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It’s an absolutely stunning day today; the sun is bright and warm like it’s going up to 19 -with the sun it just feels lovely. Perfect as a  matter fact; I’m really enjoying my time here.  I am watching YouTube videos on how to do watercolour. Yes, I am going to get to it but so far my attempts have been pitiful. I think I’m trying too hard, and that’s what I don’t do when I use my oils and cold wax at home. I play with a limited palette so I’ve decided I’m gonna play with watercolours in the same way. I’m not going to be serious. 
After a trip into Sao Teotonio to get some masking tape and a spray bottle, I stopped and had some fish and chips, not like fish and chips at home, real fish that actually still had the smell of the sea. Fabulous! Then I came home and set up and experimented with my new watercolours. Even though the first painting was pretty mediocre I do like the new watercolours.

I took my laundry, that I had done early today, off the line, folded it all and put away. It’s nice to get those domestic duties out of the way. It’s still 19° and lovely outside. In fact, it’s so nice and warm, it makes me want to go to sleep. 😂.
A sunset approached. I went out with my camera to have a look at it. It wasn’t dramatic but it’s lovely to see the change in the sea.

On arrival home I was greeted warmly by my fickle feline friend. I left food out last night and someone ate it! I added to it today and he was enjoying filling his belly. He came in for a chat, hopped up beside me on the couch , had a cuddle or two and then back out for some food. The last I saw he was on top of the white wall heading back down the driveway. As I sat in the sun, I noticed a white and black cat crossing the property. It had a rather low hung belly area and I wondered. Was there a belly full of kittens there? I filled the food dish up again just in case.

This was a quiet day.
I can’t believe I’ve been here 16 days already. Wow, the time is flying by.

I’m sitting here at the edge of the beach about 8 km north of Vila Nova de Milfontes. I went into the town to acquire a knee brace at the pharmacy; my knee is giving me grief. Hopefully it works. I forgot to pack mine back in Sunderland, one of the several things I could have used after all the walking.

The waves at this remote beach, north of Vila Nova de Milfontes are huge ;I haven’t seen anything quite this big. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m down near their level. It’s so interesting, the colours of the water as the wave gets higher. It gets very dark, dark blue green, almost Paynes grey, and then it crashes and you get these huge sprays of sparkling water coming up which are quite white. This will be another great place to come for painting. It doesn’t have the high cliffs like I’ve seen in the other places I’ve been. There are some but they’re not anywhere near; they are maybe 50 to 100‘ high. The length of the beach from one side to the other is miles. I’m not sure how far it goes out. The tide is coming in right now so it’s kind of difficult to say.

I spent my morning doing research on the first of November, 1755 earthquake that happened in Lisbon and affected everything right down through the Algarve and down to Africa. It was a horrendous event along with the ensuing tsunami. I just can’t believe the amount of damage, but it actually removed a lot of the historical culture and artifacts from Portugal. The king was away from Lisbon with his family. After early morning mass one of his daughters had convinced him to take the family out of Lisbon for the day! As the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a large area, it led to the birth of modern seismolology and earthquake engineering.They rebuilt and the one who rebuilt it was the first to grasp the importance of seismological engineering – reinforcing a building so that couldn’t happen again and also putting special firewalls between structures. When people had run out into the streets during the earthquake, they left fires and lamps burning and of course the city burned, killing more people than even the earthquake .

I was also looking at storks online to learn more about them, because I’m very interested in what they are like. I thought the ones nesting at the ocean, on the cliffs must be getting great fish but apparently they’re carnivores. They eat beetles, mice and other small animals. Farmers love them and their nests are protected officially! They mate for life and always come back to the same nests. And they do fly south to Africa for their migration. They are about 125 cm tall and their wing span is about 225 cm.

Again, I’m so glad I got a car. I wouldn’t have been able to reach any of these spots like this beach on foot. It’s called Malhão Beach. It is quite remote from the town of Vila Nova. de Milfontes. And I only see one other person here although there is a camping trailer or two out in the parking lot; who knows where the people are -maybe they’re sleeping or maybe they’ve exhausted themselves surfing.  
It’s after 5 PM now and I’m back home. Tired from another day of exploring, but really happy. Every day I learn something new about this country.

The next towns I want to explore are Evora which may be a two day trip, Tavira, and Silves.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone.

It’s Tuesday and it’s bright and sunny today.it’s going up to 18! Right now it’s about 16° but the sun outside makes me feel warm already. It’s lovely to take a quieter day. I’m not sure what I’m doing today other than make a cup of tea  first. That’s a start. I’ll get back to you later. 

Now I am at Cabo Sardâo, only about a 12 minute drive north of where I am staying. This wasn’t on my list of places to see but, it was mentioned in the Rota Vincentina hiking book so I thought, since it was close by I’d take a look.

It is just spectacular. After seeing the beaches with all the cliffs around them, which I thought were beautiful, this is even more impressive when you realize that this is real nature , the wild cliffs and the indomitable sea all formed over Many many millennia. The storks nest on the cliffs and I see them flying overhead. They are absolutely magnificent and they are huge. There’s hardly any humans here, just the occasional hiker coming through on the trail. This is another ideal spot for painting.
I’m sitting on the bench right close to the edge of the cliff. I feel a bit anxious, and yet it is absolutely serene around here. 

After about an hour and a half of gaping, gawking and photographing, I walked back up the trail past the lighthouse to the car.
In an hour or so I’ll go back into town or maybe I’ll go to Sáo Teōtonio to grab some supplies. I have leftover dinner from last night, so I’m not worried about that. I don’t think I’ll starve around here! Maybe tomorrow I’ll go onto Vila Nova de Milfontes, another larger town on my list to explore.
I reheated my leftovers from last night’s dinner. Remember, the white beans and octopus in the tomato sauce. I added a cut up zucchini or a courgette as they call them here and I added some hot sauce and a little salsa. It’s even better than last night but that’s what leftovers are. You should try the recipe it is a Galician style of cooking.
My fire-making skills have dropped off tonight so I decided I’d eat instead and poured a glass of wine. That seem to stave my frustration for now. I’ll try again later.
By the way, this meal is not for people who are diabetic, as I am, a diet controlled diabetic. It’s high carb with the white beans and probably the sauce, however, it’s an ideal winter meal – warms you up, especially with the touch of hot sauce. And I know you can get frozen octopus over there, so it would be easy to make.

My plan today was to head south, which is where I am now. I am in Sagres, which is a town right at the most southern part of Portugal, even Europe. Actually it is the most western side of the Algarve as well. This is a surfers’ haven; everything is about surfing because the winds are really high, and the waves at times, get really really enormous. Today they look huge. I’m not sure – I don’t have a long lens on my camera to show you. It took me a couple of hours to drive down, hairpin bends and all I am so glad that I remembered the driving instructions of my two older brothers – Fred who taught me how to hold a car on an extreme grade and still survive without rolling back. John, taught me how to accelerate confidently through a hairpin bend. That came in handy today with some of the aggressive drivers behind me wanting to pass. It’s not like you can pull over and let them go! The roads are narrow. Drivers were passing me on blind corners – I couldn’t believe it!
It’s just after one now in the afternoon, I think it’s time for a cup of tea. Oh, amazing… I don’t see any tea shops around. All right, I guess I’m just going to have to go and get a beer – that I see everywhere. By the way, the weather down here is extremely windy, but it is sunny and bright and it was sunny all the way down. The temperature where I’m staying up in Zambujeira, is supposed to be 17 today. I think it’s about that now here, but with the sun it feels warmer. 
I think this is the life I was born into, just wandering around in a car, stopping and drinking beer.

That beer was good in the warm sun, however there’s more to see and I’m driving. The lighthouse calls and the end of the world. I headed back through town and took the third exit on the circle south to the southern tip of the Sagres peninsula. At the tip of the peninsula is the lighthouse within the Fort. The Fort is not really impressive in my mind, considering other “forts” that I have seen, however, it is a large wall dividing the mainland from the headland and enormous cliffs on the other three sides. I can’t think that anyone would want to scale those 200+ foot cliffs! There’s not a lot to see for the amount of walking but I did not want to not miss anything. Those cliffs are impressive. While walking in to the fort I was behind two young fisherman. I figured that’s what they were, with their baskets and fishing poles in two parts. I had heard that fishermen came here to fish from the cliffs. I lost sight of these two fellows as I began my walk inside the fort. The wind was unbelievable, the peninsula being battered from both coasts of Southern Europe. You could honestly see looking out how early people thought the world was flat. If I was one of them looking out I would think that there was nothing else out there but the sea.

It was from this area that Prince Henry the Navigator put together a School of Navigation and brought Portugal into an Age of Discovery. There is some interesting history attached to his story and some beginnings to colonial expansion in the 15th century.

My walk around the peninsula continued and from afar I saw movement on the cliffs ahead. It was one of the fishermen at work. I continued around, and there he was at the edge of the cliff, casting his line to the sea below. A large stone, part of and the edge of the cliff, is all that separated him from certain death. Tension on the line and he began to reel in his catch. That was worth the trip down here!

I read that several of these fishermen die every year from this dangerous work and I can believe it. The cliffs, though they appear stable, are not. A visitor went beyond the fence to see closer what it looked like at the edge and along followed his young son who was possibly six years old!. I felt like screaming at him, such carelessness. The fisherman was also not pleased.

My walk back to the car was long and I was glad to drop my body into the driver’s seat. The wind and sea air made me feel exhausted. The 90 minute return trip back to Zambujeira passed quickly.

I stopped in town at the Estela Do Mar Restauraunte and had a typical Portuguese dish for my daily meal- a stew with octopus with white beans in a sauce. A pinch or two of hot sauce and Wow! Half of the dish came home with me for tomorrow.

I shut down early after today’s adventure and sleep came easily.

I was asked, why I chose this area, the Costa Vincentina. I had read about the Rota Vincentina, the mass of trails that goes around this area, inland on the fisherman‘s trail and along the coast. There is almost 800 km of intertwining trails that appeal to me. In my head, I’m still able to hike 500 to 1000 km – in reality my body repeatedly screams at me for the way I’ve treated it over the years, from falls off horses and the twists and turns along the way. In 2013, I was hiking , one of the Caminos from the Le Puy en Velay in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and I got tired of all the rain and cold. I had left Ontario in mid-April; what did I expect ? I decided to head north to Spain’s northern coast and hike across the coast and then I ended up on the English route into Santiago. From there, after about a week or so, I should’ve gone back to Paris – that was the original plan. I didn’t want another city. I have been to Paris many times. So I hopped on a bus and ended up in Porto, Portugal. That was a stroke of luck. I loved it. I loved everything about it. It is quite different than Lisbon. And my first taste of port I had there, converted me to embrace what the country offers..

Many travellers, who come to Portugal go to the Algarve for the sun. A lot of the Algarve gets touristy. I find lying on a beach in the sun a waste of my time. I prefer to explore to satisfy my curiosity. I don’t like crowds of people and I was looking for authentic Portugal and here I have found it.
That’s why I chose this coast.

It’s 8:30 am and I just looked outside to see my little car. It wasn’t a dream. It’s really there. The sky is grey right now and the wind is still up. It’s 13° going up to 17. Yeah, not warm but OK . Today the plan is to drive south on the southwest Portugal coast, and stop at a couple of towns. I’m taking my time just meandering.

Through Zambujeira Do Mar to São Teotónio a town 7 or 8 km from where I am. I need to get a USB plug in cable to keep my phone charge while I use it for navigation. They have a big grocery store and I might go there in future. Lots of selection. The town also has the nearest gasoline station, an important consideration. By the way gasoline here is around 1.70 euros per litre, quite a bit more than ours.

Then I headed on to Odeceixe, a town considered to be on the northernmost coast of the Algarve. It’s beach is about 5 km from the town I discovered. I turned into town looking at it perched on the heights of the hills in front of me and accelerated upward(oh God, don’t stall here, I thought). The roads were narrow, walls of houses closing in on me on both sides, and I found a spot to U-turn to get the hell out of Dodge!

I pulled out my guidebook and read. Ahh! I will go to the beach. Another experience of heights and narrow roadways but, as I discovered, you go one way in and one out. The car and I climbed until we found parking and I got out out to gape at the beautiful cliffs and huge beach in front of me.

I walked down to be closer and take pictures. I will come back here again. Before going back to the car, I stopped in to have a coffee, my abatanado ( a large coffee). It was 2.20 euros and I laughed about that as I was leaving. I have been buying a litre of red wine for 1.10 euros!

Back at the car, I drove onward on the one way road until I could find my way back to Zambujeira. I wanted to go back to O Sacas again.
I just stopped in here now it’s just after two. It is crowded and you can’t sit inside, so I’m sitting outside at a small table. This place is popular, I was lucky to get a small table. This time I had cod- I’m getting used to lifting the flesh free of the bones. It was good but the octopus stew I had last time, still ranks higher in my mind. I made myself eat the salad even though I was full. Of course I finished the liquid bread (beer), my carbs for the day!

Back to Zambujeira again and then down the roads to a couple of beaches on the other side. (It’s great having a car!!!)There’s even a surf school near the beach at Carvalhal. There’s hope for me yet.

Back home by just after 5. It was 17 today and the sun finally came out for the last hour before it set. Now I am bundled up in front of the fire.

Ciao ciao!

I woke at eight in the morning. I actually could’ve slept more but I have a timetable today. It’s amazing how comfortable I am sleeping here. I needed to get my tea, get dressed and get down to the bus station. I brought along my backpack and my poles just in case. I waited about 15 minutes for the 10:15 am bus . The bus leaves right on time here, not like in Spain where they’re a little more relaxed; you don’t really know what time, it’s a roundabout whatever your ticket says. With a 10 minute stop in Porto Covo- that’s the town with all of the solar panels as you come into it. I must find out about that.

It was an uneventful bus trip. Nice to look at the land on the way to Lisbon when I’m wide awake; last time when I came down I hadn’t slept all night on the plane so, this was a little bit more informative. I’m looking forward to dropping into these towns with the car, stopping and seeing what’s going on. I got into the Sete Rios bus station in Lisbon, this time more comfortable with where I was and had a coffee and a small quiche.

Then I went looking for the taxi cabs. There was a long lineup of taxis. I went to the one nearest to where I came out and she (the driver) said no! You have to go to the front of the line. I guess they take a ride somewhere and then they come back and they line up really orderly and there’s a woman( see her in the blue jacket at the left of the image!) that stands there and pointed at the taxi one takes .

It was a short 10 minute ride over to the car rental place, only €7.40 cost to get there and the driver waited to make sure that I was at the right spot. A couple came in with their car to return it and they were Canadians from Sarnia way. We had a nice chat because the car rental place was closed-the staff were on lunchtime and the husband of this couple offered to buy me a coffee. We sat outside. It was really pleasant. Then I went in and filled out all the forms, got my car, took pictures as I inspected it, all the way around. My little bit of panic started. I’ve been driving an automatic car since 2014. Before that it was all standard. I was a little nervous in the middle of a city and it’s a new car, so you use your foot on the clutch and you just press the button to start! That’s what I did and it started- to stop the car you press the button once again.

So I began my journey home. I only had one stall after filling the tank. Leaving Lisbon I went across the Vasco da Gama bridge. That was an experience. I wish I could’ve photographed it for you. It’s the longest bridge in Lisbon and in Europe. Apparently it’s so long that on cloudy days you can’t see the other side of it. It was opened in 1988, and as you know your high school history, Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese discoverer who arrived in India in 1498 by the Atlantic ocean. The bridge is really long- it’s 12 km. I know I kept thinking, oh I don’t want to stall my car here. What if the bridge cracks while I’m on it? You know the way you think when you’re not sure what’s going on.
It took me about three hours to get home . By then it was dark and I did get a little lost because I used the Route map on my phone and some of the directions came up faster or the roads came faster than I expected. It was really dark when I got in, but my gut instinct was not to listen to the damn lady lecturing me in my phone for the last few minutes. I took the road in the direction I thought it should be, and it was bang on right to where the Fisherman’s wharf is and I knew to turn left and go down a couple of kilometres and turn into the driveway- so here I am.

I had a pizza in the freezer and I just threw that in the oven so that’s my dinner is today. Certainly not gourmet but that’s OK; tomorrow’s another day. I am driving farther south tomorrow.

I’ve now been here 10 days.

I’m sitting inside Restaurante Rita looking out over the ocean for the last hour.

There’s been four surfers out there in the water. (Look for the little dark marks in the water) I thought they were large birds at first bobbing on the water. It’s only 15° (63F) and breezy and everybody’s got over coats on because it is cool. Seems the surfers wait for every few waves – I don’t know, maybe six or ten, waves to come in and, then they try to catch them with their boards. Actually, the waves are big but they don’t look that big from the top of the cliff, but maybe when you’re out there,it’s different. Oh yeah, some of them are more powerful; I can see even from here. I could stare at the water all day long. It’s hypnotic!

I bought my bus ticket to go to Lisbon again, tomorrow morning. I dropped into the bar next door to where I bought my ticket, Azul Del Mar, a favourite hang out of mine now and I had a coffee and a soup. I had Luís print out my paperwork for the rental car as requested and he offered to come over to the restaurant and give it to me. He was going over to Odemira to talk to some engineers about one of his jobs. He had a coffee with me first.
I asked him what his house would cost because that was a curiosity of mine. He bought it for around 300,000 euros in 2010. I’m sure it’s worth 450,000 euros now, at least he said, maybe it is. It looks well-built and with its proximity to the ocean I would think it’s worth that. In comparison to Canadian prices that doesn’t seem like much. I have scanned the real estate website for Portugal just to gauge prices. It’s interesting.
Back looking at the water the waves are getting much bigger. It’s 2:20 in the afternoon. Maybe it’s some thing about the tide coming in. I don’t know but the waves are getting huge. I only see two surfers out there right now. I don’t know what happened to the other two, maybe they got cold.
It’s about 3:10pm and those surfers have just come in from the water. My god they must be waterlogged. According to the tide timetables , high tide would have been about 5:30 pm today. I remember having to check the tide timetables in West Ireland in order to be able to drive across to Coney Island, Sligo! Ahhh! That was a fright.

What fun surfing would be – in another life, yeah, I want to try that.

I ran into one of the surfers coming back to his lodging. He was in his wet suit with bare feet. I asked him what the water was like and he said it was warmer than the air, around 80 F!

Heading home I met up with these lovely young women.

At the end of the day tomorrow I will have wheels I hope, so I can extend my travels outside the area and explore this country. Later!

I’m at the end of another long day. It’s only about 8 o’clock at night. I’ve got the fireplace set to keep me warm and that’s working, sparking away.

I’m trying to think of what I did today. I know eating is one of the essential habits!

I figured out how to get pictures into my blog- that was a good thing and how to transfer the iPhone photos through Whatsapp to pictures on the laptop. I’m such a Mac user that some of these things are not automatic when I’m on a Lenovo ThinkPad. But I have to admit, I am more and more impressed by this little laptop.
I did some laundry & hung it outside. The temperature was only up to 17 again but it wasn’t feeling that warm and there was storm warnings currently somewhere down on the Algarve. Maybe this weather here was a reflection of that area.

After hanging the laundry out, I got ready to walk into town. I was getting hungry. I intended to eat at the Rita restaurant, not the café part but the actual restaurant. By the time I arrived it wasn’t open so I went and had a look at the waves coming in. My daily meditation!

Then I wandered back up through town. The tourist information building was open. I went in and had a chat and asked some questions. The woman who works there is called, Fatima Guerrero. She is so informative, such a hard worker; any question, if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll look it up for you. While there, a young woman came in with an enormous backpack, huge on her body-she obviously was camping. We started a conversation and she’s from Toronto and she’s wild camping on the Rota Vincentina. Just amazing to talk to. Her back pack with camping gear is about 18 kg, she said, way too much for this young woman’s size. She reminded me of myself 10 or 12 years ago with her enthusiasm! She asked me to look at a sore on her back from the backpack rubbing against her bra. It was was just a large blister that had burst and I suggested she get compeed at the Farmacia. It is a an absolute necessity to help with blisters(usually on the feet!) when walking the Caminos in Spain.

This young Torontonian had just come from a pop-up restaurant that Fatima had recommended to me. It’s a restaurant in a motor home that is only there temporarily, and Fatima said the food is great. It’s on the other side of town and I wasn’t planning on going that far, however, why not just drag your feet along and get out there.

I had a lovely meal and the people are really nice. They’re only stopping there until the month is out and then they’re going to move somewhere else. What an interesting way to live.

After my meal I wandered back into town to the grocery store. I needed some laundry soap. And then home- here I am now , a couple hours later.

I have now worked out the rental of a car. I’m going up on Saturday to Lisbon. I just have to walk into town tomorrow to pick up my bus ticket. I had a helluva time trying to find out about insurance on this rental car, all these rental companies want to charge you a fortune, almost 2/3 of the rental for insurance. And they will pressure you! I was sure my credit card would insure if I used it to pay for the car. I called the number on the back of the credit card and on my debit card and my other CIBC credit card and none of the numbers would go through , so I tried online. You only talk to a bot online and they don’t answer your questions. Just refer to you to another source. It is totally frustrating. Finally I called my brother and talked to my friend Lynda who’s working there. I had her call CIBC to double check that my credit card would cover the excess insurance on a rental car. Yes it does That saves me about €400. Another breakthrough.

It’s much colder here today.

I came down to town at noon to get a bus ticket for Lisbon but I can’t get it until Friday. Apparently that’s too far in advance to book! Breaking all my self-imposed restrictions I am adjusting for comfort!! I am going to rent a car and need to get to Lisbon to pick it up. I plan to go back to Lisbon on the bus. Yes the cost of rental and gasoline will break the bank but I will have to work off that amount off when I get home.
The waves are huge today. I can’t believe the size and I didn’t bring my camera with me so you’re seeing iPhone photos. I just can’t believe the size and the sound of them crashing against the rocks. 
It’s a totally different look when the sky is overcast with clouds than when the sun is out; the temperature is still around 13 or 14°, but the wind is up slightly.

I am in Cafe Rita near the cliffs in town, drinking coffee & having a shrimp thingy! It looks like a small Jamaican patty , not spicy. 

Now it’s raining. The grocery store closed as I arrived so I will wait the two hours wandering around. Passing another café I stopped in. Coffee & a croissant, why not? I’m really going downhill!🤪

This appears to be the local hangout, Pôr Do Sol! A lot of customers. The covered patio was full so I am inside.

Next stop – soup & a small beer at Estrela Do Mar with Mr Bean! 

To update you on “my”cat, he didn’t come back the very next day as the song says. I asked Luís today, surprised that he didn’t come around, and he said he belongs to the neighbour. I guess it was just a one night stand with me, typical fickle male. And after I bought him food, the nerve of him.
It’s interesting to sit out in the front porch later in the day. It’s now 4:30 PM. The sky is cloudy. The sun is out finally feels a little warmer.Not that the temperature is actually changed but the wind has lessened and with the sun out it feels warmer – temperatures actually stay the same.

A pair of storks just flew overhead, their flight pattern much different than our herons at home and there’s a young white stork that cruises around in the field in front of the house. He just flew in the same direction as the older ones. I don’t know much about storks, but I know they have a lot of shelf set ups so that the storks can make their nests- they really do encourage them to stay.

I remember walking with Sean in Spain and every village we passed with a Church had huge stork nests on the steeple or somewhere near the roof.
I don’t know anything about storks or birds like that- they might be the ibis. I checked on Wikipedia, and I might be mistaken about what I thought they were. All you bird experts out there, you can tell me the right information about the pair. The ones flew over my head while sitting on the porch were greyish while the one that’s in the field there now is white; it looks younger and smaller . 
Time to go in and build a fire. The temperature is dropping again. Brrrrhrr!!!!

I can hear the waves much stronger this morning, even though there’s a block of trees between me and the water. I noticed it louder in the early evening last night and then checking on Toronto news I noticed that there was an earthquake in Buffalo area, just a mild one, and there was apparently a major one in Syria and Turkey. I was telling Luís about it and he said that that’s why the waves were louder here. I don’t know that that’s true but there’s certainly a noticeable difference today with the strength and sound. The sky is overcast almost misty, like a fog not seeing any sun but it’s early yet. The weather app shows sun all day and only up to 16° with a mild weather warning. I’ll just make my tea and sit here and do some work.
An hour has passed, and the sun has broken through as bright as ever but it’s only 8° so far. I’m not ready to open the doors yet. I’m looking forward to seeing the cat again.
My plan is to maybe get up to the small fishing area today. It’s about 2 km up the road I think. I’ve been intending to do that the last couple of days but I keep getting distracted by little side paths.

Today I walked north along the Rota Vincentina. Not far north,there was another pathway going in to the coast & within a minute I got a whole different cliff view. I must admit heights make me a little nervous. It is absolutely exquisite this view. I didn’t think it could get better, but I’m feeling so close to the edge it makes me nervous.

At home I don’t eat breakfast other than on Saturday and I rarely do eat more than twice in a day. I feel better that way. I had decided it was better to have one good meal a day and enjoy the food while here. I am trying to keep to a budget but I also want to enjoy the Portuguese cuisine!

Today I had Octopus stew with sweet potatoes. I never would have thought of that combination. And of course a beer. It was absolutely delicious. The restaurant, O Sacas, is down at the Fishermans’ wharf, which is about 2 to 3 km north of where I’m staying. Fabulous experience! I didn’t know people eat barnacles. Really!!!

After my belly was full, I went down to see the fishing boats. Some were still out on the water working away. The fisherman leave at 6:30 in the morning. Maybe when I get a car in March I’ll go and photograph them leaving.

The walk home was slow. My legs were stiffening up. I am so out of shape. At least now that I have been here 6 days I am improving. I am a good example of someone who let my good physical condition slide downhill in the last couple of years. And after my dog , Finn died in late April last year I didn’t have a dog that needed to be walked. Use it or lose it is true!

Back home again I had no intention of going back into town. Get the fire started and keep warm for the night!