Cataplana

Today it started out with another overcast day. I was very busy at work again, and this afternoon they started with the hammering again next door, so I was forced to work in the bedroom with all doors shut, urghhh. We were actually debating whether we would stay in this area for another week while I am on holiday next week and extend our stay here, but this construction has made up our minds, we will be moving on...Another thing is this quiet town that we are in has now turned into a tourist town, so many more people around, amazing how many more restaurants opened, so many more people wandering around, even umbrellas set up on the beach, we miss the old quiet town....

At lunch time today Andre made me go to the gypsy market with him for the experience, once is fine for me. It was fun to see all the different vendors and hear them calling out to you to try to get you to buy from them, but once was enough. This market is in Albufeira every second Tuesday, and I hadn’t made it yet, so instead of my normal lunch walk this was my break today. I picked up a cute bracelet for Symone, though I’m sure it is not a Pandora, she is getting too old now to get these knock offs, especially with Lima as an Auntie!! Picked up a few veggies as well for lunches the next couple of days, and that was about it. Andre said there were not as many farmers or vendors there as usual, I guess the weather kept them away.

After another salad lunch, I think Andre is starting to feel like a rabbit, he went to check to see if there was anymore toll charges. There was one from the airport when he came to pick me up. He also went to get milk and a few groceries. It was free as we had 15 euros on the cash back card. There is now 7 euros left. We will need to go again before we leave to use up these.

Mmmm, I went to a bar last night but I can not remember where I parked the car,  says the hungover drunk.

After work we headed out to try to find the other 2 geocaches we were not able to get to last night because of the rain. Rollande and Jacques would be so disappointed, we couldn’t find either one! We walked as far as the marina, looked into some boat tours possibly for tomorrow afternoon (Carolyn if you are reading this I may be leaving early tomorrow!!) Bought the earrings that I had seen made out of cork that I liked. Andre also asked me if I wanted to take him on in mini putt, this could have been the worst shape course I have ever seen, we passed.

Us geocaching, too many muggles to really look as one of them even took our picture.

Menus here are in up to 6 languages

Riley, Tyler, Nanny would not let me go in.  Time for Jacinthe to upgrade

Nadine keeps our courses in better shape than this.

Marina

Just the right size

Nice cactus on the way back to town from the marina

One of the tour boats

Decorated with seashells

Another option for Craig,  want us to put a deposit on this one.

Nice window overhang

Lots of restaurants display their fish in a showcase, this one was unique

Walked back to town and were in search of the best restaurant that served cataplana. This is the Portuguese equivalent of Spanish Paella. This is quite a fun thing to do, stop at restaurants, look at their menus, be badgered into going into the restaurant and move on. Many of the restaurants try to give you a mini menu or business card as you pass by, we accumulated quite the collection that are at the apartment before we just started saying no thanks.

Anyway Andre finally decided on a restaurant we had spoken to the hustler to a couple of weeks ago. I say Andre decided because I keep telling him I am working, and he has to make all other decisions. Anyway it was a great choice, we had a fantastic shell fish cataplana. The main difference between cataplana and paella is there is no rice cooked with the cataplana, it is served on the side. Cataplana also uses piri-piri sauce, garlic and wine instead of saffron that is used in paella. It was absolutely delicious, I could have drank the broth, but I thought that would be rude! We sat right next to the grilling station which was interesting, even though we weren’t having anything grilled it was fun to watch the chefs work the station, they were using charcoal on the grill, very impressive, it looked delicious.

Our shell fish cataplana

We got served our portion

Enjoying a glass of wine with our cataplana

Nanny is getting old, she is wearing a bib

The cooks were cooking over an open fire

Free glass of port after supper

Mural in restaurant

The Fisherman Tavern where we had supper

View of old town and beach from top of the escalators on our way home.  We will miss you.

We ended up walking for about 3 hours after work, which was great because we missed out on our walks yesterday.