And we still had another time as far to get back to the car park!

But we made it. It was around 4:30 when we got into our car and decided that instead of driving home directly, we’d check out the cinema in the nearby town of Portimão. We could go to a restaurant for supper first and  see a movie at around 6:30 and THEN go home. So that’s what we did. We shared a pizza and then at 6:20 I went to see “The Post” (the Driedgers had already seen it) while Dave and Marylou went to see “The Blank Panther”. I enjoyed the story in “The Post”. After the movie I waited a few minutes for Dave and Marylou’s movie to end. Early reviews (from Marylou): not really a very good movie. And although that movie is breaking some box office records right now, here in Portimão the Driedgers were the only two people in the theatre. 

We drove home in the dark. The roads here in Portugal are winding, with many traffic circles to interrupt your progress, but fun to drive — and not too much traffic most of the time. 

Back at the ranch we had a little dish of ice cream and a glass of port and watched some more snooker finals on TV. By midnight it was bed time. Dave and I have another early tee time at the Santo Antonio golf course tomorrow.

We have 3 tee times booked at the Santo Antonio golf course this week: today, Thursday, and Saturday. And today was the earliest we’ve had to get up to make it to the golf course for our game. So it was actually mostly dark outside when I got up and showered. When I got to the kitchen to make coffee, the sun was just climbing out of the eastern sea, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! There would be no clouds all day — it was actually a bit on the WARM side in the Algarve today!

I quickly made a ham and cheese sandwich to take along, and then Dave and I drove the 15-20 minutes to the Santo Antonio golf course. Our tee time was for 8:40 am. Dave paid and got the golf cart and we loaded up the clubs and were at the first tee at around 8:30. A little ahead of several groups, and so the starter told us to go ahead and tee off. We were hoping to improve on the scores we had when we golfed here for the first time on Saturday — but we settled for having ‘just as much fun’ as we did last time. And we were sitting on the patio with cold beers on the table, overlooking the 10th tee and the 18th green, a short three hours after we teed off! Record time!

We got back to the apartment by one o’clock. I picked up some cheddar cheese at the SPAR before heading up to our place, and then Dave made us each a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Marylou was heading out the door — off to find a place in town or on the beach where she could get her activities done without ‘the boys’ to bug her. I FaceTimed with Alex and Max — they were having breakfast and then off to school. Then I Skyped with my mom and dad — they were watching Olympics and enjoying the falling snow. After I’d cleaned up the dishes I headed out for a walk. That morning golf game just went by too quickly and left far too much of the day still available for more activities. 

I decided to head west — to the little village of Burgau, where the three of us went for a brunch a week or two ago. It’s 5 kms to the village via the coastal walk, and the 10 km roundtrip took me an hour and 45 minutes. When I got back we had gin and tonics for our happy hour. Marylou had gone shopping for all the fixings she needed to make chicken fajitas, which is what she made for supper for us. Delicious!

By 8:00 pm we were all done dinner, cleaned up in the kitchen, and back at our stations in the living room. Marylou was sleeping in her chair while Dave sampled almost all the TV channels, looking for a curling game. And I updated my journal. We watched some snooker on TV. Finally, we checked Netflix to see if there was anything new. In the end we did our best to stay awake watching a documentary about Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. And then we went to bed.

Because our Saturday night visitors recommended it to us, we decided that today we would walk back into Lagos, but take a right turn once we got into the town and walk the 3 or so extra kilometres to the lighthouse. We can see the lighthouse from the cliff path, but so far we hadn’t taken the time to have a closer look. 

So after breakfast we set out to do just that. We had talked about taking sandwiches along, but at the last minute decided to eat lunch at one of the cafes on the beach near the lighthouse and have supper at home later. 

Well, it turned out to be quite a walk. Not only was it a LONG walk, especially for the Driedgers who had only walked TO Lagos (one way) up until today. We probably walked close to 15 kms today. But the big treat was the scenery once we got to the coast. The lighthouse itself was locked behind a big fence and not at all interesting. But the rocks and the caves in the coastline were incredible. I really couldn’t help but take a ton of photos. So here is a gallery of what we saw:

We stopped to have lunch at a restaurant near the lighthouse. 

We discovered that the path along THESE cliffs actually extended MOST of the way back to where our cliff path started, so we scouted that out as we walked back to our apartment. 

When we got home we were all warm and tired. Dave made some G&Ts for us and we watched the final two episodes of “Alias Grace”. Although I had enjoyed the production for the most part, when we finally got to the end I was quite disappointed with the ambiguity in the plot. I HAD read the book a few years ago, and I’d forgotten much of the story, but this show didn’t bring back much of the story for me. 

I fried up the ‘wieners’ we bought yesterday — it turned out they were more like large breakfast sausages and didn’t sit quite right in our hot dog buns. But that was our supper!

After supper we had our standard ‘Venetian’ ice cream for dessert and then retired to the living room to watch a bit of snooker on TV. A final glass of port finished off the Driedgers and by 10 o’clock they were both in bed. I sat in the living room and watched a bit more TV and listened to our space heater fans while I uploaded all my photos and wrote my journal. And then, just before 11pm I too called it a night. Gotta get up early tomorrow because Dave and I have an early tee time at Santo Antonio golf course tomorrow. 

I woke up a little earlier than usual today. In fact, after my shower I went into the kitchen — and was there alone! Hmmm… Where was Marylou? Usually she has already researched about 12 things and completed 4 of her 8 daily tasks by the time I show up in the kitchen. And Dave? He must surely be ill or he’d be in his usual place on the couch in front of the TV, peering into his phone and working his magic on one of his online Scrabble games — bloop, bloop, bloop, BRRRNG, BRRRNG — his phone sounding like a Saturday night at the casino. But no, I’m here alone. So I make coffee and watch the sun rise over the beach below us. And I savour the quietness of the morning.

But I’m not ahead of the Driedgers by much — and soon we are all drinking coffee and planning the day ahead. Not a lot on the agenda today. After all, it IS a day of rest. I clean out the dishwasher and gather up the bottles and pizza boxes from last night and take the garbage downstairs to the recycling stations across the street. After breakfast we decide that we will go to the lent service in the church across the way at 11:30. It’s the least we can do to try to make amends for all the heretical church talk around our dining room table last night. Nothing like a good old basic liturgical church service to get us back on track. (You’d think I’d get some credit from my mother for going to church while on a ‘holiday’, but since this service wouldn’t be Mennonite and/or German, I’m sure she would say ‘Daut meint enivay really nuscht.’)

The warm morning sun was enough to get me to switch to shorts instead of jeans. I figured since we are ‘tourists’ in a tourist area, I could get away with wearing shorts to church. When we arrive at the little church just before 11:30 the benches are already mostly filled. We sit near the back. Four people to a bench, twenty benches plus a few chairs in the back and a small ‘choir’ in the front. We are here to sing the Eucharist. It is an Anglican service in a Catholic church. The minister walks in and we begin with some ‘gentle music from the organ’. When we join in to sing the first congregational song, the sound is remarkable. It’s LOUD and it sounds pretty good. I was convinced that there was a choir singing above and behind us, in the balcony. But no, the sound that filled that little rectangular brick building was created by about a hundred old mostly British ex-pats. It is the first Sunday of Lent, as the pastor informs us. A few members of the congregation are wearing purple to celebrate the occasion (and there are more than a few old ladies sporting purple-ish hair-dos). We have little booklets so can read along with the pastor. It’s all scripted out for us. Oh, the pastor DOES give us a little ‘personal’ story in the middle of it all about the trials and tribulations of trying to mix up the ash for Ash Wednesday so it has the right consistency and ‘stickiness’ so it will stick to foreheads when he plasters it on in the shape of a cross. I guess you had to be there.

Well, we stood up and sat down quite a few times, and sang songs from the hymn book that only had the words, no music, printed in it (but everyone sang heartily!). But then, about halfway through, it was time for communion and the three of us slinked (slunk?) out of the church. It’s not because we weren’t enjoying the service (we weren’t), but I was getting pretty cold sitting there in shorts and sandals, and besides, we were not all that excited about this whole ‘Anglican’ thing — why should take part in a service in a church founded by a king of England who got mixed up in the whole church business because he wanted permission to annul marriages to wives he’d lost interest in. So we shook the dust off our sandals and headed back to our (nice and warm) apartment and had lunch.

Lots of leftovers in the fridge, so that was lunch. After lunch I changed into crappier shorts and a t-shirt and went for a walk on the cliffs. It took me about an hour and a half to walk to the little beach cafe on the outskirts of Lagos and back. Some great views, and lots of walkers on the path today.

When I got back to the apartment I had a short FaceTime with Alex and Max. Dave was watching a movie on TV and Marylou was sketching in her art book. Marylou says drawing is good exercise for the brain; since I’d now exercised my legs, I thought I might try a little brain exercise myself. So I selected a fine HB2 pencil from Marylou’s collection and doodled a portrait of the Driedgers in Marylou’s art book.

After another shower, the three of us hopped into the car and drove into Lagos to do some grocery shopping. There are TWO smaller SPAR supermarkets within a block of our place, but we’ve driven by some larger grocery stores a few times and thought we might go check them out. We came back home with the back seat filled with bags and bottles — and it was all we could do to carry all that stuff up to our fourth-floor apartment in one trip.

Happy hour in the kitchen. Then we watched an episode of ‘Alias Grace’ on Netflix before Dave fried up burgers and beans for our supper. Another episode after supper. And then our ‘day of rest’ ended — all three of us headed off to bed at around 10:30 — all that ‘resting’ had made us quite tired. Tomorrow we plan to take a picnic lunch with us as we walk to Lagos, and out to the lighthouse at the point there. So I’d better be off now, and get some rest.

Most of the golf courses around here ended their ‘winter rates’ on the 15th. But one course had special prices in effect until the end of this month. And on Saturdays the special rate is in effect not only for the ‘early bird special’, but all day. So it was a good surprise to find out that not only is the rate a good deal, but the course is the most fun of all the three courses we’ve played here in the Algarve so far. 

Santo Antonio is just under half an hour drive from here — heading west. That’s not bad for us, but I wonder if it’s just a bit too far away for the bigger resort towns east of us — and perhaps that is why the rates are a bit better at this course. Dave and I showed up a bit early for our scheduled tee time, but the front desk offered that we might just head to the first tee and see if we couldn’t start earlier. And that’s what we did. 

The first tee was up on a hill, looking down on the fairway below. The green was up on the hill across from us. And the fairway sloped right to left. A bit intimidating for our first drive of the day. But we both hit safely and Dave parred the hole. A good start. Plus, we were golfing as a twosome. And by the fourth hole, the group ahead of us let us play through and we were off and running. Instead of a five-plus-hour game, we played this course in about three-and-a-half hours. The course was in very good condition and the people working at the course were friendly. We decided to book three more games for the week ahead.

When we got back to the apartment we tidied the place up a bit in preparation for visitors. Werner and Adelia, friends of Dave and Marylou (from their church in Winnipeg, and Werner and Dave both are retired teachers who have a part time job driving for the Lexus dealership in Winnipeg) and THEIR friends Richard and Caroline, from southern Ontario. After they arrived at around 4:30 we went for a short walk up and down the promenade here in Luz, and halfway up our ‘hill’. Back in our apartment, Marylou had set the table and prepared hors d’oeuvres and a salad. After we’d had our happy hour Dave went downstairs and ordered pizza from one of the little pizza restaurants on the ground floor of our building. We sat around the table, eating and visiting until around 11pm. The two couples are staying in a hotel in the neighbouring town of Lagos. We had a very fun evening getting to know and visiting with them.

Dave predicted great weather for today, and when I woke up I already knew he would be right. Sunshine. Big waves down on the beach where we could already spot surfers taking advantage of them by 8:30 in the morning. 

We had a lazy first half of the day. After breakfast I put in a load of laundry and when that ‘eco-friendly’ washer of ours with its big jet engine finally finished spinning my jeans and underwear out into space and back (90 minutes to do a load) the sun was already high in the sky. It wouldn’t take long for my clothes to dry out on the patio where we have 4 wash lines and 3 clothespins. So when Dave followed Marylou out to the promenade to do some reading or sketching or yoga or whatever they did there, I stayed back and finished a couple of sudokus while my clothes dried. 

At 12:30 we all met down near the beach where there are a couple of restaurants. Lunch time. I (finally!) had a hotdog for lunch. Almost warm out here! People are wearing shorts and sandals. I was wearing shorts and sandals!

Back at the apartment after lunch — I sat around and did a couple of crosswords. At around 3pm Marylou left for a hike across the big hill going back to Lagos. She wanted to get a head start on the boys and agreed to meet us at 5:45 near the pizza restaurant in the center of town. Dave and I hung out and listened to some golf on TV until 4 o’clock. Then I  got my hiking shoes on and Dave and I headed out to Lagos ourselves.

We found Marylou waiting for us when we arrived at the town centre. She’d done a bit of shopping and because she hadn’t taken a jacket along, now that the sun was setting, she was feeling somewhat cold. Dave navigated is to our restaurant, ‘Ol’ Bastard’s Fish and Chips’, but when we got there the doors were locked. We’d have to wait about 20 minutes before the doors opened. So we did.

I think we were the first customers of the day and of the season when at 6 o’clock sharp the doors opened and we went in and got a table. But we weren’t the only ones that were hungry for fish and chips tonight — the restaurant, like almost ALL restaurants here, was soon quite a busy place. Dave and I ordered ‘American style’ fish and chips; Marylou ordered three fish tacos, each one spicier than the one before it. 

After our meal we left and headed for the bus station. Dave had checked on the departure times for tonight, so we had about 15 minutes of waiting in the bus shelter until a large EVA bus rolled up and we got on. The 10-minute ride to our town (Luz) costs just under 5 euros for all three of us. Not too bad, and the bus drops us off right in front of our building. 

Back in our (now warm, cozy) room, we watched the second episode of Alias Grace on Netflix. And we had our ‘usual’ night snack of Venetian ice cream and a small glass of port. Dave and Marylou have been busy trying to arrange a dinner date with friends from Winnipeg who are staying in Lagos — I think we are expecting to get together with them tomorrow evening, although I’m not sure if it’s at our house or in Lagos. Dave and I have a golf date at the Santo Antonio golf course tomorrow. It advertises itself as “one of Europe’s most spectacular golf courses.” Okay! I’m looking forward to that.

Today we didn’t have a ‘plan’. So we made one up. Dave wanted to go to a ‘resort’ that we ‘almost’ booked. A place that is owned by someone from Winnipeg. So we took a drive to the small town of Ferreiras. It’s way out, near Faro, about an hour away from our place. We found the resort and went in to check it out. We even looked at a room. Confirmed. We’re happy where we are. So we marched back to our parked car. Got in and started heading back out of town.

Hold on. It’s noon and as we’re leaving town Dave spots the perfect lunch spot. We park again and go into the restaurant — order 3 ham and cheese sandwiches and small beers. “This is going to be our cheapest meal yet,” says Dave. Six euros total. We sit out at a small table on the sidewalk. The sun is warm. An old British guy starts talking to Dave and before you know it we’re having second thoughts about NOT staying here in this town. They’ve got the BEST restaurant in the Algarve (4 course top-quality meals for under 10 euros) and their little 300-seat ‘stadium’ hosts big-time professional English Premier League soccer teams. When done our sandwiches we hop back into the car and do a quick mini-tour of the stadium and the restaurant. Yep. Looks mighty good. 

The second (and final) stop of our road trip was to walk on the big long boardwalk at Albor Beach, a suburb of Portimao. It’s a boardwalk that stretches along a 3.5km beach. We took off our shoes and walked the length of the beach — and back along the boardwalk. On the way in we passed a sign next to a roadside bar advertising .99 euro large beers. Too good to pass up. So after our walk Dave navigated us back to the bar and we took advantage of the deal. By now it was mid-afternoon. Time to head back home. So we did.

Back at the apartment we quickly found our devices and caught up on the latest news and Scrabble scores. And a little afternoon snooze. Sometime after six Marylou made her way into the kitchen and warmed up the leftover spaghetti and meat sauce. Salads too. Another fine supper for hungry adventurers like us. 

After dishes were done we sat in the living room updating journals and online Scrabble games and making sure all our Facebook friends still ‘like’ us. And that our blogs link to Facebook. Social media is where it’s at, baby. We listened to a good old Gordon Lightfoot album on my AppleTV. The plan was to go to the English pub next door for a dessert and nightcap. And at around ten o’clock we Dave and I did. A little glass of port. No food served after ten. So for our little dish of ice cream we had to go back to our apartment. Dave dished it out while I cued up the first episode of “Alias Grace” on Netflix. Good day. And good night.

After breakfast on this ‘Happy Valentines’ day, I left for a walk. I wanted to be back at the apartment by around 3:00 so that the three of us could walk to the neighbouring town of Lagos where we planned to have supper and to see a movie. I wanted to give the Driedgers a bit of a break from me — a bit of ‘space’. And I really wanted to go for a ‘workout’ walk. So I decided to do my own walk to Lagos, have lunch there, and walk back — and still be home in time to walk back to Lagos one more time. The walk to Lagos is actually a 7.5km hike over a big hill that lies between Lagos and Luz (the town we’re in). It was a cloudy day which made it ideal for a brisk walk.

The path is along the coast — and there are parts of the walk that remind me of the cliff walk we enjoyed in Hermanus, South Africa, a couple of winters ago. Both walks featured a good path and ‘feinbush’ vegetation along the coast of an ocean. (see some of my Hermanus ‘cliff walk’ photos below).

I took a few photos again today, including some shots of a large group of surfers.

And some more of the interesting rock formations along the coast. There are numerous signs along the path, warning hikers that they do so at their own risk and that the edge of the cliffs are prone to collapse into the sea. But someone has smashed all the signs along the way so I guess that means we just don’t have to worry about that anymore! 

I got to Lagos around noon, so my first stop was to have lunch. Then I wandered around the city centre for a bit before heading back to where I’d come from. It took me just under an hour-and-a-half to walk the 7.5kms each way. Back in town, I spent some time on the promenade, watching tourists and looking for dolphins in the water. I was back at the apartment by 3.

We left for Lagos again at around 4pm and were there in just over an hour and a half. We wandered around a bit, looking for a suitable restaurant. We decided to try the restaurant that the two Swedes we golfed with on Sunday had recommended. We found it but it was closed; opening at 6pm. Well, that was in about 10 minutes, so we waited outside until it opened. 

We’d been ‘warned’ that the portions at this restaurant would be big, and they were. Dave and Marylou each ordered a fish dish and I had prawns. Lots of food and it was pretty good. We left at about 7:10 and found the movie theatre just a couple of blocks from there — and bought tickets for “Phantom Thread”, a Daniel Day-Lewis movie nominated for Best Picture. The movie was terrible — boring and terrible. We were hoping to catch a bus back to Luz but I think we must have missed it by a couple of minutes, and the next bus was over an hour later. So we took a taxi back to our apartment. 

Back at our stations in our now-comfortable living room, we had a small bowl of ice cream and a glass of port before calling it a night. Tentative plan for tomorrow? A drive to Albufiera. 

Well, I say ‘cheap’ but I don’t really mean cheap. And it’s not really the ‘last’ one either! So I guess maybe that headline isn’t true at all. Click-bait? Not even that!

This morning after I slept in and then had a my usual ‘moka’ coffee made every morning by Dave, I went back to Espiche golf course for what is likely the last ‘special promotion discount’ golf round with Dave. Perhaps the most glorious day yet, weather-wise. Sun shining — I even put a dab of #50 sunscreen (it’s been in my golf bag for 3 or 4 years, so it may not actually be all that effective anymore, but it makes me feel better) on my nose so I wouldn’t come home looking like Rudolf the Red-nosed… Busy day at the course — probably other folks were taking advantage of the second last day of discount golf — on the 15th (Thursday) rates go up to 160 Euros for 2 players and one buggy (as compared to 99 Euros today — and for those of you keeping score at home, a Euro is about one-and-a-half Canadian dollars). So today was a good day all around. 

We were paired with an older couple, man and wife, who we found out were from Finland but (like the Swedes we golfed with on the weekend) had MOVED here. The husband didn’t have much use of his entire right side, but both he and his wife hit the ball down the middle most of the time. We had a good afternoon — even though the game itself was pretty S-L-O-W — we were waiting for folks ahead of us at every hole. Our tee time was for 11:10 and we finished at around 4:10 — five hours. Dave shot a pretty good round (90) and I was happy to end up with a score of 106. The Espiche course isn’t easy for us Manitobans — every fairway slopes to one side, so that if and when you shoot a good drive down the middle it ends up in the creek or in the bush BESIDE the fairway. The only consolation is that since our shots end up in the bushes so often, Dave gets to look for balls in those said bushes, and right now there is a big backpack of found balls sitting in the middle of our living-room!

Speaking of living-room, I’m sitting in it right now! Yes! It is actually COMFORTABLE in our living-room today. I think we have finally managed to find the right combo of heaters that won’t blow our breaker but still keep the place warm. That, and we’ve opened all our blinds and curtains so the sun’s rays can help heat the apartment during the day. 

After golf we met Marylou at a seaside restaurant not far from our apartment. Noticeably more people out and about today — and more of the shops and bars and cafes around our place are open now — I guess mid-February signals ‘back in business’ for many of the shops in this tourist area we’re in. 

Marylou had been busy today — not only had she completed her daily ‘8 things’ but she’d gone grocery shopping and was all set up to cook up a great spaghetti dinner for us. Fantastic! 

After supper Marylou disappeared into her bedroom — and Dave and I sat in the living room listening to J.D Souther on my iTunes. Dave wasn’t NEARLY as impressed by his singing as I was.

When I got up this morning I expected it to be raining outside. And I guess it HAD rained — the patio floors were wet. But the sun was shining. And it was actually a bit WARMER than it had been for a while. I checked my laundry which was draped over the TWELVE dining room chairs around our big dining room table (in our big dining room which unfortunately we will never use because we won’t have that many guests and it’s almost always too cold to sit in that big dining room) — but (as Menno Rempel is fond of saying) I digress. Most of the laundry was dry, and what wasn’t I hung up on the lines outside for about half an hour by which time the sun and the breeze had done their thing.

Marylou enjoys sitting at her computer researching various things. We had decided that today might be a good day for another road trip, and this morning she was ready with a suggested itinerary. So, after breakfast, we hopped into our car and went out to find an adventure. Marylou was suggesting THREE stops: a hike around a big inland lake (I forget the name of it), a visit to a castle in an inland town (I forget the name of it too), and a winery tour (the name of the winery had something like Fransisco in it because it was owned by a French couple). Okay, I don’t remember the names, but I DID have the places all punched into my Google Maps app on the phone so we wouldn’t get lost. And we DIDN’T get lost, although we ended up turning around quite a few times when the map led us down a wrong road (or trail!). 

First stop was at a big dam next to ‘Barragem da bravura’ (I looked it up). There was a little cafe at the parking lot, but it was closed for the season, opening up at the end of this week. So much for a quick lunch stop before we set out on a hike. We walked down the trail to the big dam. We walked across the dam to the other side. There was a trail leading around the lake that had been created by the dam. We soon caught up with some German folks who were doing the same thing we were — only more ‘official’ with their walking poles. We assumed they were walking right around the lake, and we would do the same. But the leader of the group told us it would take several DAYS to walk around the lake. Hmmm… Okay, we turned around and headed back to the car. We were not interested in a ‘several day’ hike.

After a couple of false trails out of there, we ended up in the town of Silves, site of the Castelo de Silves. We drove up to the castle which towered over the town, and then we drove back down and parked next to a restaurant on the main street. It was 12:30 and high time for lunch. The ‘special’ of the day was Portuguese pork ‘stew’ — a half portion for 8 Euros. Sounded ‘authentic’. Dave ordered it. Marylou ordered chicken and chips and I ordered chickpeas and cod. When our plates arrived they were MASSIVE. 

No problem leaving our car at the restaurant parking lot and HIKING up to the castle. When we got there Dave and I decided that we’d be okay NOT paying the 3 bucks admission and letting Marylou go scout it out on her own while we waited for her outside the castle walls. So that’s what we did. Of course, when Marylou came out about an hour later we had already sunned ourselves good and proper at an outside table in front of a orange juice shop. 

We walked back down to our car and decided that if we were going to make it to the 4 o’clock wine tour we would have to hurry. So we did. And then we took a wrong turn. And then another. But we DID stop at a roadside fruit stand where Dave bought TWO huge bags of oranges from a lady for 3 Euros. 

When we got to the Quinta do Frances Winery we were told that the next (final?) tour would be in about 10 minutes, as soon as another group of people arrived. So we didn’t have to wait long. Our guide was a young Portuguese lady who did the usual wine tour thing. She talked about the origins of this particular winery (not very old) and the types of wine they make here. We went down into the cellars to see the big vats and the various machines that crush the grapes, etc. Then down another set of stairs to where they stored bottles and cases of wine. By now I have been on so many wine tours, and I didn’t think this one was particularly good anyway, so I wasn’t all that interested in the MAKING of the wine. And it wasn’t long and we were back upstairs in the tasting room. We were served a two white and one red. We paid the girl and were soon back on the road, heading home.

Back at the apartment it was back to your stations, everyone busy on their devices, making sure the world was still turning as it should. Marylou had photos to sort through and when that was done she hauled out her art book and pencil crayons; Dave was on the couch, catching up on several online scrabble games he was playing on his phone; I was thinking about supper. The cleaning lady must have left just before we returned, so the floors were all clean and the place smelled of soap and disinfectant.

We warmed up assorted leftovers and had supper. After we’d eaten and cleaned up the dishes we were back in the living room, which really DID feel warmer today. Olympic highlights on TV — I’m not really following the olympics but I think the Canadians won some medals today, maybe for snowboarding or for figure skating. After a while Dave switched over to Netflix and we started watching the latest season of ‘Homeland’. Marylou was visiting with relatives in the kitchen via FaceTime. It was quarter to eleven by the time I updated my journal — time for bed. We have a tee time at Espiche tomorrow morning. Hope the weather keeps improving.