We join the ferry from Santander

An early start as we had booked what they call priority disembarkation and we had to be at the port earlier than the usual time  otherwise it was not possible to use the service. The journey from Gijon to Santander took about two hours without rushing and we arrived there at about 11.00 and could check in and after being there about half an hour the controllers said we would be boarding soon, wow I thought that would be great. Some ten minutes later us an about a dozen other cars with a bright read sticker were shuffled off closer the the ship and my first thoughts were this great only we were asked to park alongside the vessels and wait a short while.

Soon after they started loading trucks , then followed by campervans and and then cars and here we were kept waiting and finally we are asked to drive aboard and then proceeded to the nose of the ship with one other car in front of us. I cannot understand why they made us wait all this time as all the passengers were already on board in their cabins and/or knocking back the free booze in the club lounge. This warrants a letter I think.

Anyway the ship sailed about 15 minutes early with verbal warning of bad weather and it was a bit choppy for the first few hours but then it calmed down nicely, but you have to remember we are on the Bay of Biscay which is always known to be a bit temperamental. Anyway we went for lunch in the club lounge and it was curry and some other vegetarian stuff which was no good to me and Jen mentioned this to one of the waiters and they said they would get me some fish and shortly afterwards up turned a nice place of salmon and rice. We had a couple of glasses of the free wine and some cheese and biscuits and then back to the cabin to read and listen to music and a little sleep.

For dinner back to the lounge where we both ate lightly before returning to the cabin to watch a film on the TV and then to bed.

Well, tomorrow afternoon we arrive back in Portsmouth about 5.30 pm and so with priority disembarkation providing none of the local staff are on strike we hope to be home by by about 8.30 pm.

Update , getting off the ferry was fast and nobody else at immigration so from driving off Ferry to hit the M275 leaving Portsmouth took about 8 minutes. This only works if no other ferries are offloading. Still don't understand their loading procedure though and may follow up with them. 

We did enjoy Portugal although the weather was a complete let down but the apartment was great and we would gladly return.

So that's the end of this travel blog , watch out for future episodes

SNOW- Where did that come from!!

It was a bit greyish when we awoke and looked over the Doura River and it was obvious that at some point we shall have rain. Anyway we packed the car in the huger underground car park and then went for breakfast  before leaving  and our Sat/Nav said about 5 hours which sounded great although on previous trip planning it was longer, perhaps the time difference between Portugal and Spain makes up the difference for the missing hour.

It took us about 45 minutes driving thro hilly roads and gong via lots of small villages until we reached the Motorway and off we went North. After about an hour th sky started getting rather grey and eventually rain arrived and there were some road signs finally in Spanish mentioning snow??? must be incorrect translation on our part but as got higher in the mountains it got colder moving from 12 C slowly down to 1 C and the rain turned to sleet and then soon afterwards quite heavy snow which lasted for about 25 kilometres and so we had to go quite slowly as although it was not sticking, it was beginning to build up on the windscreen and also the outer road lanes as most careful drivers were on the inside lane following each other with good distance between. So we drove I guess for about nearly one hour of these conditions before going down Mountain with the temperature beginning to warm up. What was surprising that on this motorway there were no services for at least 200 miles which we had not noticed and by the time we stopped for a rather late lunch we were both bursting. I think in addition to the snow warning, they should also have a bladder warning.

The drive thro the mountains was most impressive and it would be good to do in  decent sunny weather but that's has been the problem that Spain and Portugal had the worst spring for 20 years with still so much rain causing flooding not only on the mainland but also in Lanzarote. We arrived in Gijon for the night and staying at the AC Gijon Hotel, part of the Marriott chain, and we discovered no where as good as the Hiltons we had stayed in. hey did have a restaurant opening at 8 pm but it appeared to list stuff cooked from the freezer like Pizza and burger and so we had a drink in the bar, bought some wine and then went back to room and enjoyed some nice red wine with cheese and biscuits.

As the TV was not fixed to the wall we could connect via HDMI to the pc to watch some stuff on you tube and so to bed

Rain and wind and sun but not necessarily in that order

We awoke to some sum probing through he windows and thro’out the day it changed continuously leaving you rather bemused. Jennifer booked us both a massage at the Spa at 11.30 but it became clear to me overnight and in the morning that the onion had played its part and make it impossible for me to attend and so Jennifer went alone. This gave me time to rest and let my body sort itself out whilst catching up with some blogging and emails.

Jennifer returned at around 13.00 and we knew we would want something to eat but the main restaurant is expensive and with a limited menu as far as I was concerned and so whilst was having her body massaged I checked out a place for Pizza somewhere and located one it said 9 Kilometres away but that turned out to be the direct distance and ignoring all the mountains. However we left shortly after 1345 and got there at about 1415 an pleased there was space and Jen had the lasagne and noel a pizza , just what we needed and no need to eat later in the day it was so filling, and a good price to.

The back to the Noel for Jen to have a rest as having a massage is quite exhausting and also not sleeping well the previous night took the opportunity to have a good rest for a couple of hours. In the evening we found not possible to to connect the tv via the HDMI cable as the Tv was to tight against the wall and so playing with the channels we came across Sean the sheep spin off but very funny and then watched other channels than gave up at about 1030 and went to be as we have a longish day tomorrow to get to Gijon en-route to Santander for our ferry back to blighty.

Lets hppe we have good weather for our travels.

The opposite of relaxed

Following breakfast at the Hotel we packed the car and headed off with expected soon. Our plan was to spread the one and half hour journey over several hours by changing our route so the we could see more of the Douro Rive. But first we needed to find a Supermarket and one was located on Google and so of we go only to find its in one of the huge malls with multi story car parks and there were cars waiting to enter so likely to be busy so we changed our plans and later located a much smaller out of town  supermarket which answered our requirements and so spent a short while topping up and buying some baguettes for lunch.

So off up the A2 motorway which really great views except for when the rain came pouring down and restricting our speed and so we decided to change our plan again and get off the motorway and take country and main roads only somehow with poor road signage and not the best map in the world we got slightly lost but eventually sorted it out where we were and where we should be . The rain stopped but there was a lot of mist as by this time we had reached a height of over 3000 metres over large hills or mountains , whatever, but still an enjoyable journey.

We drove thro a small town right but the Douro river and shortly afterwards located a nice place to stop for our lunch and watched a few river boats go by and then it was getting towards 2.30 pm and the SAT NAV said we were 45 minutes away and so that's fine. Clearly the SATNAV was having a very bad day as it did recognise the Hotel we intended to visit and so off we went and started climbing all over the hills again and Jen suggested it was cutting out a bend in the river but not the case as we ended up in a town right up in the hills with no sight of the river which is strange ass our Hotel is supposed to be right next to the River.

So back to the drawing board and we checked with TOM TOM Sat nav on the phone and it laughed at us and told us we were at least 30 minutes from where we should be and to get us back on the correct road it took us the shortest route using single lane farm tracks and also main roads and finally we located the Hotel and checked in. The Hotel is much larger than I thought it was and called Douro Royal Valley Hotel and Spa and it is in a fantastic location overlooking the river which also our room does as well.

So after a short rest we went off for dinner and the restaurant is quite busy and we tried a bottle of nice local red wine and learnt from the sommelier that there are over 35000 wine producers in Portugal of all shapes and sizes. Some catering for very local needs and others making millions of bottles for EU and other markets, most interesting. Jen had the chicken with pasta which I also fancied but they confirmed there was quite a lot of garlic in so they suggested a steak and fries which was OK and it came with a salad which I had not expected buy thought I would try only to discover part the way through it contained red onion another no go for me, tomorrow I will pay for eating it I think.

In the late afternoon we watched some of the large river cruise ships go by and took some photos.

A day of rest- also its blooming raining

We awoke to find the hills covered in mist and unable to see the mountains in the distance as we had the previous day. We headed off for breakfast and the room was also fairly quiet but the usual stuff available, to be frank the choice at the Hilton in Evora was better.

We were both feeling a bit tired after the efforts for the previous days and although we had thought of going downtown it was raining so that would not be any fun so we decided on a day of rest. So we spent some time in the room until about 1330 when we getting a bit peckish and back to the restaurant for lunch. Jen had the prawn curry and me the grilled salmon and both were quite good, the only issue is that the cook does not know how to cook broccoli as it was soggy.

Following lunch we sat in the lounge for about three hours reading and listening to music and we agreed we did not need anymore to eat and so went back to the bedroom hoping that the Euro games would be shown which they were. So we watched Arsenal beat Real Madrid yet again but it was a hard fought game and well done Arsenal.

Tomorrow we leave for the Doura Valley and our journey is planned to take about 90 minutes we have decided to take the long way there and hopefully get some good photos of the river and surrounds. Its still raining…..and also the next few days are supposed to be the same.

 

 

 

All sorts of weather en-route to Viseau

We left the Hotel around 10.00 and had a couple of challenges. We loaded the car and then drove to the shutter at the entrance to the garage and we had to push the bell and they would open the door. Well we pushed the bell and waited , then tried again and so after about 8 minutes of hanging around Jennifer said she would go to reception and that I should exit the car park and drive round to meet her at the front car park. Sounds easy enough, just exit the garage on one way system and then go round the block and back to Hotel only at the  most important junction you could only go straight ahead and so I ended up driving away from the hotel on due carriage road wondering if I would ever find my way back. Eventually I came across a roundabout and was able to turn round and when I got back to the Hotel Jennifer was standing outside the Hotel door looking worried and asking what had happened. So that was the start of our morning.

Anyway we have about 5 hours drive ahead of us to Viseu which was a combination of Motorways with tolls and also regular dual carriageway or country roads thro towns and villages. The journey was very nice with lots of hills and rivers and farm lands but all the time there was threat of rain which when its started really poured down requiring us to slow down. We have this Motorway Toll gadget called ‘Bip and GO’ which enables you to travel on tool roads and not having to stop to collect a ticket then pay the other end as it registers your entry and exit and then charges you via direct debit to your bank. Its a good system and we have used it in France for years and as you go thro the toll gate its goes ‘BEEP’ only on our passing thro it did not beep so was wondering if it was working OK. After contacting the supplier they said it was all working well so don't worry.

We stopped at a motorway services for a loo visit and to eat our sandwiches and then continued on to our destination which we reached around 4 pm and checked in to our chosen Hotel called Montebello Viseu  Congress Hotel and Spa , its a modern Hotel but obviously set up for conference and meetings and it was quite empty as far as we could tell. We checked in and the receptionist we can send the robot to help you find your room? that sounds interesting and then this robot appeared and talked to us in Portuguese,

and we had to follow it to the lifts and it called for the lift, and then set the correct floor and finally when arriving on the fourth floor we following thro some doors and down the the corridor to room 444 where it said goodbye and toddled off, most amusing.

The views from our room are excellent as we have a small balcony and Hotel is on a hill so with good views. Jennifer went for an afternoon swim and Noel had a zizz.

We decided to have dinner in the Hotel as we were both a bit tired and to start looking elsewhere for a restaurant was not what we wanted to do and so had a drink in th bar and a nice dinner in a very large restaurant set up for about 100 people only there were perhaps less than fifteen people there. Then back to the room for a bit of Tv before bed. The weather forecast for next few days is rain and even more rain apparently the most amount o rain for 20 years and so this may impact upon our activities tomorrow.

Evora visit with strange weather

After a pleasant evening on Sunday night  we awoke expecting to see rain only it did not come till a lot later later. We went for the buffet breakfast and there was good selection and the general Hotel atmosphere was very good with attentive staff. We were aware that the EV changing points were in the garage and so moved the car to the unground car park and they had a choice of about a dozen EV charging points. There was a notice on the unit to contact reception after plugging in car which we did and then to reception where they said that EV charging for Hilton Silver members is FOC, which we thought was good.

The olf town is very cramped being a walled city and the thought of trying to find somewhere to park was not great snd so Noel check is Uber or Bolt were oeratin and they were and for the grand sum of 4 Euros  we could be dropped if the centre of town and so this was a no brainer. We arrived at the Cathedral which is now a Museum and waited for the clerk to sort out tickets for a family in front of us which took at least ten minutes so we gace up and decided to walk around the town instead. There are some good views out over the fields to the roman built aqueduct and of course being Portugal pretty much all of the houses are painted in whire which after a while gets a little boring.

So we wandered around the town taking photos and then stopped in to a café for a coffee then a bit more walking and after nearly t wo hours we had seen pretty much everything. There were lots of nice expensive shops but we don't need anything then headed back to the main square where the local council were erecting a stage presumably for an Easter event. There was taxi waiting so we jumped in there and back to the HIlton Garden Hotel fr a rest and cup of tea at which the heavens really opened and it rained like hell for a couple of hours so lucky we cam back to the Hotel. After a rest we decided that we would eat in the Hotel again as it was a Monday and many restaurant are closed, but also we have been trying to survive on two meals a day.

We decided to go to the bar for a drink and got chatting with two American couples who were visiting the town just for one night and were off to try and find a restaurant, good luck but it was nice chatting to them for a while. We then went for Dinner and had a glass of wine and then returned to the room about 7 pm and spent the evening watching some You Tube videos before hitting the hay, as they say.

Tomorrow we leave for Viseu which again has an old town but surrounded by new buildings, all in white, where we will spend two night but the weather is looking very poor with lots of rain forecast.

Ah well to sleep.

Time to leave and head for Evora

Well after an early start we we re packed up and ready to leave about 10 am which would allow us plenty of time to drive to Evora with a side visit to Monsaraz Castle which is very near the Spanish border and overlooks same. We decided to take pretty much the shortest route there which included a motorway which this time was chargeable. Some motorways have been made free to use recently in Portugal but the one we were on was not and you had to go thro the usual small channel but they they don't have barriers like France.

Our French Tag bleeps when passing thro a toll and we were expecting same only it did not make a sound so slightly concerned something was wrong but carried on anyway hoping that we would not be hunted down by the Portuguese Secret service and put in Jail , but on checking later with the Tag supplier there appears to be some places where it bleeps and others where it doesn't but as long as tag correctly registered then should be ok.

We arrived at Monsaraz which is a town overlooking the Spanish Border built to protect Portugal for illegal immigrants and we had hoped to walk around. There was quite a bit of parking space but lower down the side of the hill and the roads were very bad bumpy cobblestone roads which really not suitable for my lightweight scooter which is a big shame as it looks like an interesting town. Will make another attempt next year should we return to Portugal but stay a little nearer so we can get there early before the crowds of tourists. Jen took a few photos of the outside of the walled city but we will come back. So we had our lunch of sandwiches overlooking the lakes and with Spain in the distance.

We arrived in to Evora at about 1430 which was little early than normal check in however they had a room  available and so were lucky and our impressions of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel were very positive. We went to the rooftop bar where there was a TV playing , would you believe it, with Chelsea vs Ipswich game and the result was a 2 all draw but a terrible performance by the Blues. I did not see the first half half Ipswich goals but on reading later it turned out that Chelsea Goalkeeper made so many mistakes, one wonders if he it taking cash??, that’s a joke.

We decided for convenience to have dinner in the Hotel and overall it was not to bad, Noel had the fish and chips and Jennifer the Pork rib slab washed down with a glass of beer. We returned to the bedroom and thought we could watch TV but found they had a smart Tv with a You Tube app and so we signed on and caught up on some of the people we are following.

Then to bed

Start packing today

Well this is the last full day in the apartment and we have both enjoyed our stay here apart from the weather, to much rain.

We had an early morning and nipped down to the supermarket to purchase some last minute food items and then back to the apartment for a bacon sandwich for breakfast. Following breakfast, Noel had some time to catch up on the blogs and disappeared to the garage to wash the car windows which were covered in sand from and African blast of wind a couple of days ago. In fact the complete car has sand spots on it following the storm from a couple of day ago.

Noel started his packing as did Jen as we also also have to pack up all the kitchen stuff we brought with us and sort out what food we can eat or dispose of but for lunch we had burgers and potatoes and veg followed later in the day with a nice chocolate croissant. Jen cooked up the last piece of chicken which will be turned in to sandwiches for our journey tomorrow to Evora. Later in the afternoon we both had a rest and watched some football ie Arsenal vs Brentford which ended in a draw  on the TV then and evening of You tube stuff following various people in New Zealand and also Florida, we do enjoy anything related to travel.

As mentioned , tomorrow we leave for a place called Evora for two overnight stays heading North to spend several days going back to to Santander Port. We have a few diversions planned so lets see how it works out.

The apartment block is now quite full and with quite a few kids as a result of the Easter holiday, we shall have to remember this for the future and to avoid those dates.

Anyway that’s it for today

Not a very exciting day

A slow start to the day as we start to think about our packing as we leave here on Sunday after a most enj0oable stay which we would like to return some time in the future. Clearly this place is a target for the Brits as a lot of English families have turned up with loads of kids in the pool unlike previous weeks when you might meet only one or two. Obviously during the Uk Easter Holidays this is a target destination and so if we come back we will avoid the UK Scholl holiday period.

During the day Noel was testing out some Laxido?? which worked in the end allowing us to take the mini scooter for a run prior to charging and folding up and pitting away. So having watched some of the Bahrain F1 practise  we took the scooter up the hill and round this estate which is much larger than we thought and there are huge houses down to the apartments we are staying in. With the battery sufficiently discharged we headed back to the apartment and charged the mobile whilst cooking the last remaining Costco steak from Seville, and it was excellent and I would, being the chef.

There were a few emails to address as importunely one of my cousins passed away about a week ago and the funeral is due to take place in Plymouth on the 25th April and so not sure right now if we can make it as we only get back on the 22nd with a visit to Oxford planned for the 24th. Lets see.

In the evening we watched the Sam Mendez film called 1917 which we have seen before but really enjoyed again, oh the horror of war make no sense.

Yesterday I touched on my swimming incident but here is another when young. I was on the Isle of Wight , cannot remember how old I was, but the plan was to collect different coloured sandstone in a glass tube which requires you to slowly climb up this cliff only without realising how high I had got I looked down and realised I would never make it down and so my Dad had to get some help to get me down. 

This probably brought on my fear of heights, flying never bothered me except on my first flight from Blackbush Airport, this will be told tomorrow.

 

 

A most interesting day

So why was it interesting as it was really informative to catch up on all the so called trade war news . Time will tell how it all pans out .

Anyway this morning Jennifer decided to catch up on what clothes needs washing prior to our departure as after leaving here we wont be home for another 8 days.

Noel decided to charge the car at the EV point on site and for some reason the car does not send the status like it does in Uk and so can only assume different systems, It goes form 47% for three hours and then its says full at 100%, will check that when we get home. The weather was not so good today with some rain and it looks like some of the Sahara dust also arrived as the car was spotted with brown sand/dust. Must try and find somewhere where we can get a hand wash.

Jen did some reading and Noel started writing about some of life's challenges to include in his biopsy (oops biography) eg, when I was about 15 and really could not swim I tried to swim out to a raft on  one of our first family Mediterranean holiday to emulate what my sisters could do only I could not swim as well, nearly panicked and lost it but I was able to hang on to a bouy and pull myself back to shore, that scared me quite a bit, ah well still here.

Suddenly remembered that Chelsea were playing today in Warsaw but had missed the first half which apparently was rather slow but the second half livened up a bit with Chelsea scoring three goals. lets hope they can keep this up on the return leg. After a salad dinner of prawns and cod it was time to watch Spurs play E Frankfurt

which was a good game .

And so to bed after a non eventful day.. 

 

 

Most unexpected

We were both aching a little bit from the previous days swimming and walking and decided upon a quiet morning with an early afternoon visit to the Shack for a light lunch. So in the morning Noel did his usual blogging and emails plus always every just checking that our bank accounts have not been hacked and the same for the AMEX accounts. Noel then spent some marvelling at the activities of the Trump Organisation approach to resolving trade imbalances with the rest of the world. The stock markets crashed all over the world and it was the end of life as we know it, was the general view, bus my views were somewhat different. Trump was holding the ace card to largest global market and by restricting China products, yes would hurt the US economy but he knows that he will get a deal somehow.

China and many other Asian economies rely on the USA to thrive and grow and this is very visible when visiting places Japan thro China to pretty much every manufacturing base for shoes, garments, electronics , you name it its made here and exported. WE know there is an imbalance of trade as just look at container prices to and from the far east. Ah this will keep the press busy for a while with continuing lies.

Anyway we left for our walk around 1340 and Noel used his little scooter and we arrived down at the lake and instead of turning right around it we turned left and headed off in the direction of the local rather expensive hotel and then passed what was very nice looking restaurant which overlooked the lake that we had not noticed before but it turns out was part of the same group that runs the shack. Jennifer looked at the menu and said it looked very nice and great choice of seafood but a little bit expensive. The we said ‘bugger it ‘and that it would be our last dinner out, apart from the Hotels on the way back to Santander, and so we checked in and were seated. 

The restaurant look and feel was nice with efficient staff, almost, and then Jen chose the vegetable tempura to start and the liver and bacon for mains with Noel choosing a pot of shrimp's to hand peel followed by filet of sea bass and then there was a choice of sides including seasonal vegetables. So I asked what were the seasonal vegetables as I pointed I cannot have garlic, onion etc etc and he said it was carrots, beans and broccoli and so I ordered it.  The starters were good and the tempura was quite large plateful but when the main dish arrived the seasonal vegetable contained a large amount of cauliflower, which I cannot eat, lots of apologies but unlike the Irish pub no offer of refund after Jen said she would have it. Apart from this it was a very nice meal in the nice surroundings.

Then a slow walk back to the apartment and an evening watching PSG against Aston Villa. PSG were all over AV who scored an excellent first goal but PSG were far to strong for them. AV should have seen how Arsenal approached the game and do the same. Following the game we watched a bit of the turmoil in the stock markets and various people reacting to it. Hey Ho Trumps got them spinning.

However was very upset and cross by this UK labour Government lying thro its teeth again and this time changing their mind about an investigation in to the Pakistani men rape gangs which they had set aside £5m to cover the cost and and just as Parliament was closing for easter they pulled the plug on it. Absolutely disgusting and the whole cabinet should be hung, drawn and quartered , but in the nicest way.

I give up, its time for bed anyway.

 

Gosh- a busy day for us

The day started with a swim and at 0915 the pool was quite busy which was rather surprising but then again it is due to be the best weather day of the week and that was proven as by midday most of the outside chair were full with also quite a few kids who were general well behaved. We had to share Jennifer's swim goggles as Noel has lost his somewhere and need to get another pair. We did try a shop in the mall about a week ago but they were only interested in selling fancy expensive sunglasses.

A bagel for breakfast was the order of the day with the plan that later in mid afternoon we need to so some food shopping and then go for a burger in the Irish pub and so by 3pm after a morning of reading, listening to music and enjoying the sun we headed of to the mall. As we drove in there was a free space so we grabbed it, as usual the car park can be quite full ,and this put us in a different place in the mall. This change worked out well as we explored an area not seen before and there was a little shop selling swim  goggles at 14 Euros so purchase made.

For lunch Noel ordered the burger and fries without onion and pickles and Jennifer the club sandwich and a couple of beers. The burger arrived and lo and behold there was onion and pickles on it so sent it back, with load of apologies from the staff. We enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon in the pub garden and then it was to do the shopping and we called for the bill. The waiter brought the bill and apologised for the mess up of the burger and they would therefore not charge for it, I cannot see this happening in the UK, very kind of them. We did our shopping and headed back to the apartment about 5.30 pm and rested pending the football that was on. 

The house Tv has sky and Eurosport channels and I thought that the Arsenal game would be on either of these but not to be, O h damn and blast but then I noticed somewhere it was on Amazon Prime and so got the VPN connected and went to Amazon, it did not connect first of all, damn, so tried again and there we were to watch the game.

Arsenal against Real Madrid I really thought that RM would take them to the cleaners but the game was basically even but the difference was that Saka did some of his little runs and got knocked down in great shooting distance and this happened twice within 15 minutes and so Arsenal were two up against  RM and Ancelotti looking most unhappy with his players and then to cap it off Arsenal scored another brilliant goal.

Following that we watched some news reports from the USA about the Trade Wars ( actually not a war but of an adjustment)  as the US feels that they have been taken advantage of and quite frankly I think they have. Just about all Asian countries have benefited with almost free access to the USA market over the last 40/50 years and particularly China who is now very concerned as it could ruin there growth pace and cause massive unemployment.

There was also a program about the UK lack of control on Government spending overseas, what's a matter with these people, Yes come to think of it I know, they are all dumb and never managed or run a business…When we moved to Hong Kong in 1975 the Government apart from the Governor were all business guys who new about the role they had unlike politician who mostly know nothing and then jump ship and move to another party if they feel they will lose their job in an election, hence the growth of the Reform party. Ah well that's it for today

Time is flying by and the weather is improving

Well a quiet day on the western front for most of the morning before Jennifer went for a swim with Noel unable for usual reason. Noel looked at some of the political you tube blogs and also some old Chelsea games when we used to play like a complete football team unlike now.

For lunch we decided to have a salmon and prawn salad, courtesy of the undersigned and in the afternoon Noel got on his high horse about the awful Managing Agents of the Estate we live on and basted off a what's message to all the residents with is views. We noticed that after late morning came about the pool area became quite busy and many of the apartments are used unlike when we arrived when it was difficult to find anybody and then there was never anyone in the pool, all the fault of a religious sect called COE who invented Easter allowing everybody time off to go and swim in Noel private swimming pool.HA.

On Sunday night we watched a series on Netflix called Criminal UK which was episodes 4-7 and then we looked for the first three which we enjoyed last night and completely forgetting the football was on.

All this fuss and bother over the Trade wars , just watch historic video of both Clinton and Obama saying the same thing and what with Clinton pretty much handing over the American economy to China, just walk around Walmart, you would be lucky to find anything made in USA except perhaps, some of the staff. Stock market have bombed but this I think was planned along with the many Democrat appointed judges trying to stop, they never give up the people and when Judges try to run the country that is an impossible situation. In the UK we have this daft twit called Starmer putting people in jail for just thinking about something and what with his ideas that coloured people  should get a lesser sentence for committing a crime is bonkers. In certain cases if its illegal immigrants wanting for the right to live in the UK they should be kicked out straight away. With the amount of young men, possible soldiers??? arriving in the country I worry about the life our children will have.

That's my complaints for today.

Rain is forecast yet again

As previously mentioned the weather for the last few weeks has not been up to what we hoped for and what usual happens, frankly I blame Keir Starmer for this as he screwing up everything else so it must be him.

During the day I followed with amazement comments coming from the USA about Musk and also Trump and no doubt this is due to the recent results of the presidency elections and so 78 million people will not like the result. You also have the right to protest providing it is without violence or risk to human life however the recent campaign to burn down Tesla dealerships and keying of Tesla cars, I wonder if this is due to the poor education standards currently prevailing i the USA. On one clip of film that I watched the reporter was asking why they were objecting to Musk and he did not know but had just been asked to turn up.??

With all this negative activity we decided it was time for  swim and  were surprised how many people in the pool for the first time , probably due to the Easter holidays and most of them spoke English or Irish. Then back for some cheese and biscuits as swimming had brought on urgent hunger and it was 2pm.

Following lunch we watched some of the Japanese F1 repeat on Sky but it is always a boring race as the track does not really suitable for overtaking but pleased with the result of our Woking neighbours. Then it was time to watch the two Manchester teams have a go at each other but neither team played well I thought. On the other hand reading the report of the Brentford vs Chelsea game that was a bad with the manager making some strange team selections, but what do I know after 70 years of watching football.

Dinner was Costco sirloin steak with salad a  glass of Rio Tinto which was nice but that enough for now. In the evening we watched a series on Netflix called Criminal Uk and it was a selection of different stories surrounding police interviews, it was well done with lots of twists and turns.

Anyway its time for bed

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A slow day to day but some surprising information

The weather was bit mixed today with occasional sun allowing you to enjoy sitting on the balcony but then a short while later it was gone. One indicator is that we can see in a distance the aircraft arriving or leaving Faro Airport which changes each time the weather changes.

Jennifer went for a swim which she enjoyed whilst the writer was confined to barracks for the bloody usual reason, this LARS issue is a real pain in the but-. Anyway whilst looking at stuff on the computer and remembering discussing a week ago that we liked this apartment and location and perhaps return next year but perhaps a month later when the weather is better. So I decided to look to see if by booking direct might be cheaper than booking a ferry and apartment thro Brittany Ferries and then consider flying down and renting a car. Well I got a bit of a shock once I had navigated to the estate website and put in my requirements for next year and when looking at the results thought perhaps I had put in to many days, but no my data entry was correct. The obvious difference between booking direct rather than thro Brittany is that by booking direct you get daily housekeeping as against weekly and a breakfast buffet each day as against self catering. We are no dirty people so a wekkly clean up is fine and for breakfast we have mostly toast and jam with perhaps once a week a bacon sarni. Well for a month they wanted for the two bedroom apartment £6K.  well for us to come via Brittany including ferries travel for the same period was about £3.5K although we did pay a little extra for and outside cabin and access to the lounge which served food throughout the day.This is a massive difference. I know you have to drive for a couple of days and would require at least one night Hotel plus fuel but still??? So we will book again via Brittany.

Later in the day we watched JFK Revisited an update on the film JFK and this was brought about by Trump releasing all the hidden paperwork which is allowing the US to review and try to get to the bottom of his assassination. Noel has also watched some of the hearings and already many statement are being questioned about was really Oswald involved, was it the same gun held up by the FBI and what about the magic bullet and finally did they mess with JFK wounds to provide a different account. All interesting stuff. Let alone was the CIA and or FBI and Johnson involved?? hopefully we might get an answer .

https://youtu.be/BO3DPIMkRmY?si=eXH2w7OHG8Sv2ibh

Finally learnt to today that one of my cousins has passed away…

Weather is improving

Well we hade a nice easy day, the cleaners arrived to sort our the apartment although its tidy and clean anyway but its has been kept very clean. Today the gilrs cleaned all the main windows and washed down the balcony so good for them.

A usual day with Noel blogging and Jennifer sorting out stuff and we decided to have some chicken for late lunch today which was excellent with rice and veg. The two check breast we purchased for the local supermarket called Pingo Doce is part of the largest supermarket chain in Portugal and the chicken breast were almost the size of turkey breasts so how big was the rest of the chicken one can only guess.

We went for a walk down the road for a bit of exercise , just sufficient to avoid using the scooter but far enough to be useful. Our small estate is off a dead end road which terminates at the shack café restaurant. On one side of the road you have quite a large estate of white portugese style housing which is quite expensive to rent as they also have a pool and gardens and face the lake. On the other size up the hill there some huge houses, when I say huge i mean huge at around 8-10000 sq ft with large gardens and pools. I took a few photos and a small video which hope to put inn the Blog.

In the evening we watched ‘Plank of the week’ and also Walk with me Tim, who visited a  most expensive Safari resort in the Masai Mara. It cost’s about $ 1600 per night per person with a minimum of two sharing so rather to much us ..

Soon after the newspapers were jumping about Trumps introduction of global tariffs and the US Stock Market tsking a deep dive so either Mr Trump has screwed up of part of a master plan to drop interest rates, time will tell.

Ah well time for bed

The weather is turning sour which also reflects the opinions of Trump

It would appear that the Portuguese and Spanish authorities have issued weather warnings not only for the Canary Islands but also Portugal and Southern Spain yet again. This is particularly frustrating when the weather back in good old blighty seems to be very warm and quite a bit nicer than here in supposed to be the sunny Algarve where don't golf missing the puddles.

So we spent the morning watching some of the rain and eventually it stopped but is due to start again later but we need to do some food shopping and so of to the local mall and unfortunately the Irish Bar got in the way and we were forced in to having lunch there and before doing our shopping. We still have 8 days to go before we leave here and so need to juggle our food supplies rather than leave some here.

we had a good lunch and therefore in the evening did not need anything to eat but watched the Chelsea vs Spurs game which we won after a few scares, the guys still need to improve a lot with passing accuracy and not enough running at the defence in the middle of the goal area as we keep on using both sides. Still that puts back at number 4 in the Premier league with the chance of Champions League football next year. On a private note my sister and brother in law are being moved to new premises as the current care in Oxford has not been as good as expected which is a shame.

Well the world seems to be pissed off with Trump and his new tariffs, all the global famous politicians are suffering  because they don't understand the mind of a business man doing negotiations. Its not a bad strategy really and lets see how it works out but some countries will slowly change their minds and make tariff deals which enable the USA to be able to compete more in the global market. GB News last night was supportive of the fact that Trump is looking after the USA which is his job as president and wouldn't  it be great if the UK Politicians would do the same. No one is prepared to tackle the serious immigration and rampant crime issues an when you have the London Mayor (?) reducing the police force even though having a lot of money in reserve is atrocious, he should be removed as soon as possible, our only hope is Nigel…..

Walkies time after the rain

Well they were right about the this mornings weather forecast as it bucketed down and with strong winds, not what we expected . So we spent some looking at routes to include interesting towns on our departure at the end of next week and now have a pretty good idea what we will do.

Noel caught up on the blogging and emails etc whilst Jennifer continued research on nice towns to visit. We have planned for our late afternoon dinner and mixture of salmon, cod and prawns on rice and decided that perhaps a walk would do us good and if we go to the end of the road we could also have a beer at the Shack.

So we unloaded Noels new toy a Mobile Mini which would allow a much longer walk and when passing the Shack the car park seemed very quiet and then we discovered that it was closed due to inclement weather. 

What a shame, However we were able to do a long walk for Jennifer with Noel on his racing car and we were able to quite a distance which would not have been possible if Noel was using just his legs.

We returned to the apartment and read for an hour or so before dinner and then in the evening watched the Liverpool vs Everton game which was also quite good and as I don't personally support either team its easier to enjoy. Liverpool finally one 1-0 but Everton put on a good show in the first half but were pretty much penned in for the second half although earlier they did have a goal cancelled due to offside, which was shame.

We are looking forward to the Chelsea game tomorrow night against the Spurs and also the Japanese F1 this weekend so should be good few days although the weather forecast for next few day is very poor with more heavy rain expected. Apparently this is the wettest March for many a year and we chose to come here, the same happed to us France the year before last. Anyway I blame the UK Government who in a recent poll was found to be severely lacking in support, inf fact the country thanks to stupid politician is in such a state if it were an animal it would be put down to save any further damage. People complain about Trump but it will be good after several years to see if his approach as a businessman is better than cheating politicians.

Ah well, time for bed

Just a little bit cooler today and April Fools day

Well its April fools day to day and there have been many skits online. Here are few examples. Cruise lines wishing to charge guest for using the chairs on deck. A brand new Airbus 380 called the A390 with only two engines. Doctors using holograms to discover a patients health issues… some almost believable.

The weather is a bit iffy today with rain forecast at some stage but it did not come although it will be definitely be around tomorrow. which is confirmed as there is a gale blowing outside as I write this blog on 2nd April.  I was pondering what we were doing ten years ago and thought that my calendar might show but at sone stage we changed from MS Outlook to Gmail and so we have lost some of the history, but then I remembers that in 2015 on 1st April we went to collect our brand new Toyota Land Cruiser V8 from a dealer in east London. Somehow it looked a lot bigger when we collected from the the day we tested one. This car was amazing and one of my really favourite vehicles and I still miss it today but would have no chance of getting in our current garage let alone a space in Waitrose in West Byfleet.

For lunch today we enjoyed some of the Costco special beefburgers with a tipple of red wine, yes I can drink red wine again, boy what a relief after so many years and also i may able to accept small levels of garlic as not problems with the previous days pizza which apparently the tomato sauce had a small level of garlic, body is changing again. However today was poor day for Noel’s body so was bit restricted although later in the day we went for a walk down the road. In the evening we watched the ManU game against Notts Forest, good game and although Manu played very well they could not break down the Notts defence. Elanga for Nots forest goal was pretty spectacular and well worth a watch.

As mentioned earlier the weather over the next few days is due to be wet and windy and and its good to offset the drought conditions that have taken place.