Portugal Here We Come - Watch Out !!!

We get up at 7.30am , shower and head down for our last English breakfast - GLen has the full job lot again and Rhonda has her bacon and beans (such creatures of habit !). We pack our bags which were 2 when we arrived but our shopping has already forced us to acquire an additional bag so now we are hauling 3 suitcases around europe and we still have 2 weeks and 2 countries to go. Rhonda had better not be buying any more stuff!!

Suitcases loaded into our little Fiat we drive over to see Dad to say our goodbyes then over to say goodbye to Sue and family before hitting the motorway. IT is 23 degrees today so quite warm and we have the air conditioning going. We decide we are running a little late so GLen puts the pedal to the metal and we drive the 4 hour trip to London Gatwick Airport in just over 3 hours. WE drop off the rental car and head over to the terminal to check in for the flight to Portugal - we find out it is 1.5 hours late grrrrrr - all that speeding for nothing. Oh well at5 least we can relax in the airport before the flight. We get front row seats on the aircraft and at 7.30pm we take off for the 2.5 hour flight to Faro, Portugal. The flight is very smooth and goes quickly. We land at Faro airport and when we get off the plane we can immediatly feel the warmth and humidity in the air. Customs is easy and we get a portuguese stamp to join our collection in our passports. We then pick meet the car hire representative who is waiting for us in the arrivals area. Glen signs the rental agreement and we are given a licence plate number and told the keys are in the car and the car is in the parking lot. We head outside and cross the road to the parking lot which is full and lots of cars. Oh well we were also told the car is a Mitsubishi Colt so should be easy to spot  - hmmmmm what the heck does a Mitsubishi COlt look like ???? We walk rows of cars and identify what a Colt looks like but it isnt ours. 3 Colts later we match the license plate and load up. We plug the GPS co-ordinates for our hotel into the TOm TOm and off we drive. The good thing is that the Portuguese drive on the same side of the road as Canada. Its a 1 hour drive to the town of Albufeira and we find our hotel no problem. Check in is easy and we drop our bags in the room. It is 11.45pm so we head out to find a restaurant as we are starving. We find a lovely little bistro 5 mins from the hotel and have Tapas and wine. The Bistro is owned and run by two really freindly Irish girls and we make freinds with them right away. After supper its off for our first Portuguese sleep.