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.

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.

WI FI AT LAST !!!! Back to Blogging - Historic Doncaster Market

 We wake to brilliant sunshine again we have been so lucky with the weather everywhere. We have our nice buffet breakfast in the hotel. Glen with his full English and Rhonda with her English bacon and beans. IT IS SO YUMMY, oh and washed down with a hot mug of tea of course. The trouble is we may be 500lbs heavier when we get home as all European food is far from healthy. After breakfast we head to see dad for a couple hours he is happy that the Royal Wedding day is over. We then visit glen's neice Carole and her family and Glens Brother In-law dave and his other nephew Steve, lots of family to visit here it's been great to see everyone.

 At one o'clock we have arranged to meet our friends Dave and Angie in Doncaster towncenter as we are having a shopping day at the market. There are so many cars in the UK that whenever you go into a town center parking is really difficult to find. After waiting in a parkinglot for 20 mintues a spot becomes free and glen pulls in and then goes to the pay machine, it's England so there is no credit cards, it's coins only and we dont have any. Glen isnt going to lose his parking spot so he walks into the town to get change and comes back with a mug of tea and coins for parking.

on the way to meet Dave and Ang we have to walk through the town center. Doncaster is actually a very historic market town and it has been awarded the best market in the UK. We pass by a "YEOMAN" Who is dressed in medeival clothes and he is ringing a huge brass bell and is shouting "HERE YEA, HERE YEA, HERE YEA" at the top of his lungs. In medieval times there were no newspapers and the only way that people could get news was to go to the local town square and listen to the Yeoman who would yell out all of the days news whilst ringing his big brass bell.

 We meet Dave & angie and head off to the market area. As we walk Glen feel someone grab his arm and startled he looks and the young guy say's "GLen is that you"? he recognises his young nephew Dale. Its quite a coincidence to meet him like this as he didnt know we were in the UK. and he say's he hardley ever goes to the market but thats kewl we are able to catch up for a little while and catch up on things. The market and it's buildings are hundreds of years old and today the market still sells vegetables, farm produce, fresh meat and fish, all the owners of the vegetable stands yell out their prices at the top of their voice "2 pounds o'spuds for 10 pence!!!!!!" "4 pounds a tomartas for a quid !!!" Rhonda laughs as she watches all the sellers yelling trying to outshout each other and attract more customers.

 Next we go into the fish market where you can buy fresh fish as well as cold cooked shell fish which you eat there and then on a small white plate with pepper and vinegar. Glen orders a picture of whelkes which are basically a giant sea snail and he eats the plate full "it's glen would you expect anything less"

Glen thinks he recognises the fish monger and say's i think i know you it turns out the guy grew up with glen 40 years ago. When glen told him his last name the guy immediatly say's "it's Glen right?" funny they have not seen each other but both recognbise eachother for so many years but they have a good long chat togheter. We then stop by a stall which is selling cooked animal offal. Offal is anyting from inside the animal and we can see tripe,(cows stomach), Pig bag (pigs stomach), Chickling and bag (cows veins), and cows windpipe (throat). these are all popular with the locals and are heated up at home and are eaten with bread and butter (before you ask no glen didnt try any).

 We then look at some seafood and spot a bowl with baby octupus and while glen is taking pictures the store owner asked if he wanted to try one. OKay this time glen agrees and we video him while he puts a 3" tall baby octupus into his mouth and chows down. The octopus actually has eyes and mouth and looks like it's smiling just be6fore glen bites off his head.

  We stop at a sweet stall (candy stall) and Rhonda grabs a mixed bag of different english sweets to try. The old stall owner brings down a stall from a shelf and offers Rhonda one of his "chewing nuts" Rhonda chews one and then say's to him " Thank you for letting me chew your nuts in public". The old guy's cracks up in laughing and say's you're welcome thats the best thing that's happened to me all year teeheehee.

we stop at a stall that is cooking fresh Italian and spanish food and we order 3 seafood dishes to share served with fresh baked bread and they were all delicious. We buy a few trinkets and head for a pint in one of hte old market pubs before heading off back to our hotel.

 Tonight we are meeting Glens sister Heather and his nephew Lewis. We shower and get changed and then drive out to a little village called hatfield where we are meeting in a nice old rustic pub (surprise surprise). We have invited our friends Dave & Ang to join us as well.

 Heather and Lewis are looking great and we stay until 11pm catching up on things. We have a meal in the pub and Rhonda say's hers is the best on the trip so far and asks the cook how to prepare it. she has a pork steak with stilton and pepercorn gravy and drools over every bite.

Glen orders haddock and chips and his plate nearly fills the whole table teehee. At the end of the evening we say goodbye to Ang and Dave, then Heather and LEwis leave. We decide to take a shortcut back to the car and we end up walking through the old , dark spooky graveyard.

Rhonda is crapping herself as we have to walk over stone graves set into the church yard sidewalk v- Glen giggles teeheehee.  Its late and we have another hectic day tomorrow. we have to get up, say goodbye to Dad and then drive all the way back to London to catch our flight to portugal - but to more nice hot sunshine we hope.
Bye Bye good 'ole Donny - see you soon Dad, Sue, Carole, MArtin, Dave, Emily, Amy, Charlotte, Steven, JAke and baby,Andy, HEather, LEwis, Dale, Tyler, Angie& DAve, HEnry & JAn xoxoxo

Royal Wedding Day And BIngo !!!!

 It's Royal wedding day "woohoo" say's glen "not" we have breakfast then head off to visit dad and the carehome where he lives
is all decorated up for the royal wedding day and all the residents are sat with Union Jack flags waiting for the wedding to
come on tv.

Dad is Scottish and a bit of an anti royalist so he is sat in the corner with his scottish shirt on sipping

coffee instead. We leave dad and decide to head back to our hotels bar where we can watch the royal wedding and have a pint. as we drive through the streets of Doncaster there are tables being set up everywhere and flags on the streets and people are getting ready to party.

 There is a huge buzz all over the country. All the British tv channels have had non stop news about the Royal wedding for the last 48 hours, 24 hours per day. In London people have been sleeping on the streets in sleeping bags for 2 days just to be at the front of the crowd to see the precssion go by. The wedding is quite the specacle and we
toast the royal couple with a couple of pints.

 Mid afternoon we are going to a Royal wedding party with our friends in the small rural village of Belton. We meet at the Crown Inn and head inside where the pub is deckd out in royal weddin gposters
and flags. there is also free food all day for the customers. The Crown Inn is like sitting in someones living room - it is so small and quaint.

 in the pictures you can see Glen with Dave and Henry and the
other picture is Rhonda sat with Ang and Jan.

Behind the bar glen spotts seafood for sale in foil packs and buys a pack of cockels to eat these are like mini snails in vinegar and he gets a mini fork to eat them with and chows down.

 after the pub party we say goodbye to our friends and we head into Doncaster to do a Bingo evening with Glens sister Sue. Bingo is a huge
past time in england and the bingo hall is packed with people they are also celebrating the royal wedding and we get free champagne and a buffet. The bingo management give us a royal wedding mug and a royal wedding keychain each to take back to canada. On this trip everybody, everywhere has been so nice to us.

The bingo is really stressfull as the numbers are called

superfast and is played nothing like ours and we struggled to keep up with marking our cards. Almost at the end of the night Rhonda's card wins 20 pounds so she gets some extra spending money as well (thx Sue). We head back to the hotel and as it's almost midnight and head to bed.  Tomorrow we are heading shopping in the old markets and meeting up with more family.