Week 11 - Preparation.
Monday 1st February 2016 - Sunday 7th February 2016
Monday - Thursday
A very special week this. We are having visitors. Auntie Brenda and Uncle David are coming for a one week visit on Saturday, they are not daft enough to stay in the caravan so we have booked an apartment in FUSETA. Looking forward to it but first we have to get through the early part of the week with my favourite pastime shopping - not!!
We have to get in sufficient food and drink and make some sort of visit schedule. Fortunately we still have that MAKRO card we borrowed so were able to stock up with essentials. Looking at the invoice afterwards we note that the drink came to over €130 while the food portion didn’t quite reach €40 - well at least we managed to get the food/drink relationship right.
Friday
The plane bringing Brenda and Dave is arriving quite early tomorrow and the APARTMENT DETAILS stated that it was available from 3.00pm on the day of arrival so we booked an extra day and moved into the apartment this afternoon. It is all that we hoped it would be, large well appointed bedrooms a comfy sitting room and a huge extremely well appointed kitchen/dining room. We invited Rosemary and Frank to dinner which threatened to turn into a disaster when the oven refused to heat up and the entire dinner was to be cooked in it. When all else had failed we even read the instructions - nothing!! When R&F arrived and we explained about the oven and suggested we go out for dinner Rosemary suggested that if we turned the oven timer off it may heat up. We did and it did - DOH!!!!!!!!
It was a splendid evening (when we finally got dinner) more than an hour later than planned, time that was spent checking the beer, gin and wine that we had purchased earlier in the week. Sizeable portions of it all obviously had to be checked to ensure it would be safe for B&D to drink. It passed with flying colours, I think.
Week 12 - The BIG visit
Saturday
Being just 23 kilometre (14ish miles) from the airport we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and not leave for the airport until Easyjet’s version of FLIGHT RADAR 24 assured us the plane D&B were on was less than thirty minutes from landing and we still arrived in plenty of time.
First port of call from pickup was Olhão fish market. This is the largest, busiest fish market we have ever come across, and every visit to the area should include the fish market, particularly on a Saturday morning when the whole place can only be described as “chaos”, organised chaos but chaos. We bought fish to BBQ for our dinner and continued to the apartment.
Sunday
Buying boxes of wine is such a poor idea. It’s so easy to loose count of how many times the carafe is refilled and so when you first wake up have no idea why there seems to be a little man with a big hammer in your head trying to get out.
Behind where the caravan is, is a hill, Cerro de S. Miguel, that has an official mountain bike run down it so is quite high and very steep affording stunning views from the top. Fortunately there is a good road to the top and we spent a while up there clearing heads and trying to identify the building we are staying in before returning to Fuseta for lunch and a snooze.
Monday - Friday
We tried to be a little less programmed for D&B’s stay this year, (last year virtually every minute of every day was programmed) but still managed to visit lots of local attractions including the fabulous RUINAS ROMANAS (roman ruins) at MILREU, the salt pans along the RIA FORMOSA, the old town of TAVIRA (more of that in a minute) and had some fantastic meals. The ones Sue cooked were obviously the best (flattery will get you everywhere - ed) but we also managed a visit to O’Monte Velo, a restaurant high in the hills between Moncarapacho and Tavira in a place no-one in their right mind would open a restaurant. It is (literally) miles from anywhere along a very rough road and you cannot just turn up you must book and order at least one day before you go and it is difficult to ring to book as there is no landline phone up there and the mobile phone signal is so poor the proprietors mobile is mounted on a pole outside the building so often goes unheard (thats if it does manage to lock onto a signal). Despite all these disadvantages it is a busy and popular eatery and well worth the effort necessary. We also visited SERGIO’s restaurant in OLHAO, a favourite of ours where Sue and I always have liver and onions. There were several eateries that we tried to get into but were booked solid. That happens when the food and drinks are such good value.
I said I would come back to Tavira, this is because when we visited earlier in the week we saw an electric TUK TUK with six seats that gave tours round the town and surrounding areas and determined to return later in the week for a tour. When we arrived and asked for the "town and immediate area tour" the driver/guide explained that the tour was listed as a 45 minute tour but that he was unable to do justice to it in that time and it normally worked out an hour to an hour an a quarter - oh yes we thought he’s laying the ground for charging extra on top of the normal €12.00 a head price.
The driver, Pedro, was extremely knowledgable explaining in great detail the history and sights in his city. When we arrived back at the start some two hours after the start of the tour Pedro insisted that the cost was the advertised €12.00, we rarely tip but did on this occasion. Unfortunately on exiting the Tuk Tuk for the last time Sue went base over apex but luckily she managed to put a hand out as she fell so did not land on her face, and although she had a sore wrist and arm she suffered no other damage.
Saturday
Up bright and early to take D&B back to the airport, it seems they only arrived yesterday. Leaving them at the airport we went back to the apartment to remove all our stuff and book out. By noon we were back in the caravan.