Saturday, September 10, 2005

Portugal

Ali and I have just returned from a holiday in the Algarve with our mates Mellon. I had never been to Portugal and didn't even bother to look at the tourist guides until we arrived at our villa. I was more than a little concerned to discover that the overwhelming view of the Algarve was that it is tacky, over developed and spoilt. Well that may well be true for some of the larger resorts but we were fortunate to have a villa in a small village called Santa Barbara de Nexe and it was charming. The local Portuguese folks were lovely and very friendly. It felt like we were a million miles away from civilisation. We just spent loads of time chilling by the pool, reading, listening to music, playing guitars, drinking too much and eating fab food.

However, as the more perceptive reader might well have concluded, we weren't a million away from civilisation. Specifically the town of Faro was 8km away whilst the beach at Villamora was only 16km. So when we were feeling a bit more adventurous it was only a few minutes down the road. So we went Go Kart racing (Marcus lapped Me, Ali and Ellen), went to a Casino (Marcus and I lost) and even went on a 2 hour speed boat cruise spotting dolphins (we didn't see any, the little bastards). All this and 31 degrees in September.

Sadly this morning we had to get up at 5am in order to catch our painfully early 7:30 am flight back to Blighty. Naturally the plane didn't take of until 9am. Grrr. Having grabbed a train from Gatwick Airport, we eventually get back to Barnes train station. As we got of the train the heavens opened and for the 10 minute walk from the station to our house we were subjected to monsoon like rain so by the time we had got in to shelter we were soaked to the skin. Welcome home.

3 comments:

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Tony C said...

Barnes station to your house is about 10 mins, just long enough for you to get soaked in a downpour. Got love Blighty eh?