A day after we arrived, Ella had her first birthday and, a few days later, Amie was 14 too, so there was cause for celebration, not that we needed too much encouragement! Reasonable wine could be had for around €2/bottle and we had a large fridge to keep stocks up, necessary because consumption was geared at improving the Portuguese economy! We mostly ate in, with a couple of barbecues, but ventured out to the Marina a couple of times, where it is well served with bars and restaurants. Ice cream was found pretty much daily somewhere too and I was pleased to find good quality Rum & Raisin to be readily available in most places.
I ran a couple of excursions, the first of which was to Portimao, to sample the sardines and we stopped at a very large scale sand castle exhibition along the way. We also visited the historic town of Loule on market day, and went to Fortaleza at Sagres, the most south-western point of continental Europe, I think.
Much time was spent around and in the pool, especially Amie & Daisy, and relaxation was high on the agenda for most.
We celebrated Amie's 14th at her choice of a nearby water-park for the day, during which Michael, Dan and myself took a new ride, a giant 'V' on which you are let go from one high side to slalom up and down each side until hitting the (padded) neck at the bottom and the pool below. Weight takes you down faster and up higher, so I had the best value for money!
We all had a day out on a glass-bottom hydrofoil, apparently one of only 5 in the world, where several of us had a chance to drive, although Daisy won the prize for the quickest stop by throwing the throttle directly to the closed position, the vessel dropping of its wings immediately and its blunt front hitting the water for an instant stop!
We also had 18 holes of crazy golf, which Scott won. Lorna and Daisy each had a hole-in-one, well done them.
So, we had lots of fund and the rest is best reported with a small selection of our many pictures:
Daisy lends Dan a comb-over!
Michael
Me
Us!
