Tuesday 12 January 2016

Exploring Vilamoura.

The first day on any holiday has surely to be to explore your surroundings, it is for us anyway. Get a feel for the place, find your ground, note nice restaurants, find a supermarket, that kind of thing.
And so we did.
We left the apartment and headed right. Could have easily been left, but it felt right to turn right.
This took us past the glittery casino (although no longer lit up and flashing as it was the previous evening) and down towards the Marina.




When you enter the Marina you suddenly get an overwhelming sense of affluence, whether it's the huge gleaming white yachts, each one fighting to be better then the rest, or the people, either real yacht owners, showing off in a nonchalant kind of way, or the Del Trotter type trying to mix in but failing. Or might it be the ladies, each one hanging off the arm of a bored looking, well dressed man albeit in shorts & sandals. Designer handbags & sunglasses were in abundance  (even though it wasn't sunny).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one to judge.... usually.... but we did feel very underdressed and a wee bit out of place.  Oh if only we could afford one of those yachts!




We were looking for breakfast and the prices of the restaurants matched the wallets of the clientele.  I had to drag Hubster away from one menu when he exclaimed "Chuffing 'ell" in a very loud voice after seeing the 75€ price tag for some fish dish. And there was us trying to fit in ;)

We did find a Crepery tucked in a corner, so settled for breakfast there.


It was very good and I got a huge mug of tea, so all was well.


Crepe with mushrooms, tomato & a fried egg. Different, but good.


On we went and found a supermarket, sadly a necessary evil. First of all for breakfast stuff, to save us hunting down cheap cafes, but more so for toiletries. We had flown with Ryan Air, and only took hand luggage (one cabin bag suitcase & one smaller handbag) so we had left all the luxuries at home, like shampoo & shower gel. Predictably those 'luxuries' turn into necessities once you wake up the next morning with no deodorant or shower gel. (We did take toothpaste though, we're not total cavemen)

Coke, jam, butter, cheese spread, Nutella, bread, mini toasts, washing-up liquid, shampoo, conditioner, chipsticks and wine later (which incidentally was heavy to carry) we carried on our route and ended up at a McDonald s. Another McDonald s?  Apparently not, it was the one we encountered the previous night, and it was just a few meters from our apartment. We'd done a full circle. 

Time for a late lunch then, last nights left-over pizza & chipsticks, with wine (Coke of the non-drinker).


With an audience of squawking seagulls who saw us as easy pickings. They were wrong! They got nothing.


Rested, fed & showered it was time for exploration number two of the day. No point turning right or left as we'd done a circle, so we ventured out, took one look at the rain bouncing off the pavements & went straight back in again!
The next few hours were spent watching Mr Popper's Penguins on our 5 channel TV in Portuguese.

Once the rain had lightened off a bit we decided to take the plunge (pun intended) and go find somewhere to eat. We settled on a nice warming Indian, and we sat there looking like drowned rats as we ate our curry.



After a good fill, half a bottle of wine and two free Ports (I had his as well) we braved the rain and headed back. I had my 'beer coat' on by then so I wasn't as miserable as one might have expected.

By 9pm we were tucked up in our very uncomfortable beds, hoping that the next day would be slightly drier.




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