January 15 began quite early. We had a 4:15 wakeup call to catch our 4:40 taxi in order to catch a bus at 5:00 in order to catch our 6:30 plane! It was the earliest we had been up in a long time. After a 3 hour flight, we arrived in sunny Portugal! The ‘fun’ had just begun when we arrived. In order to get to our hotel, we had to catch two buses. We just missed a bus when we first arrived, so we waited awhile. Then when we got to the bus terminal (after taking the first bus), we had just missed the second bus. This gave us a chance to get a bite to eat. We found a little cafe on the marina and enjoyed our first moments in the warmth and sunshine. When getting on the second bus, we (mainly Micah) freaked out a bit that we really had no idea where we were suppose to get off. About half way through the bus trip, Micah felt like we should be getting off, but since we didn’t really know where we were or where our hotel was, we decided to stay on till the terminal. (We later found out the point where Micah wanted to get off was about a 3 minute walk from our hotel...we should trust his gut in the future!) Once we arrived at the terminal, the lady behind the ticket counter told us that our hotel was not in Albufeira and didn’t really know how to direct us. So we walked into the city centre and found the information office, where we were again told the hotel was a ways away. Micah wanted to walk there (to save money), but Lucy by this point was tired! Lucy got her way and we took a taxi. It didn’t end up being super far away (and it was in Albufeira), but it was worth the taxi ride (says Lucy). Once we finally arrived at the hotel, we were tired and ready to relax, but the hotel room was a bit below our expectations. There was a bit of mould and no real bed (two sofas that could be pushed together). After the initial disappointment of the room, we realized it was still pretty nice for how much we paid! The late afternoon was spent in the sun by the pool, buying groceries, playing cards and finding a place to eat dinner. Then we crashed early after a long day of travel.
The pool.
Sunday began in the most perfect way! We went to walk on the beach soon after waking and discovered walking paths along the cliffs on the coast. The views were breathtaking; the sun was warm; the crashing of the waves against the cliffs was so peaceful! Afterwards, we laid out in the sun by the pool, played games and read. We discovered one of our favourite aspects of Portugal: the oranges. With loads of orange groves throughout the area, the oranges were cheap, fresh and amazing!! These quickly became a staple in our diet! After lunch, we continued to enjoy the sun (tough life!) and then went to get groceries for the next day. After grocery shopping we walked on the beach again before heading to a pub to watch the Tottenham game (soccer). Because so many people in Albufeira are British, most pubs show the Premier League. Somewhere close to 50% of houses are being purchased by Brits in Algarve (the county Albufeira resides). There is no shortage of chippies, football and British grocery stores. After the game, we headed out to another delicious dinner!
Monday began in much the same way as Sunday...with a great walk along the cliffs. After the walk on the beach, we headed to explore the town a bit. We discovered ‘the strip’ which has tons of restaurants. We couldn’t understand why the hotel receptionist pointed us in the other direction for restaurants, but we soon discovered almost all the restaurants on the strip were closed for the season. They are only open from mid-February to November. Next was time in the sun (of course), followed by lunch and then more sun and reading. The afternoon was spent on a 4-wheeler tour. We were picked up at our hotel and headed off to a small town outside Albufeira. Once there, we got acquainted with the 4-wheelers and then headed off. We enjoyed traipsing through the orange and lemon groves, seeing almond trees in bloom, going down the steep embankments, and stopping at a country Portuguese cafe before returning to the base. It was a lot of fun to get out of the city and see a bit of the countryside. The owners of the 4-wheeler company, Claire and Rory, (who happened to be British) gave us great suggestions on what to do in the area and places to eat! By the time we got back, it was quite chilly (for Portugal standards), so we enjoyed some tea to warm up, before heading out to dinner. For dinner, we headed out in search of Chicken Piri-Piri (a local dish suggested by Claire and Rory). It was really good and quite spicy!
Looking out over the almond trees into the valley
The pretty almond trees.
LEMONS!
Tuesday we walked to the centre of Albufeira along the cliffs and coast. We explored old town, the marina and walked in the water...where we got a little wetter than planned! After walking about, we enjoyed a picnic on the beach before heading to another suggestion from Claire and Rory...a cake shop! We got big, big pieces of cake and yummy coffee before walking back. Then it was time for our daily dose of the sun by the pool before dinner (which was another suggestion from Claire and Rory!). We ate at a fish buffet. It is not a buffet in the sense we would have thought, but rather the waiter brought around different types of fish for us to sample. By sample, we mean half of a grilled fish! The dinner started with bread, potatoes and olives before getting into the fish. The first fish was an amazing salmon steak! It was among the best salmon we have ever had. Next was sea bass. It had amazing flavour, and Lucy’s even had an eye (kind of creepy!). The third piece was pollock. Neither of us liked this one much. It was flavoured with sea weed, which wasn’t our favourite. The forth piece was halibut. It was so meaty; it almost was like eating chicken! The fifth was grilled sardines, which was a lot better than anticipated, but still lacked a little flavour. The sixth and final piece was squid. This was super chewy and an interesting flavour! We really enjoyed getting to taste all the different types of fish and left the restaurant stuffed!
A view of Albufeira.
Wednesday we followed another one of Claire and Rory suggestions and looked into car rental for a day. We found a place that was reasonably priced and let us return it to the airport for free, which avoided the crazy bus route on the way back. Afterwards, we headed to the beach for our daily walk. Then it was time for the sun by the pool, lunch, more sun and sangria at an outdoor cafe. For dinner we headed to find kabobs (another local dish). Micah was not convinced on the place Lucy decided on, but soon came on board. We had delicious kabobs with 4 different meats (steak, chicken, sausage and veal). For dessert we had some almond cake since almond trees are a dime a dozen. The best part of the restaurant was the owner. He had a lot of Portuguese character and had spent some time in the states so his English was amazing!
Thursday we started with our daily walk on the cliffs and reading. Then it was time for some sun, lunch and more sun! In the afternoon we went and got sangria at the cafe again, before heading back to play some games. For dinner we had omelettes, which was another common dish.
Friday began by playing games (no walk...which made us sad!). Then we headed to the car rental place to pick up the car and head west. Our first stop on the journey was Silves to visit the local castle. It was up on the hill, which provided great views and it is always interesting to see buildings from the 12th century! After Silves we headed onto Monchique. In Monchique we climbed to an old monastery, which looked a lot cooler from the below. It was really run down! Then we walked though the oldest part of the city, before driving to the highest peak in Algarve. The peak is 922 m. It may not seem that high, but since it is the highest point and so close to the coast, the views were breathtaking! Also, there were tons of Eucalyptus trees, which smelled amazing as we drove up to and back from the peak! Then we drove farther west to ‘the end of the world’. Cape St. Vincent was referred to as the end of the world by early explorers as it looks off into the west over the Atlantic Ocean. We saw a few old forts and a light house. Then it was time to drive back to Albufeira. For dinner, we had two delicious dishes, cataplana and paella. Paella is a rice, meat/seafood and seasoning dish that is baked over a fire (traditional in Spain). Cataplana is a traditional Portuguese stew with seafood/meat, tomatoes, peppers and onions served over rice. They were both delicious!
A beautiful orange tree inside the castle.
The church outside the castle.
Yes, the picture doesn't lie. It is a Hustler Z! Made 5,000 miles away in Hesston, KS!!
The cliffs at Cape St. Vincent
One of the many palm trees Micah loved!
An old fort along the coast.
Beauty!
A HUGE old fort.
Saturday was the cloudy day, but luckily (or unluckily) we were heading back to Belfast. After returning the car, we went through security and found out our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours. So we had bit more time than we desired in the airport, but by 11:45 we were on the plane. Once back in Belfast we got a bus into town and Sharon, Thomas and Larry picked us up to bring us back home. Micah headed to the Ember for dinner and Lucy headed to a women’s cell gathering. There were 22 women, fondue (cheese and chocolate) and lots of goodies to dip in!
Our cute little car.
Today we headed to church, enjoyed a long lunch and are enjoying an afternoon of relaxing. Tonight we are heading to Joy and Bobby’s to catch up with them over a popcorn and cheese dinner!
We are so thankful for the amazing weather and time to relax and reconnect with each other that Portugal provided. God knew just what we needed!
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