Blogs from Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal, Europe
16th week on the road and still living the dream!! Well people - We finaly managed to get a whole week of sunshine! hows about that? ALBUFERA is really tourism orientated with lots of british tourists which is a refreshing change as its been mostly spanish french and portugese destinations that we have stayed uptil now. Great start to the week. We have found a nice hotel where we can nip in to use the pool and the town square seems ideal for putting the jewellery out. Steesh has also made a friend ;) a Spanish dood calley Javi- funny enough translated to english is Harry my dad and brothers name, and my grandads. Javi is only 21 but wise for his young age and they got on really well, he is top drawer! proper spot ... read more
After a few more days traveling around the coves and mountains of North West Spain we got out first glimpse of Portugal across the bay in A GUARDA. We decided on the short car ferry ride which was a first it was the tiniest ferry I have been on, similar to the Sheilds ferry. We have ben in Portugal for a week now and have had sunshine every day so far- yey!! We went to see the Newcastle/ Arsenal match last night in one of the bars here in Albufera (Algarve) The week has been tyring, especially with the hot temperatures and a lot of driving- 8 hours one day. We stayed over in FIGUERA DA FOZ for a few nights in the car park of the towns main attraction - seals and sharks doing tricks- ... read more
The TV promised rain today for our journey south to Albufeira in the Algarve, and kept it! Swathes of rain, sometimes almost torrential, accompanied our navigation of the non-toll route. The open plains we drove across made the huge black clouds look very threatening and at one point we looked for a place to stop and wait for the downpour to ease a bit. At the entrance to a cemetery we sat off the road while the water poured downhill around us and minor flooding on the road deepened. Before this the weather had cleared for long enough to allow us to stop for lunch and a wander around Evora, an old fortified town with Roman temple ruins at the top of the hill. The postcards we bought here show how the town looks in the ... read more
Bus into Albuferia nice walk around, good to see all the cobblestones finished. Lunch on the waterfront - a great seafood planadora (?), crab, prawns, fish, scollopes, clams, mussels all in a piquant tomato sauce - delicious. Loads of it and relatively inexpensive. More walking to help the lunch down. They were setting up a huge stage in the square by the waterside for a big party tonight. They were expecting 20,000 people for it! Pantechnicans and cables everywhere! Run back on the bus and a quiet afternoon/evening. Off to Portamao tomorrow. A happy and prosperous New Year to all our readers. ... read more
Southern Portugal Alentejo to Algarve
Published: December 5th 2010Europe » Portugal » Algarve » AlbufeiraHi all, We left Lisbon after a great week and headed over the distinctive 25th April bridge, so named after the date of the 1974 revolution which ousted the long time Portuguese dictator Salazar, we drove south past the city of Setabul then turned slightly inland and into the region called Alentejo, (Alen-Tejo meaning all things south of the river Tejo or Tagus as it's commonly known) this large area south of Lisbon is the driest and hottest in Portugal and produces cork bark which is one of Portugal's main exports, as we drove by the endless woodlands almost all the trees had had their bark stripped up to the first branches where the cork had been removed. Our destination was Alcacer de Sal on the Sado estuary, long ago an important trade town built by ... read more
Who needs to visit England when you can visit Albufeira
Published: September 26th 2010Europe » Portugal » Algarve » AlbufeiraFollowing our intense but thrilling time in Lisbon, we were looking forward to a much more relaxed second part of the weekend in the southern region of Portugal called Algarve. Little did we know that this place was also a top destination for the British! It seemed as if every other person was a pasty looking Brit and the towns very much catered to them with all English menus, and all the restaurants serving traditional 'English Breakfasts', which we were quite excited for after weeks of just toast for breakfast in Madrid. The train for Lisbon to Albufeira (the town we stayed in) was only 2.5 hours and dropped us off a short taxi ride away from our hostel. I was a little nervous heading to our hostel because I had read some pretty bad reviews ... read more
Stop nas je dogurao do pola puta, a onda smo uhvatili bus zato sto smo zurili da gledamo tekmu sa Turcima. Al dobro sad... Mesto se zove Albufeira i to je centar portugalskog turizma, ili Portugalska Ibiza ako hocete. Stvarno je guzva, mozda zato sto je subota, ali ljudi stoje ispred klubova jer nema mesta. Sve je prilagodjeno englezima, koji su ovde zastupljeni sa 95%, svuda utakmice premier lige, pinte piva pijane budale, i uzasno ruzne i debele devojke. Jedina dobra stvar sto su nam doneli ti englezi jeste dobra muzika, pa je to bilo nesto u cemu znamo da uzivamo. Ovde smo sa ovim rancima izgleda zalutali jer svi upiru prstom u nas i cuskaju se kad nas vide. Malo pre nego sto mi se smucilo od te atmosfere odlazimo u potragu za smestajem, i ... read more
Last week in Madrid covered all the usual tourist spots. Trip round Real Madrid´s ground, the Royal Palace, the Thyssen Muesem and the Prada Muesem. Madrid would rival Barcelonca it it only was on the coast, somewhere definately to return to. Arrived in Portugal on Monday and now all my systems seem to back up and working correctly, normal food, clean clothes and proper conversation has been a godsend and a great break with great company. On to Porto tomorrow then Madrid for a day then Morrocco, hopefully the tempatures will start to drop by then. Cheers for now. ... read more
Today started out quite early as we had to finish packing and clean up the villa. Breakfast was an assortment of leftovers. Malcolm, our host, arrived promptly at 9:00 a.m. to take our luggage and some of us (he had a very small car) into Alfeizerao where we caught our bus to go South to Albuferio in the Algarve. Cath, Renita and I walked in one last time. We had time for one last cafe grande at our favourite cafe (right across the street from the bus stop). Our bus arrived exactly at 9:45 and we were on our way. We were shown an example of Portugese patience when an old lady stepped out in front of the bus to cross the street in a small village we passed through. The bus driver braked hard to ... read more
Bom dia a Portugal e uma boa Pasqua (good day from Portugal and happy Easter. Today is a hot, glorious, sit around the pool and drink wine and port kind of day. It’s very warm here today, about 23 degrees and, because pretty well everything is closed for Easter Sunday, this is exactly what we’re doing (except for Molly Maid, Renita, who insists on washing the floors). After breakfast, the girls went to the church in Alfeizerea for the Easter service. Pete & I walked into town where we found our usual coffee shop open for business. I sent off a couple of blogs and we were able to catch up on other stuff on the internet. We also had coffee while we waited. The girls soon showed up and Jo taught us how to say ... read more




























