3 week adventure in Portugal from July 18th to Aug 8th. Visiting: Lisbon, Sintra, Sobral, Obidos, Aveiro, Porto, the Douros, Coimbra, Evora, Carvoeiro, Faro, Lisbon
Got up early and packed up our bags since we had to bring our rental car back this morning. We also wanted to drop off our bags at the new hotel while we have a car and try the hotel to see if the room was ready early. Turns out we got lucky and a room was clean and ready for us. Anne and Camille went up to the room and got settled in and Cameron and I went to bring back our rental car. When we got there there was a big lime of people waiting for their car and no clear instruction on how to drop off. I wasn't interested in waiting in line so I grabbed someone and thankfully he was able to help us and check the car in. Saved a bunch ... read more
We had to pack up early and be out of the airbnb at 10am this morning since the ladies that run this one own 20 of them and they do all the cleaning themselves. They had even sent us a message earlier asking if we were flying out that morning, probably hoping to get in as early as possible to start cleaning. Anyways, we got out on time and since our Lisbon checkin was at 3pm we went to Lagos to see the town. We parked the car in an old part of the city and stumbled onto a surf shop where we bought some cool souvenirs of our surf experience. We got some good tips of where to go from the lady at the cultural center so we did some visiting and shopping, getting souvenirs ... read more
Ransoms facts day: It’s normal to drink a beer in the streets or to bring wine or port to sit by the water and drink. The surf instructor said it has rained only once so far this year! Crazy! Lots of fires this summer and getting worse by the year because of global warming and people deliberately starting fires according to the news. I also think the smoking everywhere does not help. We’d be in gardens and forests that are attractions and people have cigarettes dangling in their mouths. Alcohol is soooo cheap! You can buy 10 yr old vintage port for 4$ and wine bottles for 2-4euros or a beer for 1euro. You can also buy sangria and wine by the liter out of an oak barrel and fill up your bottle in some grocery ... read more
Surf day! We got up early, got some coffee's to go and went to the beach for surf school. There were probably 20 people in the lesson and 1 instructor, with 2 helpers. They got us suited up in wetsuits and shirts and we went down to the beach to start the lesson. He started it off by getting to swim, and cool off, and body surf. We then went back onto the beach and did some warm up exercises.and safety pointers- push board through waves, shield your head, dont put board between you and wave. Then was a lesson on position 1- centering yourself on the board (with your toe or ankles at the end of the board) and pushing your chest up, locking your elbows and looking ahead. We practiced that for a bit ... read more
Well, we've embraced the beach lifestyle and are sleeping in and taking it easy. We’re letting the kids sleep in and Anne and I went for coffee again. The local market has a coffee shop in the back and she makes a good cappuccino for Anne and an Americano for me. Just what we've been looking for. We usually take 2! After our coffee, we walked around checking out the local restaurants and shops and then went down to the beach area we went to at night. It was completely different seeing it during the day. We walked out on the cliffs and took some pictures. It's funny how getting older makes you nervous about stuff like that, especially when you see your kids do it. We then walked back to our place and found a ... read more
Started as a bit of a slow day. Anne and I got up and went to have coffee and read up on the area to get ideas. We knew we wanted to book parasailing, a boat tour in the caves and surfing for the kids but weren't sure where to do it from. We wanted to go with a well rated company so we weren’t disappointed. After coffee we woke the kids and went to see the beach area where on surf lesson shop was located. It was a nice spot but the water was pretty flat at the time and didnt give a good feeling of a spot to learn. The guy said that low tide is usually better and thats in the morning. We went back to the car and drove to Albufeira to ... read more
Up and on the road once again, this time to the beaches to the south in Carvoeiro. I think everyone is looking forward to relaxing a bit more. Before we leave town, Anne wants to stop and check out a local pottery shop on the corner. The lady has a bunch of hand made pottery that is decorated in a bunch of different styles. Anne wanted to buy all kinds of stuff but we are limited in luggage space. She picked up a few smaller items, we'll have to figure it out later. (Can you tell who writes the blogs and who edits the pictures?!) On the road, going through similar small country roads, we stopped at a small town called Beja to get some food. We sat down inside the old castle to eat. No ... read more
Set off early to get to our next destination as it was a 3 hour drive. We said out goodbyes to the hosts and German guests and hit the road. The drive started out the same as it had been on all our other trips, on the wide open super nice toll roads, hearing the beep of a fare every so often. $0.60 here, $0.50 there... Beep. It then turned into a drive through the Portuguese country side on smaller country roads winding and twisting through small towns and in between grape fields and some other trees we couldn't recognize. I think it might have been olive trees. Definitely agriculture area. The roads were fun to drive but would have been better with a good car , i.e. one with more than 75hp. It struggles up ... read more
Did I say this was a country house? It seems to be located right next to a fairly main road and it was getting traffic at 5:30am. Cars would fly by.and the road is literally right next to the house. That combined with the bells from the nearby church and the 4-5 dogs barking nonstop throughout the night weren't great. The place is still really nice and the hosts are friendly but not quite country. We still managed to sleep in though so that's a good sign? Started the day going back to the castle we saw the night before. We walked along the boardwalk stopping in the shade of any trees along the way since it was 40 degrees. At least it wasn't humid like it is in Ottawa. At the end we went down ... read more
Sad to leave the city of Porto but ready to see more of Portugal. We set off for our place near Coimbra in Serpins at Casa Branca (The white house). Along the way, we made a pit stop in Coimbra at a coin laundry and washed some of our clothes. While we were waiting for the machines we noticed some people hanging out on the street and next to our car, 2 girls sitting on our car and 2 men smoking near it on the sidewalk so it didn't give us a great feeling. We were keeping an eye on them and wanting to move on once the wash was done. It was the first time we felt a little uneasy during the whole trip. I'm sure it was nothing but it felt weird. We packed ... read more
