Perfect Portugal!
Wonderful Winter Fun in the Sun!
A spur-of- the-moment decision meant a last-minute trip to Faro, Portugal for the half-term holidays: excellent value for flights and accommodation, and what a well-deserved treat! The enigma of being in a different country and speaking a different language flummoxed our youngest, age six! The fact that all four of our children are bilingual does seem to mean that they are much more open to learning and speaking other languages. This interest in mastering other languages will hopefully be a massive bonus for them in the future.
After the hustle and bustle of the airport (the concept of ‘queueing’ is apparently unknown and baffling to the French), we survived the cut and thrust of the crowds to get on the plane. We also managed to shove our hand luggage on without too much trouble and came out alive after eating warm ham sandwiches and over-priced beer. It was all worth it! I love the feeling of stepping off the plane and having the heat hit you. It was quite a few degrees warmer than La Rochelle, so definitely summery weather with the need for shorts. Perfect! We had a big villa with a private (freezing) swimming pool about 10 minutes’ walk from the beach. The coast was stunning! The dramatic orange cliffs dropping into the clear blue sea and the power of the swell was mesmerizing. You had to be quite a tough cookie to brave the sea: it was pretty rough and not for the faint hearted! But Rosie (age 10) bought a boogie board and had a wonderful time crashing through the waves all day, only stopping to show us her wounds!
The food was good and we discovered some lovely restaurants, generally very reasonable. Snack food was amazing value and you could grab a decent burger or pizza for €5. Beer was €1 a pint, which was great after the price of beer in France! You could buy wine in cardboard cartons ‒ like milk ‒ for only €0.69 a litre! Chicken piri piri is the local speciality. This seemed to vary depending on the restaurant, but was a wonderful meal in the right place.
Our favourite haunt was a quaint little Thai restaurant, well tucked away. The food was fresh, fragrant and delicious. The children enjoyed all the dishes we chose, which meant everyone was happy! We saved the Indian restaurant for the last night. Eating Indian food is probably one of the things we miss most from the UK. The French do not like spicy food and do not really eat curry. The kick from this dinner was just right to send us on our way home.
The tourist trap did win us over a few nights of the week, I am afraid to say, with karaoke on day 1 and day 6. The karaoke man enjoyed his own singing rather too much and we had to fight him for the chance to join in! On the last night, after much deliberation, my friend and I eventually chose a song, only to be told that it was too late and we had missed our chance as the karaoke man had to do the closing song (with his Mum) and those were the rules! However, as we had spent a good portion of our time in this particular hotel bar, the manager stepped in and, after a heated ten-minute discussion, managed to convince the man to let us sing our chosen song. I’m not sure it was worth the fight, however, as it was a poor effort from my end, very funny though!
We were also lucky enough to experience a reptile and a parrot show! I don’t really know what else to say except the children loved it . . . .
A wonderful week, all in all, highly recommend it, definitely going back. It has given me some get up and go to see me though the winter, which has hit with a vengeance!