Going Home

Friday 23rd September 2011

We got up this morning feeling glum although fairly perky despite last night's cocktails. Claire's foot was hurting and looked a bit puffy and a sort of greeny colour. It was only a few days ago that it was puffy and red from sunburn. It hasn't been a good holiday for Claire's foot at all.

We packed up, checked out and started the journey to the airport on public transport. Unfortunately for me, this meant I had to carry all the bags so Claire could concentrate on walking on The Foot without incurring any further injuries.
The local train station was about half a mile up a hill from the apartment. To get to it you have to walk across the train tracks and then alongside the tracks onto the platform. It's unmanned and even more run down than Longport station which is our local station back home. The trains here are strange. They look like they're made of bullet proof metal sheets. The platform is very low down and you have to climb up about a metre up three very steep steps to get onto the train. So getting the bags on board was a bit of a struggle.
Once on board, we had a comfortable but non eventful journey to Faro, with the exception of the on board toilet which was disgusting.

We caught the bus to the airport and progressed through the airport fairly well until we reached the automated passport reading machines. These are machines designed to confuse even the more technologically able travellers. You put your passport in a scanner, then go into a little cubicle where a face scanner compares the person standing in the cubicle with the photo on the passport. Great in theory but rubbish in practice. It took me about 10 attempts, although I think some of these may have been messed up by some old folk scanning their passports while I was still in the cubicle. I had to tell them off. Rather annoyingly, Claire got through first time.

I'm writing this whilst on the plane. The plane is jam packed with babies. I'm sure there aren't enough adults on here to care for them all properly. Most of them are making noise, and we're fighting an overwhelming urge to gather them all up and put them in the overhead lockers at the back.
It's beyond me why anyone would want to travel abroad with a baby. Or have one in the first place for that matter. The amount of stress and noise they generate is phenomenal.
On the positive side, we have a spare seat next to us so can spread out a bit more than normal. This is because as soon as the seatbelt signs went off, the man sitting next to Claire was up like a jack in a box and claiming a row of empty seats further down the plane. I don't know if Claire forgot to put deodorant on the armpit on that side or something, but I'm not complaining.

We've enjoyed our week on The Algarve a lot. It's been nice to have a fairly lazy holiday for a change. Neither of us wanted to go home this morning, although of course now we are on the plane, we can't wait to get back.
The weather has been amazing. Clear blue skies every day and temperatures of 25 degrees or more. The evenings have been warm but not too hot overnight. We've already talked about going back again next year.

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Location:Portugal to Manchester

The Clairebird

Thursday 22nd September 2011

We went straight out on the bikes this morning to the salt flats. When I say straight out I mean after a moaning session from Claire about my snoring, lots of breakfast, some reading of books, and showers.

We are pleased to report that we have now had our fill of birds. We've seen flamingos, spoonbills, little egrets, white storks and various other birds including the "Clairebird" a.k.a. the tallerbird. The Clairebird is actually called the black winged stilt and has ridiculously long legs with slightly odd knees, which it likes to hide below the water if possible.

During our ride round the salt flats, we spotted some much more serious birdwatchers hiding in a ruined shack next to one of the salt pans. They were obviously watching some flamingoes there, most of which flew off when we approached. We had a cycle round the rest of the area, stopping occasionally to try (unsuccessfully) to sneak up on birds.
Unfortunately, our random route took us right back to the serious birdwatchers, but after a short discussion we decided to just ride past them. Partly because there was no reason why we shouldn't, and partly because it was easier to get away quickly if they set upon us with their binoculars and zoom lenses .
I enjoyed myself much more than I thought I would riding along all the little pathways between the salt pans. This did involve a certain amount of pain and leg injury from various thorny bushes at the side, but nothing a bit of Savlon cream wouldn't fix.

After lunch we eventually made it back down to the local beach. We had a swim in the sea and then tried to sunbathe for a while to dry off. Unfortunately, it was a bit too cold and we gave up when we started shivering and retreated to the apartment for showers and warm clothes.

This evening we set out for our last meal here. We wanted to go via reception and for some reason Claire decided to take the alternative route round the back instead of past the pool. I thought that was a bit strange but just followed anyway. As we walked round the side, we saw a small white poodle start crossing the road on its own. Both of us were holding our breath and watching intently, and just as it reached the other side safely, Claire fell over in a heap on the floor. It turns out there was a step that she had fallen down whilst distracted by the dog. After refusing all offers of assistance, including ice packs, we limped on to Copacabanas where we had food and a variety of cocktails (for medicinal purposes only of course).

We're now sitting in the apartment drinking tea. I'm feeling a bit light headed from the cocktails and Claire is obviously in pain from her foot but is trying to put on a brave face.

Tomorrow (if the foot can take it) we're going to potter around Cabanas until it's time to head over to the airport.
We're both dreading going home and wish we could stay longer.

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Location:Cabanas

The Birdwatching Boat

Wednesday 21st September 2011

We were fairly successful in getting up early. I think we arrived in Taviras at about 11am. The bike ride there was lovely, and we saw all the things we'd missed out on last night due to the darkness. We were quite excited to spot a young flamingo (the young ones are grey instead of pink), but were not very good at sneaking up on it. It turns out that they straighten the U bend neck out while flying.
The salt pans were full of little tracks running between them and we've decided to go back again tomorrow for a couple of hours and have a good look round. We've had enough of towns now.

We were boiling hot again when we arrived, which gave us a good excuse to have an ice cream. We had another wander round, bought some tacky mementos, and then when I got freaked out by the man pretending to be a statue winking at me we had a couple of pre lunch beers.
We wanted to have lunch in a particular restaurant called Biko, which had been recommended by Claire's cousin Donna. We chose a table outside, purely because it was a bit stuffy inside. The outdoor tables were in a narrow alleyway so didn't have a lot else going for them. Just as we'd ordered, the sun decided it was time to pass over the alleyway, so we spent nearly the entire meal eating in the heat of the midday (ish) sun. We were back in shadow just in time to pay the bill.
Anyway, apart from the heat, the food was very good. I had clams in garlic sauce, which is a local speciality and was delicious. Claire had steak and chips which she said was good for the price (from this, I assume it was not as good as the Number One steaks from The Plough in Etruria).

We went back to the bikes straight after lunch and started making our way back as we were booked on a boat trip.
The ride back was hot as hell, made worse by the fact that we were both too hot from the alleyway meal. As soon as we got back, we took all our clothes off and lay in front of the air conditioner on full blast. I had a cold shower and then we rushed off to go on our boat trip.

We'd arranged the boat trip via a desk at the apartment's reception this morning. We wanted to go on a tour round the nature reserve and hopefully see some more birds. The trip we originally wanted to go on was not available until tomorrow, but the lady there was quite insistent that the one that goes from the local jetty was far better in just about every way and we could go this afternoon.
We had only been waiting at the jetty for a couple of minutes when a rather odd couple turned up. He was called "Jonty" which pretty much says it all. He turned out to be a fairly quiet chap, whereas she could not seem to stop saying things to demonstrate how stupid she was. Like "ooh, that must be Faro" when we'd only been on the boat a couple of minutes (Faro is about 30 miles away and it is where the airport is, so everyone must know how long it takes to get there).
The trip was sold as a birdwatching/nature trip. So we assumed that the driver would point out different birds or other interesting things, with a bit of a commentary, and we even hoped there might be binoculars and bird cards. As it turned out, the driver spoke less English than I do Portuguese. It didn't matter though, because he just shouted things slowly to us in Portuguese so of course we understood him just fine.
We did see several interesting birds, including a white stork, although I don't think the driver was particularly interested in them as he didn't really slow down.
Just before coming back, the driver took us out onto the open sea so we could see the coastline stretching away. Jonty's girlfriend did not take very kindly to this and started making the most pathetic little girly screams I have ever heard every time we went over a wave. I don't think the driver could cope with all the noise as he turned back pretty quickly.

We've spent the evening having a buffet dinner at the apartment. I have been wearing the most hideous outfit ever for dinner. A pair of green/blue checked shorts, a red t shirt and a blue/red checked shirt over the top. Its because all my other shorts are feeling a bit tight!

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We're going to have a look round the salt flats first thing and then go to the beach after lunch. Hopefully we will not get sunburnt this time. Then a final meal in our favourite local restaurant "Copacabanas" before packing our bags ready to leave the next day.


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Location:Tavira and Cabanas

Dykes on Bikes

Tuesday 20th September 2011

We were a bit slow to get going this morning. After showers, breakfast, lunch and shopping we didn't set out on the bikes till 2.30pm.
There was quite an amusing little incident in the supermarket this morning. The English woman in front of us was trying to use up all her Euro coinage, but handed over a foreign coin which the cashier rejected. After studying the coin (which I could tell was a £2 coin from a distance of about 2 metres), she announced she didn't know what it was or how it had got in her purse.
The cashier then politely turned it over, pointed at the Queen and said "English - look see, Elizabeth!". Needless to say, the customer made a fairly sharp and embarrassed exit.

We went the only way we knew to Taviras, which was along the main roads. After about 5 minutes, I was wishing we had hired a motorbike instead and Claire looked like she wanted to kill me. It was absolutely boiling and we were both sweating buckets.
The route was not very direct and involved too many hills for our liking, but after what seemed like hours (but was probably about 30 minutes), we arrived in the town centre of Tavira, abandoned the bikes, and collapsed on a bench in the shade and downed our bottles of water.

We had a wander round the town and came across a Camera Obscura in an old water tower. This is a thing that's been around since the dawn of time (well, about 500 years at least), and it projects an image of the outside of the room onto a surface inside. From what I can gather, they are usually built in buildings in high up places by strange old men who like to use them to spy on people. Our strange old man was an English chap who'd built the camera 8 years ago and had been giving the same 15 minute guided tour of it ever since. Despite (or maybe because of) his strangeness, it was actually quite interesting.

We then spent quite some time trying to find somewhere to eat. And standing on the bridge and waving at the strange man in case he was spying on us at that moment in time.
Even though Tavira is much bigger than Cabanas, we couldn't seem to find anywhere to eat that sold anything other than curry or toasted sandwiches. It was a bit early, but even so... After consulting the guide book we we chose somewhere that sounded great - it was a converted girls school on the river bank adjoining an Irish pub. I'm not quite sure the restaurant deserved to feature in the guidebook, but it was OK, and Claire said her chips were surprisingly nice considering they were served mixed in with her sauce in a dish.
There was an elderly couple on the table next to us who were some of the most grumpy people I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure if it was him who was grumpy and mean to her, or the other way round, but the only time I saw either of them smile was when the waiter brought the wine out. They were arrogant enough to order everything very rapidly in English, without the customary pointing at the menu that we always use as a back up. And then they had the audacity to sit there bitching about just about everything. I was secretly quite pleased when their starter didn't turn up, which I firmly believe was a result of arrogant ordering.

By the time we'd finished eating, we were both getting bit agitated as it was nearly dark and we wanted to ride the bikes back via a cycle route alongside the salt pans in the nature reserve that the lady in the tourist information centre had told us about. The route also had the added benefit of being a short cut.
More by luck than judgement (as it was too dark to see the map the lady had given us, or for that matter, the road ahead), we found the cycle route and made it back to Cabanas unscathed and much quicker than on the way. There were a couple of scary moments when there were unexpected corners, dogs, birds and cobwebs, and I honestly think Claire thought we were going to have to sleep rough, but on the whole it was a much more pleasant journey and we're looking forward to doing it again tomorrow in the daylight.

Tomorrow we're making an early start (no, really, we are!), and hope to be in Taviras before it gets too hot. Then we'd like to go on a boat trip and try out one of the numerous restaurants we spotted on our ride out of town this evening. And hopefully ride back before the sun goes down.


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Location:Cabanas and Tavira

Out and about in Cabanas

Monday 19th September 2011

Well the hiring of push bikes did not go entirely to plan as they weren't available until 5.30pm. We've got them now though. I have spent half an hour messing with the brakes on mine because they were making an annoying noise, but they seem ok now. Hopefully the wheel wont fall off tomorrow since I've messed with it! We went for a short ride round the local town but didn't go far because Claire's "bits were hurting"! Hopefully nothing permanent. At least it will help to take her mind off the sunburn, which is getting better in leaps and bounds.

Earlier today we walked along the coast (vaguely towards Spain, but that makes it sound like we walked a lot further than we did). We got muddy feet walking over the sand (mud) flats looking for crabs and poking birds. We did manage to see both, in fact, when a poking bird flew over, all the sand seemed to move as the crabs scurried back in their burrows. The birds were probably Kentish Plovers, Avocets and Curlews but they kept running off so it was hard to get a good look. The crabs were not very nice really and looked like giant spiders, but fortunately they didn't want to be friends.

We had a few lunchtime beers and a late lunch before heading back to pick up the bikes.
We've been pleasantly surprised at how cheap things are over here. The exchange rate is of course rubbish (we've been reminiscing about the days when it was nearly 2:1, compared to today's nearly 1:1), but most things seem to be cheaper here, apart from corkscrews.

When we got back, Claire immediately disappeared off outside and started making Cat noises. There are quite a lot of semi stray cats roaming around here, and Claire's been eyeing them up for temporary adoption ever since we arrived. However, it's not until today that one has shown any interest, when a skinny black and white cat gave in to the Cat noises and accepted a saucer of milk on the patio. After being told off several times for trying to sneak inside, she eventually went off in a sulk.

Tonight we're having a light (ish) meal on the patio with the long awaited bottle of wine!

Tomorrow we are planning on finally venturing out of Cabanas and into the neighbouring town of Tavira which is supposed to be very nice.

Wish us luck on the bikes.

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Location:Cabanas, The Algarve

Lazy Day

Sunday 18th September 2011

The sunburn did not really improve overnight. In fact, I think Claire's may have got slightly redder and puffier. She didn't seem to take very kindly to me comparing her legs to those of a red over inflated blow up doll. Can't think why.

We overslept this morning and then decided on an even-lazier-than-yesterday day.
Hence there is not a lot to write about in today's blog.

We spent the day following the shade round our patio! Claire wearing long trousers and a sarong worn alternatively as a blanket and a superhero style cape. I tried sitting in the sun briefly but without the sea breeze it was unbearably hot. It's no wonder we got burnt yesterday.

Claire is reading a thriller by Lee Child which I'm willing her to finish so I can read it instead of my book which is called "god is not great" and is a bit heavy going to he honest.
We had a very continental style lunch (salami and pate and stuff) but were a bit peeved to find that there was no corkscrew in the apartment when it came to opening some lunchtime wine. We had some lunchtime beer instead while I had a moan about how poorly equipped self catering accommodation is worldwide. I think the thing that annoys me most overall is the way they always give you cups and saucers instead of mugs. The lack of corkscrew comes a close second.

I've now purchased not one but two waiter style corkscrews (not through choice, the shop sold them in packs of two at an extortionate price, obviously well aware of the inadequacies of nearby accommodation). They will be coming on all future holidays with us, along with washing up equipment (also lacking).

We have not ticked many birds off the card yet, but have seen and heard a lot of sparrows. There are a couple of trees nearby (although fortunately not too nearby), which the sparrows seem to arrive in during the evening and roost in overnight. You can hear them from miles away and when you get up close it seems like the whole tree is moving. One of them has some picnic tables and chairs underneath, which I van only assume is some sort of booby trap placed there by the locals, as it is about 3 inches thick with sparrow poo under the tree.

We went out in the evening to a nearby restaurant which we wanted to go to last night but couldn't stand the child squeaking a bicycle horn incessantly nearby. The menu was amusing in that the translator was either not very good at English or wanted to give everyone a laugh. Claire had the "meat of mixed" and whilst tempted by the "titty calf" just for comedy value, I had a grilled Seabream.

We returned to the apartment and I fell asleep almost straight away (probably down to the beers and wine) and have had to write this over breakfast the following day! Claire's legs seem to have calmed down a bit and we're planning on hiring push bikes and venturing a bit further afield today.


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Location:The Apartment, Cabanas

Sunburn and Shellfish

We managed to get up fairly early today. After stocking up at the local supermarket we donned our bikinis and flip flops, got our Australian beach towels and wandered down to the sea.
The beach here is on a sand bar and you have to catch a ferry (a little motorboat, not the roll-on-roll-off type). By the time we'd got to the boat I was already suffering from "flip-flop feet" and was regretting not bringing my action sandals.

Anyway, after a short boat trip and a walk along a rickety wooden walkway on stilts, we found ourselves a spot on the beach and settled down on our beach towels. The sun was very hot and there wasn't a cloud in the sky but there was a nice sea breeze so we were quite comfortable. We spent a few hours reading and napping until Claire announced she was starving so we caught the little ferry back and had some lunch.

I'm not sure what time it was later, but at some point we discovered that we'd got sunburnt. Claire's is probably the worst sunburn I've ever seen, all down the back of both legs which are now puffed up and bright red. Mine is not really much worse than usual but do have 3 flip flop blisters, one of which Claire has taken great enjoyment in popping. Needless to say I will be either wearing pumps or going barefoot for the rest of the week.
We're cursing ourselves for being so naive. It took me three weeks in Australia to get my feet conditioned to flip flops, so quite why I thought I could do it in one day here is a mystery to me.
And although we did put sunscreen on, I think we both secretly thought "it's only Europe, it won't be that hot".

After cold showers and covering ourselves in moisturiser, we went for the most hard work dinner I have ever had.
We went to a seafood restaurant nearby and decided on the shellfish platter, despite the fact that we weren't really that hungry.
The waiter provided us with some plier things, a hammer and some things that looked like they might be good for removing eyeballs, and then the food came, piled so high we could hardly see each other across the crabs claws, prawn legs and twisty shell things.

The eyeball removers turned out to be for oiking whelks out of their shells. I'm sure the meal must having been verging on calorie neutral after the amount of effort it took to get everything out of it's shell.
We're glad we had it as now we have eaten just about every shell fish going so can concentrate on easier food. I'm also glad to have confirmed my suspicion that I don't like oysters.

The family next to us had a toddler with the called Aaron, who they spent the whole evening doting on. That involved talking in baby talk all night, even to each other, and cooing whenever the child moved. I was sure they were American but Claire informed me they were Irish. Baby talk obviously distorts the accent.
We were quite impressed that Aaron said thank you to the waiter in Portuguese, despite the fact that he'd barely uttered anything in English that made sense all night. His Portuguese is way ahead of ours.

We limped back to our apartment on our blistered and sunburnt feet and legs and decided on a day in the shade tomorrow.


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Location:Cabanas, The Algarve

Newcastle under Lyme to Cabanas (under sun)

Friday 16th September 2011

I went out to a former colleague's retirement do last night, and although I managed to limit myself to 4 drinks during the evening, it still made getting up this morning more difficult. The alarm went off at 7am, and, although it was a bit of a struggle, we left the house promptly at 9am (strictly in accordance with Claire's timetable), and soon found ourselves arriving in Manchester way ahead of schedule.

I've realised today how much I dislike Manchester Airport. I dislike all airports just because they are full of people and queues and mean customs officials, but Manchester is my most disliked British airport. It's horribly dingy and out of date, and I think if you were arriving in Britain for the first time you'd probably take one look and wish you hadn't bothered. Unless you'd come from Somalia or some other poverty/pirate stricken country. It's also the first airport we've been to recently where you don't get free wi fi. Even in China the wi fi was free although I suspect you may have got shot for using it.

We booked everything separately for this holiday. The flight was with Monarch and was obscenely complicated. It took Claire about an hour to figure out what all the unnecessary extras were and then another hour to take them off the bill after Monarch had somehow managed to sneak them back on. The queuing system at the airport was confusing and somewhat random and to top it all off, Claire got quizzed by an over zealous Monarch employee about why her passport looks weird ("because I spilt baby oil on it"... Obviously).

The plane was like a sardine tin and I had to keep checking that the man in the seat next to me hadn't died. Honestly, I've seen more healthy looking dead people. Fortunately we were only on it for 3 hours and I didn't have to put any of my first aid skills to the test.
We managed to battle through the Portuguese public transport system and saved ourselves a small fortune using the bus and train to get to our apartment instead of a brush with death in one of the local taxis or shuttle buses.

We saw loads of water birds out of the window on the train. I'm not sure what most of them were, although there were definitely some flamingos! I can say this with some certainty because I don't think there are any other big pink water birds with U bend shaped necks.
The area where we are staying is in a nature reserve as it is a sort of estuary sand bar area. I've actually managed to remember my bird book, plus Claire has made me a personalised geeky Portuguese Bird Card to tick off! Can't wait to get started tomorrow.

Our apartment is nice and comes complete with two pet lizards who live on the ceiling. One of them is quite big (although not as big as Russell, our Australian lizard friend). I like them but am a bit nervous about one of them getting in bed with us in the night.

Tonight we've had some good local food and wine and a drink that was on fire and made my eyes water. Tomorrow we're planning a local day involving quite a lot of lying on the beach and more local food and wine.


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Location:The Algarve, Portugal