Monday 31st Dec 12 - Sunday 6th Jan 13: A last visit to the beach and shopping trip for 2012 was completed on the Sunday. It would seem that New Year Eve is THE party night and most of the big hotels, restaurants and bars have functions planned for the evening which include dinner and dancing and free drinks - not really our cup of tea so a small group of us visited the local Chinese restaurant for the evening. A really good night with loads of excellent food and finished off with a seeing in of the New Year at the camp site. Once again Skype was in good form and we got to wish everybody a Happy New Year there or there abouts on New Years day. With the weather holding Neil thought he had to take advantage and take of the challenge of Espiche Golf Club - needless to say the course won but it was a good day out and allowed Linda to have some 'me' time. The first 2013 trip out was to visit Les & Helen (fellow Brit RV'ers) at Cabanas (just near the Spanish border east of Tavira) to have a coffee and look at the site and a visit to Faro. Camping Ria Formosa is a good hard standing site, ideal for RV's, with all the basic requirements and is on the list for the future - location means easy for quick visits to Spain for fuel, brandy etc.
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| Faro Cathedral |
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| Faro Town Hall |
Our afternoon in Faro started with a lovely meal on the quayside of the marina followed by a a very pleasant walk around the Cidade Velha (old town). Faro in the capital of the Algarve and is an important centre of tourism, trade, commerce and is located on the edge of the wetland zone of Ria Formosa. The weather throughout was warm, sunny and blue skied.
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| Tourists in Faro |
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| Must have big musicians |
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| Episcopal Palace |
We manged to take in the Cathedral, Town Hall, the walls and castle, Arco Da Villa (town arch) and the Carmo Church which was a bit macabre with its chapel of bones - the structure is lined with the human bones of more than a thousand monks.
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| Carmo Church |
Another good weather week with no rain, lots of sun, a few chilly mornings and highs and lows of 20C and 8C.
Monday 7th - Sunday 13th Jan: A nice quiet week with lots of rest, recuperation and social activities, the site has continued to fill up with more people escaping the UK and its weather - easy to see why when it has been sunny all week and apart from a few chilly mornings (9C) in the 18 - 20C during the days. Obviously the weather meant that Daisy had lots of beach visits, she is having great fun and now eagerly looks forward to chasing and returning sticks. Difficult to realise that we have been here for 3 months (time flies when enjoying oneself) and have only 1 month left here, still we need to get back onto the adventure soon and of course the Port Houses are waiting! Started the pre move work and trawled some sites further north and in Spain just to make sure we have a pitch to go to. Things seem to be getting worse for the Portuguese with more cuts and increased taxes, things are not helped with a load of corruption and fiddling by some government and local council members - unfinished roads, reduce medical cover, half finished houses etc. Such a lovely place with very nice people does not deserve these constant knock backs, we should count ourselves a bit luckier in the UK - especially as most of the Brits over here seem to managing very well.
Monday 14th - Sunday 20th Jan: OK who sent over the UK weather? Drastic change in the weather this week with lots of rain, not much sun, windy and not so warm 17C during the days and 10C during the nights. Our promised re-visit to Portimao took place on the Friday, as it was the only decent day of the week - so it was back to being tourists for the day. Portimao has the most famous and impressive beach (Praia da rocha) on the Algarve, is one of the main holiday resorts of the area and has a vibrant night life during the holiday season.
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| Jesuit College Portimao |
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| Sarrea Prado Palace Portimao |
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| City Hall Portimao |
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| Marina area of Portimao |
As the old part of Portimao is quite small we decided to park up the car and have a gentle wander around the town and take in the main church and the sites above before heading to the beach and fortress area in the car. The nice clear day meant that the view from the fortress and along the beach was very impressive, looking back down the river gave us a view of the marina and the colourful apartment blocks. The marina car park has become one of the popular free/wild camping spots in the area - basically people utilise spare land/car parks to park up and as long as they do not cause any problems local councils tend to allow them to stay there.
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| Portimao Marina car park |
To finish off the day we called into the Aqua shopping centre that has a 'Linda certified' Chinese restaurant so we had to do a spot check - it past with flying colours. We almost got blown away on the Saturday and helped out some unlucky people who had their awnings blown away/down by the 120kph winds, the 'beast' held firm but to err on the safe side we took down the 'add-a-room' and pulled in the canopy. Skype'd just about all the family at the weekend and let them know we are still OK and not feeling guilty.
