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I knew when I woke up this morning that Carol and Charlie were leaving today. I was beginning to feel a little sad.

I spent the entire first month by myself, and I was quite content, exploring the country, all along the west coast, down to the Algarve, and then going inland and getting familiar with Portugal. And then my first couple of friends came, Ross and Irene, and I was content sharing all my experiences with them. They left and I experienced the pains of loss, as they boarded the bus to Lisbon. Then Carol and Charlie arrived and I was exploring with them as well, all the things that I had found in this beautiful country. And now they are gone. Of course in 6 days I am travelling north to Lisbon as well.
Was it only yesterday, I woke up with glowing green eyes looking through the bedroom window at me. My adopted cat, BC cries “mommy mommy, I wanna eat“. And then this morning again, he came a little bit earlier. He’s just walked in, as I write this, in the front door right , dropping flat in the kitchen area, purring continuously; he loves attention.

The new neighbours from Ireland have two kids, a three-year-old boy named Johnny and a new baby. I talked to Johnny about taking care of BC when I leave; he’s very excited about that so I will give him all the food and his dishes and hopefully BC will be made content. They’re used to animals. They have a farm and Johnny loves cats. He’s very excited about his new job.
I took Carol and Charlie down to the bus station about a half an hour before they needed to be there. First, we had coffee at Café Rita- ourlast coffee together for a while.

The waves were high, crashing against the rocks this morning.

I was really sad when they hopped on the bus, but they messaged me from Lisbon and they’re in their new apartment for two nights and they’re touring Lisbon. Carol gave me the job of hunting for lodging for next year here in town.
Just after 10 o’clock in the morning, I went down to the tourist office and asked the woman there to give me a list of the places that are available for rent. The list she gave me was long. It’s going to take ages to go through it. I need to email every landlord asking to send me pictures and an exact location, and prices.
I came home to go through the list, get something to eat, (leftover enchiladas) and see if I could look up some of the websites for rentals. Once I had some of the streets plotted on my Zambujeira Do Mar map, I drove back into town to have a look at the locations. The tourist guide said, just knock on the door and ask to see the place. I did that and on my first look. I found a really really nice place except, it was up on the second floor, and I would really like a ground floor place. And the bedrooms were separated by a long hallway; it was a little bit disjointed, although it had really good quality furniture. As well it had a couple of decks that looked good. There was no common living room at all, and that I didn’t like. I went home again and answered emails regarding art shows in Ontario and Scotland. At 5 o’clock I had an appointment to meet a woman, who owns an apartment that’s on Airbnb; it faces the ocean. It’s small but ideal, two bedrooms, double beds in each room, pull out couch in the living room, kitchen with all the appliances necessary, full bathroom and, you can open the windows and see the sea right across the road. I asked about deck chairs and she said she could get some, so that we could sit out either across the road or in front of the place. The price is right, so this is a very very good possibility. And the owner is really really nice. She lives over near Odemira.
We’ll see what responses I get to some of the emails and go from there.

I came back home to my empty house and now I’m just thinking about making some dinner. Of course I just have to open the refrigerator and BC appears.

I had sad news yesterday: a teaching colleague died yesterday afternoon. Those of you old timers from ACCI would remember Linda Craig, from the Science Department. We used always have such laughs in the coffee room. She was always up for one of our crazy schemes. She loved a good laugh. RIP dear Linda.

And two more of my old equestrian competition riding buddies passed on last week, one of them younger than me. I have great stories about both of them.

It’s all a reminder, that we have to make the most of life as we have it. Moments are fleeting. Enjoy your families and don’t put off for later what you can do now.
Until tomorrow all.

On Monday morning we went into town to get bus tickets for Charlie and Carol to travel up to Lisbon Tuesday morning. Next stop was the ATM so that Charlie could pick up some euros for their last few days in Portugal and then we went to Café Rita to have coffee and one of the special Portuguese custard tarts. These are the ones that Irene Tsai talked about, that she had in in Macau, China. Macau was a Portuguese colony at one point. The tarts are amazing and not too sweet. Carol looked up the recipe for these tarts; said she’s going to try and make them sometime. The pastry will be the difficult part!

The sun is out and it’s a beautiful day, their last full day down in Southwest Portugal.
The new neighbours are not from Denmark as Luís had told me; they are from Ireland in Killarney. They Airbnb their own home when they are away on vacation. They have a three-year-old son and a new baby daughter. They are a really nice couple.
For dinner, our last dinner all together, we went to a pizza place in Zambujeira Do Mar. They’ve just opened for the season. Carol & Charlie had tuna burgers that were huge, big tuna steaks in buns. I had chicken enchiladas and could only eat one of them; one will come home for my dinner the next day. Home again, Carol read her novel that she is leaving for me, Charlie and I watched a movie called the big fish from around 2004. It was really good and then all we’re off to bed.

Tomorrow morning. I’ll take them to the bus station after we stop for a coffee.

On Sunday morning I was looking at the map to see where I hadn’t taken Charlie and Carol. I saw a new beach on the map, one I hadn’t spotted before, just south of town. We talked about going out to breakfast or lunch later at a newly re-opened restaurant north of our house. First, we went south of town, going by the usual beaches we already been to, looking for signs to this other beach. All of a sudden Charlie noticed was a long driveway going west. I thought it was to a farmers field, but Charlie said let’s go. It was bumpy, really bumpy, and then it got smaller and smaller, and then it came to an end, with a lot of trees. There is a little path. I parked the car and off we went down the path. When the trees opened out, it was a beautiful view of a gorgeous beach. I don’t know the name of it. No way to get down to it. It was on the trail of the Rota Vincentina, the fisherman’s trail, because there were a lot of hikers going along. Obviously at some point there would be a way down. I took some pictures and then we went back out to the car, drove out the driveway and then went hunting for another way of getting to this beach. So far the site was undiscovered and it was getting close to tea time! We went back up to the restaurant just north of where we’re staying it’s near the fishing village called A Barca, and had a lovely lunch outside on the patio right by the cliffs overlooking the fishing port.
From there I realized I hadn’t taken Charlie and Carol to Odemira although I wasn’t particularly excited to drive! Charlie hopped in. If you remember my bad memories of Odemira, I got stuck on the streets that seemed to me at that time, to be a 45° angle, although I know in reality, that’s exaggerating. Also, coming out of there, in my excitement to take a picture so I could show all of you where I was, I got the back wheel of the Mitsubishi car stuck in a ditch, and I had to stand at the side of the road and wave for help. I was glad Charlie offered to drive and I didn’t want to warn him of anything. He would figure it out. All in all it was good to see Odemira again; it’s a really beautiful town although I wouldn’t want to walk there or live there. The streets are so steep you would have to get used to climbing down and back up every day of your life! Those streets are really steep.
We came back to Zambujeira, stopping at the grocery store on the way in Odemira. Because it’s Sunday, the grocery store in Zambujeira would not be open. Back at the house Carol made Sangria and then painted. She also made a great pizza with her own crust, which we had for dinner. The new neighbours arrived around 6 o’clock or even later; their plane had been delayed. Apparently they came from Denmark. In the evening we watched the last two episodes of Bad Sisters and the weekly episode of Ted Lasso.

That was the day.

Carol and Charlie leave on Tuesday morning by bus for Lisbon

We made a list of memorable moments for the last two weeks:

Most memorable beach: Porto Covo,Portugal
Most memorable meal: Pousada and convent – Evora,Portugal
The best shopping downtown: Zambujeira Do Mar with Graca (pronounced like grage)
Best fun evening : Drinking wine, watching the sun go down
Best view: that’s gonna be a tough call. There are so many, all amazing.
Best surf: at Porto Covo ,Portugal
Best 2 day trip: Evora ,Portugal
Best alcoholic drink: the Tawny Port ( a bottle is under 7 euros)
Best town to live in in Portugal: Zambujeira Do Mar ,Portugal
Best vehicle incident: Carmel can make a long list!!!
Best natural object found: The outside of a crab shell

Unknown beach

We didn’t do anything major on Saturday, just a lot of waiting around in the early part of the day, due to my occasionally inconsiderate landlord.

Luís and his mother had started cleaning the neighbour’s place yesterday, and they continued today, although they were rather late coming; we weren’t sure when we needed to move out. I was going to drag my feet and leave changing over to the other side of the house until tomorrow morning because I was ticked off with Luis, but Carol calmed me down, and we start packing, getting stuff ready, clearing out the refrigerator and getting everything ready to move. In other words, we were being accommodating!!
Carol and Charlie walked into town to see if they could find the market, and I went through emails catching up, had a shower, and got myself ready and organized. Carol and Charlie came back and we drove to Sao Teotonio to fill the car fuel tank. Back home once again, Carol made some sandwiches for breakfast (or was it lunch?) and we waited for Luís to say it was OK to move into the other side of the house. As you can imagine, I wasn’t happy about that, however, I’ve only got nine days left until I’m home and we have now found several places in the town that rent in the future; so possibly next year I’ll make a change unless Luís makes some serious amends. I do really love this area!
We moved everything in to the other side of the house, and then decided to go back up to Porto Covo. On the way, Carol spotted what she thought was a flea market. It was massive with everything you could imagine on sale. There was clothing, boots , shoes, children’s toys, cheeses, bakery, sausage, birds, chickens, tractors, household goods, all at reasonable prices.

At Porto Covo Beach, the tide was coming in fully so Carol didn’t get a chance to sit in the small cove like beach where she wanted to paint. The waves coming in were so dramatic . We had our cameras to capture all the drama.
Later after sitting for a while at a musical celebration in town, we then returned home. I don’t know what the celebration was about but it was interesting to see all the people.

Porto Covo is an absolutely lovely town.
Home again, I made a chicken curry dinner with lots of veggies. It was yummy. Wine and two more episodes of Bad Sisters ended another day.

We left Evora shortly after 9 AM in the morning. I had booked our apartment for the night through booking.com and it was quite nice, mostly furnished with IKEA items. We drove out through the narrow streets and got on to the larger roads easily leaving the city. However, if you were coming into the town you would be blocked by some kind of farmers protest (hundreds and hundreds of tractors) apparently over 15,000 farmers, many of them with tractors came in to protest against some kind of European Union policy. I don’t understand what it was all about but I’m just glad we weren’t coming into the city at that time. 
Carol and Charlie wanted to see the port city of Sines, which is on the back on the west coast of Portugal, so the plan was on the way to stop at an area of Passage Graves just to see what they were like. These are neolithic stone structures, similar to what I had seen in Ireland and Scotland. To access them, you travel via farm roads that are more suited to a four-wheel-drive or a tractor than they are to a Volkswagen polo. Slow driving over the washed out road was OK; it was not comfortable if you were sitting in the back which I wasn’t, I was driving. 
Back on the highway we headed over towards Sines and arrived there mid-afternoon. We parked the car after we located a craft brewery. I’m sure you all know the patterns of our days; refreshments are always on our mind.
Then we headed south towards Zambujeira Del Mar, stopping at Porta Covo and Almograve on the way.
We arrived back home to a place with open doors and the landlord, Luís working on stuff around the house. This is not the way a renter should be treated. There was no indication at all in any email that they were going to come in, and open our doors etc; I’m finding this quite an invasion of privacy. I’m not alone and that Carol and Charlie who also run an Airbnb establishment, as superhosts, know that this is not appropriate. Our neighbours from Porto had left early Friday morning. I know that place had to be cleaned, however, that doesn’t mean that Luís should have been opening our doors and going in and opening all our windows; he may think it’s polite but it’s an intrusion when our personal stuff is in there. 

We tried to relax when we got home however, the landlord was being very noisy with his weed whacker and whatever else he was doing. Finally, we decided we go out into town and eat dinner at my favourite Indian restaurant.

We went over and watch the sunset after, and returned home to a peaceful setting, minus the landlord’s racket. 
Until tomorrow folks. 

Passage grave near Evora

We ventured on our way to Evora this morning, early; it was really foggy out as we drove inland through rolling hills and forests of cork.

Evora is considered to be one of Portugal’s most preserved medieval towns.
We stopped at the side of the road for some shots in the fog. There were bushes with pretty flowers with an overwhelming scent. Carol thought she was smelling the olive trees but we found out the flowers were used for perfume, gum rose cistus, i think was the name. The bushes line the roads.

Before we went in to Evora we decided go to visit one of the sites where megaliths were found, mysterious standing stones. I have seen many in Ireland, Scotland and in the Orkneys and was curious about them.
Megaliths are found all over the ancient landscape of Evora. These prehistoric structures date from 7500 years ago to 5000 years ago in this region there’s amazing amount of Neolithic remains. Dolmens(Neolithic stone tombs) were probably a type of temple or collective tomb, covered with large, flat stones and built on hilltops or valleys near waterlines. Menhirs,(individual standing stones) may indicate fertility rights or could be to do with the seasonal changes. I’m not really sure; I think there’s lots of questions around that. We had a fascinating tour on our own; you’ll see that from the photos. I used my I Phone compass to check the setting of various stones and it was an interesting idea to think about, how the stones were situated in relation to each other. Before I come again , I need to do some more research.
From there we went into the city of Evora, which is a medieval walled town, and we drove up the narrow roads, trying to find where our accommodation was. The apartment wasn’t ready until after three, so we parked and walked around. It is an absolutely amazing town. We found the chapel of bones,(Capela dos Ossos) which I had really wanted see. It’s a popular macabre site and a chilling reminder of death. Over the doors as you walk in there is a message, an attempt at black humour from early times, We bones that are here await yours. It was interesting the way the bones were organized in patterns almost as if a contemporary designer travelled back through time to help them plan.

Next door is the Cathedral, Igreja de Graca. We wandered around there, saw the museum attached and had some great views from the top of it over the city.

We walked back to our rooms; I had the code (rather than a key) to get in. We parked our stuff in there, sat around for a bit, had a glass of wine, and then we went out to see the temple of Diana, the Roman temple, which is in quite good shape. We watched the sunset and then went off to dinner.

Dinner was at an old former convent, called the Pousada Convento de Evora. It’s right opposite the temple Romano. It’s beautiful classy, and we had to pretend that we were classy too. One of the best meals was had by all of us tonight, even though it was more expensive than most of my meals has been. It was fabulous and a great end to a magnificent day.

Until tomorrow.

This morning I started with laundry.I need to make sure that everything is clean because tomorrow morning is Thursday and early ,we are leaving

This morning I started with laundry.I need to make sure that everything is clean because tomorrow morning is Thursday ,we are leaving early for Evora which is about 2 1/2 hours by car into Portugal away east from the coast. It has a lot of history; I’ll tell you more about it when I’m there.
This morning I suggested we go down to the Algarve again, to Sagres which you’ve heard me talk about before. It took us about an hour and a half to get there and of course by the time we arrived near noon we had breakfast and the usual beer. I took Carol and Charlie around a bit and drove farther west,I hadn’t done this part before there are several forts on the way and really interesting views of the very steep coastline.
Then we started back north and took a detour following road to the beach near Villa de Bispo. The beach was incredible. It was huge and you could see when the tide went out that it extended even further around the cliff lines. I am just amazed at this coast line southwest Portugal. Every view you turn to, you are in awe. We spent some time down in the sand. It’s amazing that at this time of the year there’s no one around but a few people. We got home by about 5:30, put on frozen pizza for snacks and Carol made a potato soup that was fabulous.

At 7pm I had a zoom meeting with my Letters to the Earth team in Scotland about their two upcoming exhibitions on the theme. I’ve decided I’m not going there for the openings because I can’t afford it after this trip, and I’m still booked for a trip at the end of September to the Orkneys, taking my son for my graduation from the University of the Highlands and the Islands . I’ve never been to my own graduation not even my high school graduation. Can you imagine at my age? It might be interesting to wear a cap and gown, and walk into the big St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, the Orkneys.

Until tomorrow everyone. Hopefully I can post from Evora.

We started out the day planning to go to Sao Teotonio. I needed to get fuel in the car; I don’t like it when it gets below a quarter full.

Carol wanted to go to a place called Orada – she thought it looked really interesting and was in the middle of nature.

First because we were thinking of lodging for next year, we thought we’d look and see where the two bedroom apartment was, that Luís’ mother has in town. On the way we stopped in front of the bakery, so Carol could go in and get some bread and maybe something else. We were later than the usual buyers – I wondered if there was anything left. Carol did get a loaf of bread, and two of the last little pastries.
Then we drove through a couple of the town streets to see where that apartment was because it apparently backed onto Zambujeira cliffs, and you could just walk out and sit at the edge of the ocean. It had an interesting description, and the rental is slightly cheaper than what we are in now, and you’re right in town. Not that I complain about what have now! I think it’s top notch, but Luis is not ready to open up the rental for next year. I suspect he’s going to raise the price.
Anyway, driving slowly through those narrow streets, we came up to a turn; it was cobblestone. I was driving. I started to turn left and then realized there was a sunroom jutting out in the way. Oops! So I decided to back up. I couldn’t get the car into reverse so that I could back up. Every time I started to release the clutch and accelerate thinking I was going backward, it slid forward, closer and closer to the wall. I was starting to panic. Charlie asked if I wanted him to do it; immediately I said yes, but even the handbrake wasn’t holding properly on the cobblestones, so switching Charlie into the driver seat was a very quick treacherous move. He couldn’t get the gear into reverse either and inch by inch that low wall was getting closer.I yelled at somebody walking by for help to push. And then somebody else came up to help. One of the fellows offered to get in the car and back up, but then he realized he didn’t know how to drive standard. Charlie got back in, and we started to push and gradually it moved off the cobblestones. The tires just weren’t gripping – it was an awful feeling , Charlie had to back down the narrow street, back around the corner to get the car turned in the right direction. Then he stopped. He got out handed me the keys. I think we were both very tense.
Next time we will look for the apartment on foot!
We went off to towards Sao Teotonio, and on to Carol‘s retreat. The description on their website, which I found later in the day is here: ( I might have tried to change Carol’s mind if I had read this before!)

Monte Orada is an old twelfth century sanctuary, a place for contemplation and connection with nature and water. It is a place to get inspired to redesign life’s attitudes on Earth and manifest that awakening. Orada is a family run, eco-sustainable, community based soul retreat centre, nestled in 71 hectares of nature and privacy, created with the aim of expanding health and proposing purposeful transformational moments. Nestled in the heart of a nature sanctuary in the woods of Odemira, Alentejo, South West Portugal, bordering Algarve.  

The road downhill was sandy, potholed, steep and winding. Halfway down, we decided to stop and park and walk. ( I think we were remembering our earlier morning escapade). It was 3/4 of a kilometre down according to Google maps and we arrived at the retreat in the middle of the valley. Carol asked questions of a young woman who was coming down to work;she said the place had been booked for a retreat and no visitors were allowed.
Charlie offered to hike up the hill to retrieve the car and we enthusiastically took him up on it !
Not long after Charlie picked us up and we went back up the road and into town looking for place where we could sit in the patio outside. In the centre of the Sao Teotonio we found a little Indian restaurant, picked up a beer and a samosa each. The joke was on Charlie and I, because we had pointed to the beer bottles we wanted, since therestaurant owner didn’t speak English and the beer we got was sem alcohol!

Later, I wanted them to go up to a small town Cavaleiro, this time not to see a beach, but to experience eating barnacles. I have talked about barnacles before in this blog; they’re a delicacy here. They are very expensive because they are very difficult to acquire. They literally have to be scraped off the rocks, and when you cook them, you prepare them in salt water and don’t overcook them. They cost about €42 a kilogram. We just had a taste, about three or four each, and a beer, of course. What do they taste like? The sea! That was the description I was given a month ago and it is accurate. Carol and I really like them but I am not so sure about Charlie, though he did like his beer.
Next stop was home to pick up all our equipment for painting, drawing, and photographing, and we went down to Zambujeira to the main beach to see what we could come up with. It was warm out but, when you get down there the wind was blowing and the tide was coming in.

Returning home we sat around and drank wine on the patio.Later on we had some soup and salad and that was the day. We started a series called Bad Sisters, on Apple TV. We were all tired, so it was early to bed.

Monday, March 20 there’s no plans for today so far.

I was thinking about what to do today; we could sit around and paint. There’s no feeling that if you just hang around at home you’re doing nothing. Life is relaxed and laid back.
The guide books mentioned that at about 11 o’clock there’s a fish auction during the week at the harbour. I know that all the local restaurants have really fresh fish and they go to the different fishing villages to get it in the morning, just like going to the bakery. You have to be there by eight in the morning to get the fresh bread because it goes really quickly and, every restaurant you go in to puts out when you sit down -bread, olives, and butters. Of course, when you get the bread and butter you pay for it, it’s an additional cost to dinner. you must immediately ask that it is removed or it is added to your bill. Remember the days when we stuffed up on bread before dinner and dinner arrives and you can hardly eat it? I’ve learned a lesson. However, I must say the bread here is pretty damn good.
We took a spin up to the mentioned fish market just north of where we’re staying. All the boats were in and nothing seem to be happening. There was just one boat going out.

So instead, I thought it must be down at the fishing harbour at Azenha Do Mar, a 20 minute drive. We hopped back in the car and zoomed down there and yes, that’s where the auction was.

It’s not your usual auction that you’d think about, you know, the horse auction or art auction. The fisherman come in with their boats individually; there’s usually two in a boat and one fella hops out where the water meets the ramp. That’s a slippery area. Carol had had a nasty slip on our first day of looking at These harbours. The tide had been out and she was on the downhill ramp slippery with green slime. She landed awkwardly and her thumb got a beating. She says it is still sore!

As the fishermen get to the loading ramp from the boat, he goes up and gets the cable which is attached to a winch, hauls it back down with some effort- not easy task,to do. It attaches it to a clip below the prow of the boat. Then you hear a motor and the boat is slowly hauled up the ramp and pulled into what I would call a parking spot. The boats are parked close together. Then the fishermen unload boxes, somewhat like milk crates, but much larger, full of fish. All of a sudden you have a line of small white vans coming down the steep ramp towards the boat. This is the auction.

Are these trucks the intermediaries between the fisherman and the restaurants? We didn’t know the answer; you feel like you’re intruding on a private experience. It’s also almost like hanging your head over a chef as he’s getting dinner prepared; in other words, we are intruding, especially with our camera lenses pointed at them. they were no giving us the warm and fuzzy feeling as we photographed them!
After that it was close to 12 noon, so it was time to go up to restaurant Rita and sit down with the sun, beaming down and have a beer. I bet you could’ve predicted that activity!
After that we came home. Carol went out and painted outside by the wheelbarrow. I think Charlie went out for a walk and I did some computer things and then made a soup of leftovers, onions, cabbage, carrot whatever I could find there, and cream added. It was damn good.

I was up early Sunday morning, and I thought, since it was a nice day, and it was going to be sunny, to take Carol and Charlie down to the Algarve. We decided we’d eat breakfast somewhere along the way, rather than taking more time at home.
The drive is only about an hour and a half. It’s a nice drive over winding roads, slightly inland for some of the time. It would give my guests a different view of the country.

First we headed to Lagos and went into town and all of a sudden you realize the population explosion – apartments and more apartments with their resorts or condos. Lagos was the Algarve’s capital from the last quarter of the the 16th century to the time when of the 1755 earthquake when the town was flattened. Today tourism drives the economy and that is very obvious when you arrive. This is definitely a retirement town for the older retired people, however not to my taste!

We parked along the way, because there was a Sunday bazaar of little kiosks with items for sale. We looked for coffee and something to eat but, nothing really appealing was open yet so we wandered for a while through the streets. By 11 o’clock we did stop to get breakfast, an omelette, and it was close enough to noon to get a beer. Then we wandered along the shore looking at the boats and people watching and popping in and out of tourist kiosks.

After Lagos we drove over to Portamao, another town that exploded with all the expats who come here for the warmer weather. It is the Algarve’s second most populated city. It was at one time an important trading city for the Greeks , the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians. It was also almost destroyed in the big earthquake of 1755. Large shopping malls built at the outskirts of the town,have sadly affected the prosperity of the town centre much like what had happened in central Uxbridge at home!

Again Portimao, is a resort town and that ensures some prosperity. Here many retirees come to spend their winter months. And it has a couple of hospitals. As you drive into town you see apartments followed by apartments, resorts and condos. We went down to the main beach, the Praia de Rocha. It’s a long run of steps down the cliffs to the beautiful beach, with a big wide expanse of sand set against the red oche cliffs. It is very beautiful but unlike the protected natural magic of the home I have had this last two months! However the waves are much calmer here, than on the Vincentina coast. Unfortunately, when you look back at the coastline from the sea, all you see are resorts after resorts, hotels, after hotels. The natural landscape is lost .

Carol and Charlie remarked that I was so lucky where I chose to stay.
Since it was later in the day, rather than going farther west, we headed in the north west direction.

We planned to stop in for dinner at the Altura Steakhouse & Bar, just south of the town of Rogil. The tow truck driver had pointed that restaurant out to me, a few weeks ago, on our way down to Albufereira in the Algarve. He said it was fabulous!

Unfortunately they were not open until a few hours after we arrived so we went onward in our journey.

A few kilometres further, we found Batata-Doce restaurant. They use sweet potatoes in everything including their dessert. It was a delicious meal all round. Carol had grilled sea bass; Charlie had squid, and I had lamb! ( I have eaten so much fish lately , I wanted a change!)

We came home to a shared dessert, a port and a few more episodes of Ted Lasso!