Author: Rudy

Sunday morning. Marylou was looking forward to another day of peace and quiet and relaxation — maybe she would even visit the church across the street from us and see how Portuguese tourists worship on Sundays. Dave and I were booked to golf at the Boavista Golf Course. After a (too) leisurely breakfast we had to rush to get to the course on time for our 10:20 tee time. We got there, parked, got our ‘buggy’ and fastened our clubs to the back. Then we took off for the first tee — well, we THOUGHT we were heading for the first tee, but we got to a dead end and turned around and THEN we got to our first tee. The two Swedes who we were paired up with were already teeing off. We hurriedly got our balls, tees, and clubs and took a quick practice swing before belting the ball off the side of the fairway. We should have warmed up a bit first, I guess. 

The course was okay, but Dave and I both thought the Espiche course we golfed during the week was more fun. Instead of brambles and bushes along narrow fairways, here we had resort homes to contend with. It’s not fun hitting the ball into the bushes, but it’s less fun hitting it through the window on the second floor of a luxury home on the course. But thankfully we kept our damages to a minimum, even if the cost to our pride was a few strokes.

We were teeing off from the yellows because that’s what ‘Life’ and ‘Toon’ were doing. They were a couple of retired Swedes who now lived down here in the Algarve. The were 66 years old (which is about 25 Canadian years according those ‘Participaction’ ads we used to see on TV), and they’d bought homes here about 2 years ago. They were members of the Boavista course. We enjoyed their company for the day.

I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the HIGHLIGHT of my day was the FANTASTIC sandwich I made this morning, which I enjoyed on hole number 10. There is NOTHING better than a delicious sandwich on a beautiful Sunday afternoon out on the golf course.

Certainly the highlight of my day COULD have been my score, but only if my score had been about 20 strokes better than it actually was. I wish I could blame it on the fact that everything here is in metres instead of yards, but today our GPS on the golf ‘buggy’ was giving us all the distances in yards. Oh well.

After we finished 18 holes, ‘Life’ (that’s probably Leif in Swedish, but that’s how he pronounced it) invited us to join him for a beer at the course restaurant. Sure. So we sat at an outside table and visited for an hour or so. We learned a lot about the pros and cons of living in Sweden and retiring in Portugal. Life and Toon even sort of invited us to join them here again NEXT Saturday. We’ll see.

We drove back home and looked for Marylou. Turns out she was hiding at a neighbourhood bar, busy doing one of her eight things — or maybe reading — or maybe reading IS one of her eight things. We all went back to our apartment and put on extra sweaters and jackets and looked for the warmest room. Marylou had been busy getting a big fancy supper ready for us. Now all that was left to be done was try to figure out how that fancy European oven is supposed to work. Or how to turn it on. Dave got out the manual and eventually got it bake. At least we hope it’s baking.

Dave once again stirred up some delicious gin and tonics for happy hour. We sat in the kitchen and waited for that oven to cook up the chicken breasts and bake the potatoes. Dave found some golf on TV. Finally, at around 8, or maybe even after 8, the oven finally cooperated and supper was served. Mmm.. Nice job, Marylou. Thanks for a great supper.

After supper we watched a movie on iTunes — Night Train to Lisbon. Marylou had read the book and wanted to see how the movie compared. After the movie we had our late-night dessert, ice cream and a glass of port. Marylou went to bed while Dave and I sat through an episode Black Mirror on Netflix. It was just after midnight when I finally updated my blog and then went to bed. Looks like we might get a bit of rain tomorrow. No plans for now. Good night.

Saturday morning — so I guess that means bacon and eggs. I had a lazy morning, sleeping until about 8:30. Dave was already making coffee when I entered the kitchen. We had a little breakfast of yogurt and toast and then sat around ‘planning’ our day. Marylou was waiting for the washer to finish so she could hang some laundry out on one of our big patios. In the mean time I had a FaceTime call with Alex and Max and showed them our apartment. Things are cold here in Portugal, but it’s quite a bit colder back home.

I’m not sure what the time was when we finally got the train going — but my guess is it was getting close to 11 o’clock. I think our hike along the coast, going west, took about an hour and wasn’t much more than 4kms one way. The Driedgers had done this before and knew there would be cafes and restaurants once we got to the little village of Burgau. And there were. We found a table at one of them which looked pretty busy (so it must be good) and ordered our food. I (finally) got my bacon and eggs, on a ‘toastie’. And since it was easily LUNCH time, and not really breakfast, I washed it down with a cerveza. 

Glorious sunshine and very little wind today. There were a few sailboats looking for a breeze to catch out on the ocean. We hiked back the same way we came, and encountered some of the same people we’d met going the other way. It was mid-afternoon and we’d basically finished the day’s major “activity”.

Now what? Well, that’s what I asked MYSELF. The Driedgers wasted no time idling around. (Marylou has committed to doing 8 things every day (I’m not sure what they all are, but they include writing and drawing and coloring; and Dave is hardly ever without his phone so he can stay up-to-date with what’s new in sports and talk shows and Facebook and games.) Marylou got busy sorting and selecting photographs of the hike. Dave caught up with various online scrabble games and found a TV channel featuring Olympic ski-jumping. I finally figured out how to code a couple of functions so that my website banners show up on single posts. I tried to persuade Marylou to share a few of her photos with me, since I had only taken a couple of Dave on the walk and none at all of our lovely brunch. (Since most of my photos are of the Driedgers, and Marylou had quite a few of me which she shared with me and let me use on my post yesterday, I figured if we shared our photos on the cloud we could both benefit.) She tried, but it seems our internet isn’t very fast and her setup is a bit complicated. And with all that going on, we are often busy resetting breakers and waiting for our devices to reconnect to the internet — we still haven’t figured out how many heaters we can have going at any one time and in any one room before we blow a breaker.

After happy hour we sat down in the living room and watched the final two episodes of “Big Little Lies”. Dave went out to get some groceries and when he got back he fried up some burgers and beans for supper while Marylou made a salad. After supper we watched a little more TV and had some ice cream for dessert.

By 10:30 the Driedgers were having trouble keeping the sandman at bay and decided to turn in for the night. So here I am again, sitting in the corner of the living room, typing away about my day, listening to the hum of the space heaters and the rumble of the occasional car driving by on the cobblestones 4 floors below our windows. Tomorrow Dave and I are off to Boavista, a golf course near the town of Lagos, about 15 minutes from here. I’m looking forward to it. It IS actually warming up a bit.

When I got out of bed this morning and looked outside the sky was cloudy and the deck was wet — it must have rained, and it looked like there might be more before the day was done. After breakfast Marylou found the article about the top ten scenic drives in the Algarve — and copied the places and points of interest into her notes. Then we got in the car, and with Dave navigating and Marylou reading her notes, I drove along the N125, heading west.

The theme of the trip seemed to be “Henry the Navigator”, who, as Marylou has already discussed in HER blog, would not have been considered such a great guy in today’s world, mostly because he ‘navigated’ slaves out of Africa and into Portugal. But in spite of that, we did our best to follow his footsteps to the west coast of Portugal today. We stopped to see his home, his church, his chapel, his mistress’s chapel, his pub, his library, his lighthouse — okay, maybe I’ve missed a couple of spots, but you get the idea. One of the highlights for me was a hike to Henry’s fortress — a long drive along a narrow road that became a trail that became a path that became not for cars, so I had to back up about half a mile, park, and then HIKE it. We found the beach, saw the fortress and the graffiti that was sprayed all over it, and then hiked back. 

At another stop I found a couple of old fishermen mending their nets beside their fishing boat on the shore. One of them could speak a bit of English, and after a bit of gesturing and the fisherman saying the same Portuguese word over and over, each time little bit louder until we finally guessed what the word meant, we learned about how to catch octopuses (octopi?), which they do by dangling terra cotta pots down into the ocean and then yanking them up and scaring the octopus out of them (with a few drops of bleach) and onto your plate. 

One of the next stops was Henry’s chapel. We parked, walked the cobblestone walk up to the front of the church and watched the woman inside quickly close the front doors, heard the double-lock, and then had the ‘ticket taker’ guy up on the hill yell down that they were closed for lunch. I have to say, we were not altogether disappointed to hear that. At least I wasn’t. It was at LEAST 12 noon by this time, and high time for lunch anyway. Back in the car, seatbelts on, hook up the phone to the charging cord, punch in the next stop, and off we were.

Speaking of lunch, we found ourselves in a TINY little town, the name of which I can’t remember, and parked on the cobblestones in the town square, and went into what SURELY must have been an “authentic” Portuguese restaurant. Marylou’s notes suggested we “must try the gooseneck barnacles”. Well, brave intentions failed us — we asked if we could just SEE what that might look like. The server said ‘no problem’ and promptly returned with a small sample on a small plate.

And so Marylou ordered a chicken sandwich and Dave a cheeseburger. Both of those meals sounded great to me, but instead I ordered “moreia ray eel”.  The server explained that they were FRIED eel, and although HE didn’t like fish, I would have to eat everything on my plate. And I did. Not bad.

And then we continued on our drive. We got to the town of Sagres, which I now find isn’t at all where the Sagres Cerveja which we’ve been drinking with our eel dinners comes from. No, THIS Sagres is the town that is at the western, or probably SOUTHwestern tip of continental Europe. Okay, I guess that’s almost as cool. We parked and walked around and I took some photos. If I’d had a telephoto lens I would have zoomed in on that sign way out in the distance, the one in Cape Spear, Newfoundland, that informs visitors there that they are at the EASTERN edge of the North American continent. But I only had my iPhone camera. In any case, here are a few of my photos of Sagres, or more precisely Cape St. Vincent, which is just west of the actual town.

And that’s how our field trip for the day ended. We hightailed it back to our place. I stopped to pick up a few groceries before joining Dave and Marylou in our ‘cozy’ kitchen. There we had a little happy hour and reconnected with our devices.

At 7pm we went out for Chinese food at a restaurant just steps from our place. We discussed plans for tomorrow — maybe a walk to the OTHER neighbouring village. We’ll see.

And that brings you up-to-date again for another day. So I bid you Tchau! Até mais.

After a quick breakfast, Dave and I headed back to the Espiche Golf Course, about 15 minutes north of our place. We golfed here 2 days ago, and we were hoping to improve on our game with a return visit. As soon as we got to the first tee, things were looking good — the sun was shining, the wind seemed to have abated, and it felt a bit warmer. And our play WAS better. I had a few pars on the front nine and Dave finished the day with a birdie on the 18th. We were not paired up with anyone else, and even though there were a couple of groups ahead of us and we often had to wait a bit before teeing off, we had a very enjoyable day. Things got a bit slow, especially on the back nine, but we often made the most of the wait by heading into the scrub brush around the greens and looking for (and finding!) golf balls. So, even though I didn’t break a hundred (Dave did), we both came out WAY ahead on golf balls. Like the good Mennonites that we are, we know what REALLY matters! We enjoyed a cold beverage on the sunny patio at the clubhouse before heading back to the car. Having quenched OUR thirst, we then drove into the nearby town of Lagos to do the same for our rental car — ‚¬75 (that’s $115CAD) to fill up the tank on our little Skoda. Another quick stop at the Boavista Golf Course to enquire about rates — we need to get some games in before the ‘summer’ rates kick in at most of the courses here — rates go up quite a bit on Feb 15, a week from today.

We drove back home and picked up some groceries before going up to our apartment. Happy hour, and then supper. Dave fried up some sausages and we had homemade “hotdogs” for supper. It felt a little warmer in the house — partly due to the warmer temps outside, and the sun shining in all our big windows, and SOME of our heaters going for most of the day. In fact, for the first time since I’ve been here, we sat in our lovely LIVING room tonight and continued watching “Big Little Lies” on our TV instead of on the laptop. A couple of episodes of that, along with a small dish of ice cream and a glass of cherry liquor, and the day was done. Time for bed. Marylou, who had another quiet and productive day ALONE at home, suggested that tomorrow might be a ‘going for a drive’ day. She had done a bit of research and found two ‘road trips’ that looked interesting and doable — so that’s the plan for tomorrow.

Got out of bed around 8:30 — I guess I’m still not quite acclimatized to the new timezone yet. Last night I didn’t fall asleep until after 2:00. Oh well, not much on the daytimer today anyway.

After coffee and toast we decided to go for a hike across the hill to the east of us, to the town of Lagos. I wanted to buy a phone card for my phone — so at the very least, next time Dave and I are out golfing and it takes a little longer than we expected, we can call Marylou, so she doesn’t sit in the kitchen waiting for us while dinner is getting cold. 

We walked along the promenade, then up into town, before striking out along a trail leading up to the top of the cliffs that cradle our beach. Along the way we stopped from time to time for a quick photo or to stop and chat with other tourists who were hiking the same trail — and I must confess that I didn’t stop talking for most of the trip!

Not many locals here — this is a tourist area, and it’s not quite “in season” yet. There are many shops and restaurants all around us, but most are not open yet. But we’re told the warm weather is coming soon, and it will bring with it (mostly Irish and British) visitors, many of whom have summer homes here. But it’s not quite ‘summer’ here yet!

After reaching the top of the cliffs we soon stopped for a celebratory drink. And talked some more. Marylou gave us an update on how many steps we’d made so far, including the horizontal and the vertical kind. Yikes! if we keep that up we will surely cancel out the calories we’ll consume at each of our ‘rest’ stops!

When we got into the town of Lagos we made our way into the town centre. We chose a small outdoor table at a restaurant where the Driedgers had already tested the offerings on a previous visit. We ordered a couple of pizzas and fortified ourselves. Then it was just a short walk to a ‘Vodafone’ shop where it only took a couple of minutes to get a SIM card installed on my phone. So now I have data and a L-O-N-G phone number that no one will call me on. 

We opted for a bus ride back to our apartment. When we stepped into our apartment we were expecting to find a couple of additional space heaters which our apartment manager promised us. And sure enough, there they were: two brand new fancy heaters. But they were not on! What’s up? It didn’t take long to realize that turning on the new heaters caused the breaker to fail. And after quite a bit of trial and error we determined that no matter what combination of outlets we used, have all SIX space heaters going in our apartment would not be an option, no matter how much we spread them out. Hmmm…

And so it was that we found ourselves once again huddled around the kitchen table where the small room and ONE of our new fancy heaters seemed to keep the temperature up enough for us (well, MOST of us) warm without wearing our jackets. 

We thought we’d watch a movie on Netflix but were sorry to realize that the movie we WANTED to see was no longer available on that service. I had brought along a couple of thumb drives with some video selections — so there we sat, watching videos on Marylou’s Macbook which we parked in the middle of the dining table. We paused it a couple of times for snacks and supper breaks, and before we knew it, it was 10 o’clock — bedtime.

Well, not for ALL of us. Dave relocated to the couch in the living room and wrapped himself up in some extra blankets and watched TV while I sat in the corner and updated this journal. And shortly after eleven, although I wasn’t at all sleepy, I too made my way to bed, hoping that one of those new heaters would keep me warm at night.

I finally woke up at around 8:30. Yikes! This is no way to start! We have things to do and places to go to.

A quick hot shower to combat the FREEZING cold room. I found out later that the space heater was connected to an outlet that turns off when I turn out the lights. Hmmm… That’s not going to work. The apartment is large and lovely. But it is clearly designed for seasons when the temperature is higher than 10 degrees. Those tile floors are brutally cold.

I found the Driedgers in the kitchen checking their ‘devices’. It’s warmer in the kitchen because it is a smaller room where the doors can be closed and there are TWO space heaters and two people sitting in there. Make that three…

We went out for breakfast — a short walk along the promenade that fronts the beach. Lots of outdoor tables at the restaurant we went to. Not so many outdoor customers, although, just like at home, smokers are banished from all confined spaces and a few hardy souls were ‘hubbering’ outside. Not us. We went inside and tried a few tables (there were only a few tables) until we’d decided which spot was the ‘warmest’, and I use that term loosely. But the coffees were hot and the waffles hit the spot.

On the way home we stopped at one of the two ‘Supermercados’ and bought some supplies for tomorrow’s breakfast. We’d been invited to visit Jim and Bonny at their AirBnB condo in a neighbouring village for supper tonight, but Dave and I thought we could probably squeeze in a game of golf before heading out to meet them at 4pm. So we loaded up our clubs and left Marylou to hold the fort while we drove out to a nearby course, just to ‘check it out’.

We asked about golf at the front desk. We hadn’t made a reservation — and were surprised and delighted when the girl said how about right now! Yes! We opted to take a ‘buggy’ instead of walking because there was a special deal available. That turned out to be a good call. We were paired up with a lovely couple from Ireland. For the next 4 plus hours the four of us managed to hit some fine shots — but we also got quite familiar with the trees and the scrub brush that lines each fairway. The course was quite nice, and although the layout looks relatively straight forward (as in, on most holes you are required to shoot the ball straight and forward), with a fairly brisk (and cold) breeze to contend with, we soon realized that it was a sufficient challenge to in all likelihood warrant a return visit.

We’d been invited to the Peters’ place for four o’clock so we could go for a bit of a walking tour before supper. Well, when we were still working our way down the 15th fairway at 3:15, we realized we would not be able to make it by four if we finished the game. So we aborted our game and bid our new Irish friends adieu and hurried home to pick up Marylou.

Marylou was just starting to send Bonny a text that we would be ‘a little late’ when Dave and I rang the doorbell. A quick change and we were back in the car heading to Porches (the town where they’re staying for a couple of days), with Google Maps guiding Dave as he drove back along the A22 Autobahn.

We arrived a bit late, but not too late for Jim and Bonny to lead us down a long beach staircase so they could show us the incredible cliffs along the coast, while Jim’s brother Rob and his partner Evelin prepared supper for us.

Lovely. Back at their apartment we enjoyed appetizers and drinks. The Peters brothers and their women have already travelled many roads here in Portugal. They are here for one more week, ending their tour in Lisbon. It sounds like they’ve had a marvellous time.

WE certainly had a marvellous time there with them tonight! Robert and Evelin prepared a feast of shrimp, mussels and paella, salad, beer and wine, and a dessert of chocolates and some Portuguese Tawny Port. We had a very fine visit — lots of interesting conversation around the table. I guess sometimes you have to go far away to really visit with people ‘from home’!

We said goodbye and returned to our apartment. Maybe, after such a fine evening, it didn’t seem quite as cold anymore. Still, we huddled together in the kitchen, now all three of us hovering over our devices with our space heaters doing their best to keep us feeling warm. I had to update my blog — and now I have to hurry and ‘save’ my work before the battery dies. And so ends Day Two — and a good day it was!

I’m sitting in the airport in Amsterdam. It’s 1:30 in the afternoon here, 7:30 in the morning at home. The last leg of my trip to Portugal is a two hour flight to Faro, departing in about three hours from now. I’ve already sent a text to Dave; he and MaryLou are at the bus station, waiting to take the bus to Faro. We’ll pick up our rental car there and drive the one-hour trip back to our apartment in Luz together.

The flight from Minneapolis was uneventful. The KLM flight was less than a third full; according to the stewardess, it was so empty due to the Super Bowl game. Since I missed seeing most of the final quarter, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Eagles had won! Well what do you know! Probably a little too much air in the footballs that Brady used.

I snoozed for about four hours — everyone took advantage of the extra seats and we all had a ‘bed’ across 3 seats. I read my kindle too, and finished the Bill Browder book Red Notice.

Part Two: I sat around in the Amsterdam airport for about 3 hours. I wasn’t tired — it was around noon local time when we landed. I started reading another book. I went for walks. I watched planes taking off and landing. For a while I followed a large group of Chinese tourists around — they were being led by a ‘guide’ who was waving her ‘tour leader’ flag. Most of them were wearing white masks over their mouths. I think they were all lost for a while — they headed a long way down one of the arms of the airport, and soon they were all coming back. Wrong concourse, I guess.

The last leg of the journey was the opposite of the flight I’d just taken. Instead of a large modern jet, this was an old 737. And it was PACKED. My carry-on bag ended up somewhere in the middle of the plane even though I was seated in row 3. But ultimately it got me to where I needed to go, and everything was just fine. I landed in the Faro airport, waited for my ‘oversize’ golf bag to come careening down the luggage chute, and then made my way into the waiting area where I met Dave and Marylou. They had taken a bus from their town and we were going to find our rental car and drive back together. Great.

The rental car ended up being at the OTHER end of the airport, but we only found that out after we’d dragged my luggage across about 4 carpark lots in the cool wind of the evening. After filling out the forms and stopping to fill the empty gas tank, we were on the Autopista (or whatever that main toll highway is called here in Portugal) heading back to our apartment. In spite of Google Maps expertise we somehow ended up on a dark narrow country road, a bit lost. But only for a short while. And then we were there. I parked the car and we gathered up my luggage and crammed into the two small elevators that would take us up to the fourth floor. Home. At least that’s what this will be for the next three and a half weeks.

It was COLD. Colder inside than the temperature outside. But Marylou had made soup which she warmed up for me, along with a fine plate of cheese and cold cuts and crackers. We visited for a while, had a glass of port to go with our ice cream dessert, and then off to bed. A long day. Cold and tired. But Dave got a space heater going in my room, and Marylou found another big warm blanket in one of the closets, and it didn’t take many minutes after my head hit the pillow, and I as fast asleep.

I’ve often been asked whether I packed my bags myself by the airport customs agents. They want to know if I’m sure of what’s in there and to avoid being interrogated and delayed in some holding tank, I always answer in the affirmative, just as I did today. But today I answered it honestly.

It’s been a while since I’ve packed my own bag. It’s been a long while since I’ve flown alone. But that’s the way it is now. That is “my new reality”. So here I am, sitting in the Winnipeg airport on Super Bowl Sunday, on the first leg of a trip to Portugal. A trip that Sue and I planned and booked half a year ago. But those plans were interrupted. In fact, when Sue got sick in fall and then died in December, I cancelled our flights and our ‘HomeAway’ apartment rental in southern Portugal. But our plan had been to spend February and March in the Algarve together with our friends Dave and MaryLou, and the Driedgers did NOT cancel their travel plans. After Sue’s passing they invited me to consider joining them for part of their time — they had rebooked the same apartment in the small beach town of Praias da Luz, a town with several golf courses nearby. Dave and I could go golfing while MaryLou did some writing.

So that brings me to why I am sitting here in the Winnipeg airport, typing my first blog post of this ‘holiday’ on my phone, hunting and pecking away with one finger! I packed my (own) bags yesterday and had a leisurely start to my day this morning. My kids invited me over for brunch and then shuttled me here at 1:00, giving me the requisite 3 hours to check in and get through customs before the scheduled (and so far, on time) departure.

And that brings YOU, dear reader, up to date. And now it is 4:00pm and they are starting to call passengers to board. Next stop: Minneapolis, home of Super Bowl LII (that’s 52 for you non-Romans).

Update #2. It’s 8:00pm. I’m sitting at the airport in Minneapolis, watching the “super” bowl. The second half just started and the Eagles are hanging in there against the Patriots. Hey, I wonder what’s more American: a ‘patriot’ or an ‘eagle’?

My flight to Amsterdam leaves at 9:30, so I won’t see how this ends. It takes an hour and a half to play the last two minutes, never mind the whole second half. I got a text message from Dave, who is apparently watching the game together with Jim and Bonny, who are also in Portugal. By my calculations it’s two in the morning there! They’re going to be up all night if they want to see how it all ends.

Well, I will stop poking my phone for a while and watch a bit of football.