Saturday, March 31, 2012

Quarteira Triathlon & Paderne Easter Bread Fair


Slept in a little this morning, didn’t wake up until 8AM, guess we were making up for some missing sleep last week.

First off we had to figure out if we could pay our road tolls that Andre was supposed to look after last week while I was in London, but forgot. We searched on the internet but couldn’t quite figure it out, except that you could pay at a post office. Found the post office very near to our apartment, but it is closed on Saturdays, oh well something for Andre to look after next week, I will remind him since he seems to be getting old.

Andre made a yummy breakfast of french toast with strawberries and fresh squeezed orange juice. I noticed a bit of a sore throat this morning, maybe because I have gone a week without fresh squeezed orange juice.

Yummy breakfast

Did a load of laundry and put it out for the day, hoping it will dry and we won’t get much rain, then we were ready to start our adventures for the day.

First stop was not far, we went to the little market in Albufeira. We bought some almonds for snacks, and some figs which I like though I know most don’t. Then we spotted a newspaper shop, and we had read online that you could pay your tolls here too. Went into the little shop, neither of the shopkeepers could speak English, but there was a girl there that was some kind of distributor and she was able to translate for us, I did figure out when she said she like to practice her English. Anyway she was able to help us out, we passed them our car keys which had our license plate number on them and came up with tolls of 21.75 Euro outstanding. She told us the locals are all upset about these new tolls and do not use the toll roads, I can understand why. We are not even sure exactly what we paid for, there are no details on the receipt, just how much you owe. We were actually expecting it to be a little higher than this, so Andre will go back again later in the week to see if our last trip to Faro airport just hasn’t caught up with us yet. What a system!!!

Streetlights changed this week, love is in the air in Albufeira??

Buying Almonds and Figs at the market


Market in Albufeira

This guy in front was tailgating us but got by, I was glad when he moved on to his next victom!

From the market we went on to the town of Quarteria where there is a European Triathlon happening today. I was amazed how busy the road was to get there today, guess everyone is avoiding the toll roads like us!! We got there about an hour before the race started, it was fun to see the girls getting their bikes ready, getting their numbers painted on their bodies, and warming up. We only saw the girls, as the guys were after the girls and we didn’t want to spend the whole day here. First off was the swimming section, quite something when it is in an ocean with big breakers! They start off about 100 feet from the water and run down to start all at once. Sounds easy except there were 40 women, all leaving at once, and they had to get through the breakers, it was amazing to see. Another thing we didn’t realize is we thought they did 2 laps, well they do 2 laps, but after the first lap they actually have to get out of the water, run around these pylons, and run back into the water for the second lap, which of course meant another trip through the breakers. It was fun watching them try to catch the waves on the way into shore, an easy way to make up a few places if you caught the wave right! We watched the transition to the bikes, then a couple of laps of the bike race then decided we had enough and headed out for our next adventure.


Beach in Quarteira where Triatholon was




Start of swimming section



Get out of water, run around pylons and start second lap!


Bike ready to go

Transition from swimming to biking


First lap leaders

Murals at bus station

High speed downhill with sharp corner at bottom




Next stop is the town of Paderne where there is an Easter Bread festival going on. Yep, it was exactly what it said, all kinds of booths set up selling different Easter Breads. Seems every little town has their own recipe for Easter Bread and they were all represented here, and no signs of any hot cross buns. We got to sample a few different ones, and we picked one to have for breakfast tomorrow morning. They were also baking bread in brick ovens, we bought some and it turns out it had chorizo sausage baked in it. They also were roasting a whole pig over an open fire, Andre had a pork sandwich. He also tried some little snails that were interesting, they are so small they give you a toothpick to pick the snail out of the shell with. They also had a stage set up with live entertainment, the accordion players from the other night were there, so now I am afraid we are going to be know as the accordion groupies, or maybe the accordion stalkers. We stayed until about 7PM then decided it was time to head home.

Getting ovens ready for baking bread

Ladies we bought our Easter bread from

Making Filohs, their version of a churro


Piti Piri sauce, yummy

Roasting a pig -  Lima Andre wants one of these basters for next summer for the BBQ!!

Bread added to oven

Andre eatting little snails that they have everywhere here, so small you use a toothpick to get them out!






Little boy didn't hold on tight enough to his balloon


If Craig didn't like the car we found him, maybe this bike would do?


Friday, March 30, 2012

Good to be back ``Home`` in Albufeira

After arriving back to our apartment at 12:30 last night it was wonderful to go to bed and not hear any construction, any street traffic, just the church bells every hour. I do not miss the noise in London.

Work was very busy for me today. Lots to get caught up on. Took a break for breakfast at 10AM, then back at it, had a demo at 11 that lasted for 1.5 hours. By now it is noon and time for our walk.

We had lots of rain last night, today the beach was a new beach. There were huge drop offs like we saw in Playa del Carmen this year, and a little river is running right through the middle of the beach with run off from the hills overlooking the city, this interrupted my usual walk, we did a detour and had to go up the hills opposite to what we usually come down.  Also lots of seashells were on the beach today.

The waves created a drop off



Shell collector heaven

Water runoff created a ditch at the beach

Back home after our walk and had to answer a couple of e-mails and time flew by so no time to eat. Andre got some salads ready and my next break was at 3PM, so a very late lunch today, we'll pretend we are in Spain I guess. It has been a mostly overcast day, a couple of good showers, and lots of humidity, my hair is extremely curly again! Back to work to finish up a couple of things before the week-end and suddenly it is 5PM, today just flew by!
Old town in the rain


Spooky picture of town

Just back from the grocery store. We had to make a trip because we were out of wine and that just won't do. Andre asked if I wanted to splurge and buy a bottle of wine that was regular 7.50 euro, and it was on sale for half price. Usually we have been under 5 Euro a bottle, and then get half off. I have no idea how we are ever going to shop for wine again in Canada!

Andre spent a good part of the day making plans for this week-end, and our holiday coming up week after next. So far I have heard about an Easter bread cake festival, a car rally, an outdoor Easter play, and a triathlon are on the list. All of these are going on within a 30 minute drive from here, too bad everything is happening on the same week-end. We'll see what we end up doing, may depend on the weather.

Just back from supper, plans were originally to go for Indian food, but the guy that we told we would go to his restaurant one night was not outside badgering us to go in, so we continued on to a more traditional Portuguese place that Andre had already been to this week. We started off with olives, bread, and this sardine pate paste that Andre likes (yuck). We had vegetable soup, then both of us had piri piri chicken, maybe now my most favourite chicken dish. We then had dessert, Andre crème caramel surprise surprise, and I had fresh fruit. This was a tourist menu, which included half bottle of wine each, or for those mathematically challenged like my sister Jill that is one bottle of wine. They also brought us each a glass of port following dinner. All of this was 22.00 Euro including a tip, and Andre did over tip a little. A very delicious meal, especially when you think it is the same price for the entire meal as a bottle of wine when you go out at home.

Don Carlos, rated the best place to eat in town and teh most $$$, not where we eat

Noticed a few more people in town walking around tonight. I guess we are closer to tourist season, every day seems more people are around. Andre found some pictures on the internet of what the beach looks like when it is busy, what a difference. So a fairly early night tonight, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Pictures I found on the internet of what the beach look like in the summer