Monday 31 August 2015

It is such a long time since I have posted anything on the blog. Over a week and this is simply because the wifi access has been rather difficult.
The last time I posted we were still in Rome and had visited Orvieto and Assisi which was a wonderful experience. On the day following it was our last full day in Rome so we spent our time wandering through the streets and taking a last look at some of our favourite places. We also bought a few gifts for some very special people. We saw a street artist who made the most amazing painting of different places in Rome - it featured the Colosseum  and the Vatican so we purchased that and carried it very carefully back to the hotel.

Partway through the process.

Getting  towards the final product.

                                                                                                                                                      

In the morning it was another little walk this time before being picked up by the taxi and taken to the airport. The airport in Rome was absolutely packed with people and there were delays to our flight back to London. This meant that we had to wait for quite a while before the plane took off so I spent that time reading one of my many books.

Finally we arrived back in London over two and a half hours late which meant our poor taxi driver had to come back to the airport to get us. It was absolutely pouring with rain and quite cold which
was so different to the hot and sunny weather that we had been experiencing in Rome.

We arrived quite late back to the house that we were staying at with my son but he had some dinner
 waiting for us which was very much appreciated.

The next day which was the Tuesday we spent at Canary Wharf doing a little shopping but because it
was so wet we didn't want to be out too long. We went back to the house and I did some work.

On the Wednesday it was another taxi - this time to Heathrow Airport to travel to Portugal. What an
experience this was as the planes yet again were delayed and because we had to fly first to Brussels in
Belgium and then to Faro in Portugal we missed our second flight. The flight to Faro left without us.

Oh dear!!!!!! We found someone to help us at Brussels airport and they put us on another plane. The
arrangements were a bit different though as we had to fly to Lisbon in Portugal and then fly to Far
which meant that instead of getting to Faro at 3 pm in the afternoon we would not arrive until
midnight. What a tiring day it was.

We were picked up by Custodio and Leonilde, who are now part of our family, as their daughter
Debbie married my son Matthew. It was very late at night so it was wonderful that they came to get
us.

After a good nights sleep we woke to a beautiful day day and after breakfast we got straight in the car and travelled to the wharf area where the fishermen were starting to come back with their day's catch. What a beautiful sight the sea was and we spent time walking around the town and visiting the markets.

Fishing boats at the wharf.

The markets were amazing buildings that were very old. There was one complete building just for the fresh fish that had been caught and another whole building that had all of the fruit and meat.

Fish, fish and more fish.

One of the many stalls.

                                     

Custodio, Leonilde and myself by one of the statues that Custodio told stories about. the name of the girl was Floripes. Floripes was a beautiful Moorish woman who apparently stole one of the men of the village or so the legend says. Custodio told us that as a young child he was always scared of the statue.

It was wonderful spending time with Custodio who grew up in this lovely village called Olhao. He had so many stories to tell us and knew so many people.

The tunnel

Custodio's niece owned a beautiful restaurant in another town called Faro. We went there for lunch and I had a lovely chicken meal. Then we went down a spiral staircase which led to a tunnel which apparently people used when they wanted to escape from their enemies. 

Our restaurant .

After the beautiful lunch we then got back in the car and drove quite a long way to a place called Vila Moura. This was an absolutely amazing area, a little like our Viaduct area, where there were so many very expensive boats anchored to the marina. There were lots of lovely looking restaurants around the area , expensive apartments and hotels and boutique shops.

Vila Moura area.

What a hot but lovely day we had, walking through beautiful areas and just enjoying learning new things.

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