Week 33

Day 225 – Friday 19th October 2018

A beautiful sunny morning as we arrived back into Lisbon town centre.

First stop The Hard Rock Cafe to feed Julie’s addiction!

The walking tour turned out to be another heavy history lesson. I might stop going on these things. The short story; the whole of Lisbon was flattened by a massive earthquake in 1755. So there is no old town, everything bar the odd church was built after 1755

This church lost its roof in the 1755 earthquake and they’ve yet to get round to fixing it, how very Portuguese.

Lisboa train station, it’s built in the Neo-Manueline style. Never say this diary isn’t educational

Ginjinna, it’s a popular local cherry liquor

A well deserved pitstop on the walking tour.

The Santa Justa Lift. There’s a huge queue and it costs €5 to use the elevator to get to the top

Only an idiot would risk a ride in a Portuguese lift, you can use the walkway round the back for €1.50

Julie at the top of the Santa Justa Lift

Julie enjoyed Lisbon but I didn’t and I won’t be sorry to leave. Portugal has the air of the 3rd world country and I think I’ll enjoy the resorts rather than the towns. I can’t imagine what this place is like in the heat of summer.

Day 226 – Saturday 20th October 2018

Nice day. Made the 3 hour trip down to the Algarve. The campsite in Albufeira is okay; the pitches are big and the showers are good. There’s a pool too which is handy.

The bay at Albufeira

After all the travelling from Amsterdam we are going to stay here for a few days before making the 30 mile trip to the site near Luz where we are going to be spending November and December.

Day 227 – Sunday 21st October 2018

There was thunder, lightning and rain during the night so it was a wet start to the day.

I promised myself that when we were at the Algarve I would have a go at the Couch to 5k app and this morning I started, in the rain. I don’t want to become a running nut, I just want to not physically deteriorate too much from sitting around eating and drinking too much.

Anyway the session was easy enough and the app said I should reward myself with a banana and take tomorrow off!

Later we went into Albufeira old town centre. My God it’s awful; the kind of place people show off their beer bellies & tatts and that’s just the women!

It’s Happy Hour every hour! 🙁

This is what the Brits come for

I thought the Full Monty included fried bread

You’d struggle to get grapefruit, muesli or yoghurt in this town

To top it all off there was one of those dreadful Peruvian pipers in the main square.

Fuckin’ dreadful

Still, I suppose it could have been worse!

Day 228 – Monday 22nd October 2018

I didn’t take the day off and went for my second Couch to 5k session. I ached in a few places afterwards and I think I should have taken the advice and had a rest day.

After deciding the old town is not for me we went to see Albufeira marina. It was okay.

Albufeira marina

Even though it’s halfway through October it’s bloody hot here when the sun shines.

The surrounding hills are full of villas, copes for the rich and wrinkly 

It’s a little better than the old town but not quite Antibes

Day 229 – Tuesday 23rd October 2018

There are muscles in both of my legs which are really aching this morning so no Couch to 5k today. I am only supposed to do 3 sessions a week so I’ll probably have tomorrow off too. The app says I should be doing 3 x 30 minute runs a week by Christmas! Yeah sure.

Made a new friend today

Day 230 – Wednesday 24th October 2018

Beautiful morning

I made another new friend. It ate the whole sachet in about 15 seconds flat

We made the hour long trip to the Turiscampo campsite just north of Luz.

In many reviews this site has been called the best in Portugal and while that’s not a particularly high bar I have to say the site is fabulous. It has 5 star showers and toilets, an indoor and an outdoor pool, a jacuzzi and a gym plus a restaurant and a bar. The pitches are all gravel too so no mud. These people know what they are doing.

It was a baking hot day and we needed the aircon on. Which for the middle of October is fabulous 😀

After settling in we popped into Lagos for a nose around. It’s National Curry week and there’s a good curry house there so I think a vindi is order on Saturday.

Lagos

Day 231 – Thursday 25th October 2018

I went for my 3rd run. The moment I started a muscle at the inside top of my leg began to ache. I should have stopped then and there but I thought I could run it off. I couldn’t. I think I’ll give it till Monday before I start week 2.

Later we popped into Luz. Praia de Luz is the town where little Madeleine McCann disappeared from.

Luz, it has 3 curry houses 😀

After all the traveling I am really looking forward to doing nothing other than soak up some sun, eat, drink, read, surf the internet and watch Netflix for the next 10 weeks.

 

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