Saturday 24 December 2011

Faro Away from Wintery Scotland

Hey all those bloggers and blogger enthusiasts who may or may not be pining for a ridiculous amount of photographs from a place you've never been and possible never imagined you'd want to go....

Early December saw Stu and I winging our way to sunny, warm (comparatively) Portugual for a little pre-festive festivity in honour of Stu's dad's 65th birthday.  We were slightly delayed by an unfortunately-timed storm that hit Edinburgh just as our budget flight was due to land.  Apparently Ryanair has so little air time permitted to the airline due to them being such incredible cheapskates, that the 10 minute storm that prevented our flight from landing on time meant the flight had no choice but to turn back and land in Newcastle instead.  So while we waited patiently in Edinburgh for our plane to land, it was landing in Newcastle instead.

Joy of joys, that meant a 3 hour bus ride to Newcatsle, after a lengthy delay in Edinburgh waiting for the coaches that were to ferry us to Newcastle.  So a flight that was supposed to depart at 11am, arriving in Portugual at 2pm, had us touching down at 11pm instead.  Not irritating at all, considering we only had 3 days in Portugual anyway.

Still,we made it, and here's what we saw:

Yep, we saw wine, and lots of it.  We also had the good sense to sample, and it was deliciously intoxicating.
Storks like making massive nests on chimney tops in Portugual.



Ever the intriguing apparel of Stu.  Fairly chilly night, but sandals a must.  There must be some German in him I think.  Thank god he hasn't gone as far as sandal and socks.

Stu and the parentals in downtown Albufeira.






Our accomodation - we were pretty much the only people staying, so it was definitely peaceful.  Too cold for swimming, unless you're a seagull.  The prospect of swimming in seagull faeces made the notion even less attractive.











The fish restaurant Stu and I ate at on our last night in Albufeira.  It might have broken the bank, but damn, that was some good seafood!  So worth eating dry bread and water for the next few weeks.
The view from the restaurant.

Stu enthralled in the Liverpool match.  Never felt more British - beer and football in Portugual.


Matching outfits for Doug and Norm.  Zero irony.  Oh yeah.



Never a more apt name for a restaurant.




Sunday 13 November 2011

Recapping

The summer that was.