Beliqueime Market and Cemetery & Faro airport

Spend about 1 hour creating a second email account on Rogers and a facebook account so I could chat with Wendy. We been sharing the same facebook account but you can not chat with yourself when we were both log on as the same user. Chatted with my lovely wife for a bit and reassured her that I would be at the airport and not at the night time rally.

Mid morning, I drove to Boliqueime where there it was market day. It is only about a 10 minute drive from here. I figured it was not a big market since it was held in the Church ground. It is also a small town/village. There was a few vendors, a farmer, someone selling plants for the garden and a doughnut maker. I bought a flat of strawberries for 2.5 euros. Even to bookmobile was in town for the even. Just me as a tourist here. A few elderly local checking the wares and buying a few vegetables. Visited the church which was not big but pretty. Walked around town, not much to see except for a small municipal museum. Lots of little things. It was not very big but some interesting thing related to everyday life. Best of all it was free.

Bookmobile in town but not very busy

Boliqueime church

Market Vendors

Wildflowers

Tiled advertisement, must be a few years old

Another beautiful door

Church in Boliqeime

How they used to harvest olives, I do not think it is done like this anymore, but not sure

Who I bought my strawberries from, nice young couple

The animals are made out of cork

While looking to do a u-turn I saw the sign for the cemetery. The gate was open so I went in. It was fairly large compare to the size of the town. It was well taken care of and had all kind of burials here as well. Once again tehy had pictures of the people on the monuments. The even build an large expansion for the future. The was a platform where the view were gorgeous. You could see the ocean from it. Boliqueime is about 5 km from the ocean. Very windy today and it was even worst on the lookout. 

In some of the vaults, the caskets could be seen

Apartment style plots in the background, you can see the pictures of love ones on teh graves markings

View from Lookout

Lots of rooms for futher business

On the way home, I stopped at a restaurant where I always see a few cars in the parking lot. It is probably the largest one I have seen here in Portugal. I went in and it was a buffet. The price was 18 euros, no thanks. You could also do take out from the buffet by weight. It was still a lot so I skipped on that too. Next stop was the municipal market in town. I had seen some quails last time I was there. I purchased 2 and headed home. 

When I got near home, one of the fire truck was leaving. Never seen such a small firetruck but with the small windy roads, I guess they are needed.

Roadside orange vendors, notice teh price

Not a very big fire truck but needed because of the small streets in town.

Went to old town for lunch. Very few people on the beach as the wind is blowing hard. I was looking for chicken piri-piri. Found a traditional Portuguese restaurant. Most restaurant have it for around 6 euros and it comes with fries and a small salad all on the same plate. This place had a tourist menu for 9 euros. So for an extra 3 euros, you get: bread, olives, vegetables soup, glass of vine, dessert and coffee. After lunch the waiter brought a complimentary glass of port. Very good meal and excellent value.

Very few people on the beach

Chicken piri-piri

There a restaurant (Trigo Limpo) and a night club (Mardi Gras) in the building next to us which has beautiful windows. Only about 40 yards from our front gate. Neither one has been open since we got here but it looks like the club might be opening soon. On the way back from taking out the garbage, the door was open and some lady was washing the floor. When I asked if they were opening soon, she shook her head and said something in Portuguese. I think she was trying to tell me to ask the other person inside. I said that is ok and walked away. Lots of people can not speak or understand English here and you get used to it. 

Window works

Depicting our beach

They must have some good cajun food there

There a driving school on the road leading to out apartment. The car has a L license plate on the bumper. Not sure if it stands for loser or learner. In Ireland you could get one for your rental car and in that case it meant loser.

L is for ....

The rain started at 3 this afternoon. It has not really rained here since we got here and they got 2 days of rain since October. They farmers desperately need rain. There a low system in the area for the next few days so we may not be doing much for activities. The good news is I get a free car wash since it badly needed it as it has been a bit dusty here from the lack of rain.

Farmers are happy, tourists not so much

Cooked my quails for supper using the cooking times from recipes on the internet. I never cooked quails before. I think I had some in Banff when I was working there. There are lots of things from the Banff days I can not remember it must be because I am getting old. Checked to see if they were done after the suggested cooking time. I do not think they should be eaten medium-rare. I had to double the cooking time. I also made a Dijon mustard and Port sauce with the drippings. I also cooked a sweet potato they have here. It is more white that ours but very sweet. It was very good but not sure if Wendy would go for quails.

Left a bit before 10 PM to go get Wendy at the airport. It is about a 45 minute drive to Faro. A good part of it is on the toll highway so it is not so bad driving at night. The other choice is the old highway which runs thru a few small town/village. Not a good thing in a foreign country, driving a manual car with a possibility of rain. Highway it was. The rain let up for the drive back and forth. They are working on the arrival terminal and they now have a tent for you to wait in to pick up people.

When you leave the short term parking lot, you need to pay for your ticket at a machine which is away from the parking lot and is located near the entrance doors to the airport. Not very well marked. I knew that but the car in front of us did not. So the guy was running around looking for it. I shouted to him where the machine was. He runs over and 2 minutes later he comes back. He is Portuguese but coming back from the UK from work. Must be his time back. Anyway, he only had British Pounds for money and the machine does not take it. The line up is now about 5 cars long to get out. If we have to do a coordinated back up, this could be funny. Anyway the car behind us trades the Pounds for Euros. Wendy and I are wondering if we are now past our free 15 minutes you get to get out of the parking lot. He runs back to the machine to pay for his ticket and runs back. He is having a hard time now to get the gate open. It finally opens and their beater of a car is not even running. It takes them about 1 minutes to get going. At last they get out. Our turn is up and hoping that we are still good for time. Up goes the gate, phew. Happy for Wendy to be home and I am pretty sure she is also.

Last day in London

Another  absolutely beautiful day in London.  First visit this morning is within walking distance of my hotel, very near St. Pauls cathedral.  With a map printed out I slightly veered off the suggested route so I could see what was going on at the church, so many people in uniforms, lots of chauffeurs, but never did figure out what was going on.  Because of this little detour I of course got mixed up and had to ask where I was, my life in London, pretty much lost all the time.  So my extra 15 minutes I gave myself was was all used up and got to the visit right on time…

 

Lots of security at St Paul Cathredral

James, take me to the theatre.

 

Also, on my walk here I passed by a pie shop on Fleet Street, wonder if there was a barber shop on top?  Reminded me of Sweeney Todd that I saw a couple of nights ago and had a little laugh.

Not the kind of pies we have in Canada, often these are stuff with meat

 

 

From this client a quick trip back to my hotel, checked emails, and headed out to catch the underground to my next visit.  Lots of faulty signals this morning using transit, and my 30 minute ride turned into nearly an hour.  I have no idea how this city is going to cope during the Olympics, I will certainly be no where near here.  Had another good client visit, very coincidental as the person I was meeting with is heading to Lisbon on Wednesday so we had a good chat about that.

Small pub between 2 large buildings, good for tall people

 

From here it is time to head off to the airport.  Underground issues seem to have all worked themselves out as it was a quick trip back into London, then another train to the airport.  Arrived in lots of time to walk around the airport, no room for shopping as I can only take on 1 suitcase, and it is packed full since I have had to put my computer inside my carry on suitcase as well.

Plane ride uneventful, both ways it felt like the plane just dropped out of the sky to hit the runway on landing, definitely not nice soft landings.  Plane was packed on the way back to Faro, lots of families starting their Easter Holidays.   I ended up with a young couple beside me that were very cute, so so excited to be going to Portugal.  Problem was they thought they were flying to Porto, and didn’t realize their mistake until they got to the aiport.  Oops, Porto is way up North, Faro is about as South as you get, so they have to figure out how to get there tomorrow as we are only landing at midnight.  Kind of made me think of the people that get Sydney NS, and Sydney AU mixed up, only at least this is the same country, and a small one at that.  Happy to be heading back to Portugal for a couple more weeks.