Verano, Portugal

Its bloody hot in Sevilla at the mo, we were or “orange alert” last week, which means extreme weather conditions as it was supposed to reach 45+ degrees. I don´t notice it tooooo much as its bearable in the mornings on the way to work, then I am in airconditioning. I sure as hell notice it on my bike on the way home from work at 3pm though (no work in the afternoons, too hot! Love Spain!) and I especially notice it when, instead of going straight home to eat, then have a siesta and not leave the house till the sun goes down, I, on one particular day had to ride 10kms to pick up Rohans license from the post office so he could drive on our trip to Portugal. THEN I had to go and pick up a jamon (big mother of a whole cured pig leg,) to take on the trip. The “jamon shop” was in a industrial estate like Wetheral Park (for the westies) All in middle of the day heat. I literally thought I was going to die. Now I know how people die from the heat, riding bikes to buy jamons in 40 deg weather.

So we had our little 1 week summer holiday in Portugal, not like we haven´t been there 1000 times before but its close, cheap and we vowed to check out some beaches we´d never been to before to keep it interesting. Also, Rohan & Brooke, Aussie´s who live in England were coming with us so it was a great opportunity to show them the stretch that we love oh so much. (They were sure to be easily impressed coming from torrential rain and still sleeping with the heating on). Here they are on the beach in Lagos, Praia Dona Ana, one of the best beaches on the Algarve…

We stayed in a village called Santa Luzia in Tavira whose town title is “Capital do polvo” which in portugese means, “capital of octopus”, but in Spanish it means, “capital of fucking!” Oh the joy of translation!

We ate a very impressive meal at our favourite restaurant in Santa Luzia, “Casa do Abade” On their menu they have a section for things you can have if you pre-order them the day before. We had a cataplana, a traditional portugese cooking method of a copper pot with a lid, of fish, tuna & mussels and it was deliciouso!!!!

Here is Marcos looking coolio on his blow up chair on a beach in Albufeira, he loves that chair but is barely on it cause he hates lying in the sun (freak) he prefers a bit of adventure and likes to go exploring along the beach. Lucky for us cause a few coves along he found this amazing beach bar, called "Enjoy Beach" (?) perched on the top of a big rock, overlooking another beach. We thought it perfect for a few mojitos on the huge ban bags as the sun went down.

Marcos prepared the terrace of the place we were staying as a moonlight cinema for “movie night” a relaxing night in after a big day at the beach.



We stayed in Tavira except for one night where we “got amongst it” at the party town of Lagos. (This was said to us by one of the many aussie´s that were working the street in Lagos, trying to get us to come in to the bar he worked for…it went. “Hey guys, come to the red eye bar & get amongst it” It easily became the catch phrase for the trip.
Here is a pic of one of the beaches in Lagos, we had perfect conditions during the day and then continued into the night drinking many a happy hour mojitos that the bars of Lagos have to offer.

Beautiful Praia Dona Ana....

One of the new beaches that we went to was Beliche, a famous beach in along the Sagres west coast of Portugal, it did not disappoint us. Similar to Lagos, but bigger and the huge cliffs much more dramatic.

Here is Marcos being inside one of caves along the cliff scaling the walls. And again, (always climbing) at another beach that I can´t remember the name of climbing a huge rock face with a rope left on it for the fisherman to escape.

No more holidays until October when Tula comes to visit!!! I can´t wait! Watch out – the ladeeee´s are hittin Europe.

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PS Marcos still doesn´t have his license, the only thing he can drive is this. I don´t fit unfortunately so we can´t go anywhere.