Around town & Wendy in London

No plans for the day except to do laundry, write yesterday's blog and try to get more information on the Rally de Portugal.

Laundry is easy and quickly taking care of. Trow a tablet into the machine and hit a button. When done hang to dry. Writing the blog is a bit more of a challenge as I am not a super fast typist and I had done so much yesterday. For those who know me, I did take a few pictures yesterday, so picking the best also takes time. The blog site also gave me a hard time uploading my pictures. Good thing this was in the morning as I may had a glass or 2 of wine in frustration. Hope it goes better with this blog. Found some good information on the Rally. Found out that the practice is free and it is in Loule which is not too far from here. It took a while but I got the directions and stuff I needed to go watch it tomorrow. The only problem is that when I was checking on it tonight, I realized that the 28^th is today and not tomorrow. I guess I was more tired this morning from the yesterday's trip than I was thinking. Tomorrow is a night time rally and it is away from us and where I have to pick Wendy up at the airport. What are the odds that she might forgive me if I show up at Midnight instead of 10PM at the airport. Looks like we may have to go on Sunday if I want to see it.

After lunch, I decide to go explore part of town that I had not already done. Walked to old town. A few more people on teh beach today.  Getting busier as each week goes by. 

A few more people on the baeach

Tourist train

View of the beach from the walk

Followed the road to the marina. It is 2 marina in 1. The fisherman have theirs and then the sailboat and powerboats have theirs own. The fisherman were not out fishing today as it was too windy. There are about 30 fisherman that have boats here. Some have traps and some have nets.

Old style fishing boat

The pleasure marina is quite big and there must be 200 or so boats. There was 2 or 3 really nice ones.

There was a wooden sailboat in need of some TLC on shore. I was trying to picture myself living on it and sailing the Mediterranean. Nope, too much work. This is where the have all the Lego houses. There are some restaurants and shops around the base of the houses (condo). I get a pistachio gelato (ice cream) as it is fairly warn even if it is windy. 20 plus degrees. Delicious. There are some kiosk for boat tours. I get a few brochures and hope we can go sometime next week. I think there a bit of nasty weather coming our way. Shower/rain and possibly some wind. From here you can see some of the housing developments which are stopped because of the economic situation.

Should I make an offer

can't afford this one

Found a golf course I can afford

Wild flowers along tghe way

From there it was all uphill. There a hill on the right side of town. We can see it from our apartment and decided to go see if I could find some nice views of town from there as it is quite high. There was some beautiful home along the way up. A few for sale. Along the way, I came by the old cemetery. It was a combination of 3 types of burials. Like we do, above ground and stack like Lego blocks. A bit further I saw a hotel called Bella Vista. Mmmm, I wonder if they have nice views. I walk in and see their balcony. I ask the people at reception if it is ok to go and they say yes. Bella Vista indeed. I continue a bit further up and find a good spot with view of town. A couple more pictures as this is a different angle.

photo of a billboard showing how busy the beach is in the summer

Fisherman marina from above

Look at the right side of photo

view of pleasure marina from above

Views for hotel Boa Vista

View of beach from above

Walk down to town and I find a place to sit in the sun and enjoy a cold beer. Well deserve at this point as I have been doing ups and downs for 2 hours. I take the long way home and go get some groceries. I get squid and salad stuff. Ended up and down the streets around town for about 4 hours in all.

Around 6:30 I could hear a marching band and somebody speaking I walk down to old town to see. There is a big high school basketball tournament in town this week. The surf is also up at the beach and a few of the local kids are surfing and boggie boarding. I watch tehm for a while and then head back to the apartment where I cooked the squids for supper. Sat on the patio and enjoyed it. Yummmy. Beautiful evening. It is now 11 PM and it is still 16 degrees outside. I still have the windows open. Tomorrow I have to pick Wendy up at 10PM, better not forget.

High school basketball tournament Opening ceremony

Surf up

Fig tree along the walk to the apartment

Flowering tree on the street leading up to teh apartment

View of old town at night

Day 3 London – Wendy

So today was the day that I really came to London for, a client had booked an on site training visit for the entire day today.   I really like these days, it is all day with one client, no need to move around and get lost more than once!  Bonus today is that the client is within walking distance of my hotel, google said 20 minutes, with me getting lost it was 45, I always double google, so I was there right on time!  I only stopped once to ask a policewoman for help, I was entirely twisted even with my A-Z book of London, oh well, I had a nice morning walk down Regent Street, very expensive shopping district, totally out of the way from where I should have been, but a nice walk anyway. 

A good day at work, client was very happy, which is always good.  After work I found a much better way to get back to my hotel, otherwise stated I didn’t get lost.  Ended up in Covent Garden, lots and lots of buskers out, the weather is fantastic again.  Took a couple of pictures on my  “commute” aka walk back to the hotel.  As many times as I have now been to London it is still amazing to look up at all the architecture. 

Took the train into Watford Junction to meet my British “relations” Karen and James.  We had a nice dinner, always a nice break when I am here to get to see them.  Unfortunately got the slow train out, texted them and they went for coffee, I should know better by now, the slow train stops everywhere along the way, doubling the time it takes to get there.  Karen and James even had time for coffee while waiting for me, will attempt not to do that again, but no promises!

Tomorrow I have two visits booked with people that are looking to purchase the software, hopefully it will be a good day.  I will take my suitcase to the second stop as I am afraid I will be pushing it for time to get to the airport for my flight .  Looking forward to getting back to Albufeira and some quiet, it is so noisy here with all the construction!