We needed and earlyish morning start as we are leaving Quinta Do Lago and driving to a new location on the west coast called Sines. En-route we plan to visit a town called Monchique which is the top of a hill which had been recommended to us. Just before leaving Quinta we visited a nearby gold club which also has apartments which looked very nice with coffee shop and bar etc however it was very busy with golfers. Where we are is very quiet so perhaps if we return than we will stay in same place.
Whilst driving to get on the motorway there is a two mile length of road with no obvious signs of speed limits but I just caught a sign saying radar traps, so ensured my speed was Ok but when coming over the top of the hill up to the main roundabout I noticed a lot of police activity and it looks like they were pulling drivers over for speeding, but thank heavens not us.
We arrived in Monchiqure with the main road in going past garage after garage with the road littered with damaged and half repaired cars, looks a mess really until we reached the town Centre which looked nice but parking was a nightmare. The nearest car park seemed to be about a mile away so that was a no no for us but the town was not really inspiring. The only nice bits were that some sculptures had been placed at strategic corners and they were most interesting.
You have to go early to get a parking place it seems as there were also quite a few coaches.
We changed the SatNav for our next destination called Sines but this mountainous roads and we eventually came to what seemed a closed road which would be a problem, the signs were unclear and so we decided to risk it rather than go all the way back to find another route and the problem was there were a few areas where the road had collapsed down the hill but on the three occasions we came across these obstacles we were able to get by.
We arrived in Sines an located the Hotel called Sines Sea View Hotel and checked in and had a nice sea view. Noel did some work on the computer catching with a load of whats app messages and then had a rest and Jennifer went for a swim. It was then that I discovered that the Chelsea Manager had been fired, THANK GOD.
In the evening we went to the Hotel restaurant where they worked very hard to help me overcome my food challenges as the waitress said, cooking in Portugal starts with onion, garlic and herbs, however they produced a very nice filet mignon and fries after changing the cooking oil.
Then back to the room and we sat watching You tube for a while...
