Blogs from Lagos, Algarve, Portugal, Europe - page 4

Today has been an unexpectedly delightful day!! We had booked the boys for a 2-hour morning fishing excursion with no other real plans for the rest of the day. Late last night the company sent us an email asking us would we be ok with a free upgrade to the 4-hour fishing trip. Well, yes, we would be ok with that. So, we got an early start off to Alvor which is only 10 minutes away and the boys got on their boat at 8:30 and headed off for a 1/2 day of fishing excitement! For this paragraph, I (Nigel) will take over writing. The fishing was an absolute blast. There was constant action. You were either re-baiting your hook, getting a nibble, striking to hook a fish, or else someone else was reeling one in. ... read more

Short blog today. We spent the day at a nearby waterpark. There were about 25 different slides you could go down ranging from a toilet bowl to a head first kamikazi to crazy river. Lots of tubes, mats, and sunburns. I missed a small section around my hairline and it always makes me glad I applied sunscreen! We were definitely in the minority wearing our sunshirts but there were still quite a few. There were certainly some who should have been wearing them but were fried instead. And the locals simply wear the skimpiest suits they can! Russell and I have this going joke about people who forgot to put on the rest of their (insert bathing suit, shirt, shorts, etc.). One nice feature about the waterpark is that from the top of all the slides ... read more

We forget the time is the exact same as British time in Portugal so we end up sleeping in a bit longer than anticipated. Jamie the surfing bar man from last night has been waiting on us for a few hours which I feel bad about, so we get ready as quick as possible and then head off with another one of the boys called Dave and also Sally, the only other female staff. Thankfully Matt has offered us to use his van, as I don't really think 3 surfboards would fit in Charlie. The rental is cheap- a board and wetsuit for a whole day for only 15 euros- its good having contacts! Jamie drives us to a beach about 20 mins away and when we get there the waves are quite ferocious and foreboding. ... read more

We set our alarm to get up earlier today so that we can take advantage of the free breakfast. In the end we snooze the alarm and make it down with 10 minutes left to spare. What greets us is the best breakfast selection I've seen (well certainly that we've seen based on our usual budget and choice of hotel). They have a huge selection of different cheeses, cold meats and bread- and not the supermarket own brand either. The bread is deliciously light and fluffy, not dry and tasteless. They also have hot options (very unusual in Europe) of eggs, bacon and sausages, and then a huge fruit platter with melon, watermelon, oranges, apples, strawberries and pears. And on top of that they have yoghurts of all flavours and a selection of fresh pastries. The ... read more

The last blog showed a few of the activities we did for enjoyment during the last 2 weeks of March since returning from the US. We filled the rest of the time with book exchanges, computer group get togethers where we shared ideas, caught up with friends, Sandra and John as well as numerous cruising friends and treating ourselves to eating out a few times at local restaurants. Between rainstorms we also managed to do the usual household errands such as going to the grocery store and doing laundry. On the morning of April 2nd everything changed; we had a beautiful sunny day with no wind – a perfect time to pull the boat. This was the first time we moved the boat since arriving in our slip on October 3rd. We were scheduled to be ... read more