Good Morning Portugal !!!

 We wake at 9am and open the curtains to see our first daylight view of Portugal. Palm trees everywhere and very lush green vegetation. We shower and head out to the car as we have decided to take a 5 min drive to the ocean to find a beachside restaurant to have breakfast. As we drive the houses are very different they are all pure white with terracotta roof tiles and look very pretty. The streets are lined with palm trees and beautiful flowers in bloom.

 We park at the beach and walk to the sand - wow the view of the beach and ocean is lovely. The sand stretches for miles and is a pure golden honey colour. The waves are huge and they crash onto the beach. There are huge cliffs and rocks along the beach surrounded by sea and sand. We find a bar with a deck overlooking the beach so we sit and have breakfast. The menu shows that we can basically get an English breakfast. Portugal is a major holiday spot for the Brits and most of the bars and restaurants cater to the English. We bth order a full English breakfast and a coffe with milk. IT is good food and its great sat in the sun eating while we watch people on the beach. A coffee with milk turns out to be what we would call a latte at home and its delicious mmmmmm.

 After breakfast we take a walk on the beach and climb up onto some of the cliffs and rocks to take some pics (Rhondas foot is getting a lot better thank goodness). Far along the beach, maybe 3 miles away we can see the white buildings of the old town and we decide that is where we will head to explore. Back in the car we drive and just follow our noses to try and find the old town.

We pass a lot of hotels and then the buildings start to look much older and rustic. We eventually drive into old town where the streets are cobbled and so narrow that they have to be one way as two cars could not fit down one street. IT is very bus and to park we guess we just find an empty space at the side of the road and park up. We find a tight spot nad Glen does a great job of parallel parking our little car. We walk along the cobbled stret then down a narrow alley which leads to the ocean front.

 We come out on a high boardwalk above the beach - we mean high the sidewalk is about 200ft above the beach on a vertical cliff - wow its pretty. we walk along the clifftop and then go through a narrow alleyway and presto we are right in the middle of old town. There are souvenir shops, grocery shops, butchers, bakers, candlestickmakers - well you get the picture - it is a lovely bustling little towm. The architecture is very different - well kind of very Portuguese like teehee. We explore the little streets going in and out of different shops.

 It starts to rain a little - very light drizzle but warm rain - first we have seen this trip. At noon we take a seat at a street cafe and we order "couvert" and beers. Couvert is a local light snack dish which you can order in any cafe or restaurant and it is to eat when you dont fancy a full meal. COuvert is a large plate filled with fresh bread, olives, cheese, tuna pate and sardine pate. The couvert we order is delicious and fills us like a meal but the good thing is it only costs 2 Euro (about $2.80). Glen tries the lacal beer called "SAgres" which is a light beer but with a strong hoppy aftertaste ($1.80 a pint). Rhonda has a small carafe oof white portuguese wine ($1.50) so our whole bill comes to around $7 - gotta love those european prices man !

 After lunch we explore the old town square and take a walk around some of the ancient and very magnificent churches - these are also painted pure white to match the rest of the buildings in the town. IT is 6pm already and we have been exploring for hours. We manage to find the car and we drive back to the hotel where we change for dinner. WE have had a local restaurant sugested to us and we drive there in 5 mins.

 The restaurant is awesome - really olde worldy and quite posh. It serves local Portuguese dishes and they are all hand made by the chef who we can see cooking in the kitchen. GLen orders portuguese steak (fillet steak cooked in wine, garlic and local herbs) fricking delicious he says. Rhonda orders a lasagne and we can se the chef actually rolling the pasta and making it from scratch - when it comes - wow is it good ! After the meal as it POrtugal we order a glass of local POrt each - mmmmm very delicious and luscious. The chef comes out to meet us and we thank him for a wonderful meal - everyone again os so warm and freindly to us.

ITs back to the hotel and bed. TOmorrow we venture out to explore some local villages to get a taste of the non tourist Portugal. Nighty night.