7 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Saturday

Drove around to several of the nearby beaches and walked along the promenade.  Matt and Greg took time out to admire the local talent.

Rooftop bbq for lunch.



Back to our local pub, Ginger's, in the village and taxi to Gogarty's Irish Pub in the next village for the next round of drinks. 
Next door at Paddy's Pointer for Irish potato skins and relaxing, mellow live music.

6 January 2012 VILLAMARTIN Friday

Phew it's been a worrying few days - I was blocked from internet access because I signed in from a foreign location and couldn't remember my security question's answer - until today.  Yay, I'm ready to catch up, but will keep it brief for easy reading.

Public holiday in Spain - gifting day, so everything closed during the day.  In the evening we walked to the local village accommpanied by natures own art.

A few quiet drinks at the local pub and home again.

5 January 2012 TORREVIEJA Thursday

A very late morning sleep in - probably the latest we've slept in many years and and entire day 'jus chillin'.

Drove down to the beach in the afternoon for a sundowner on the beachfront, watching the sunset and taking in the pretty deep blue Mediterranean.

The dreaded GPS - Samantha is her name - actually tried to make us drive home ON the Esplanade - she's a real psycho!

My choice of movie tonight - Cold Mountain.  Turns out it wasn't much better than the war driven movie last night.

4 January 2012 GRANADA TO TORREVIEJA Wednesday

We have borrowed wifi on our patio - but with the neighbours permission (apparently).

Before we left Granada this morning, we had a quick look around Ahlambra which is a fortress from Moorish times, but we didn't get too close because the queue was 2 miles long and we were in a hurry to leave.

The view from the hill that Ahlambra is built on is so yesteryear with all the authentic old buildings.



Another long drive today, but this time I managed to convince Al to stop at a "restaurant" on the roadside.  He previously insisted on looking for a Maccas/Burger King etc - such a westerner.  Anyhow, the so-called restaurant did leave much to be desired, admittedly.

The Spanish holiday home (first photo) is in an estate with onsite pub and pool and a 5 minute drive to the beach.  We did the obligatory grocery shopping and got down to the business of relaxing and movie watching - don't know what - some gory male avenging war story.

Settled in quite comfortably already!

3 January 2012 GRANADA Tuesday

After an early start and a lengthy drive, we finally made it to Granada in Spain without crossing any semblance of border from Portugal.

A sunset walk around the city centre whetted our appetite for the tapas that Granada is renowned for.  The pub in our hotel, Saray, was first port of call,

 where we met a Melbourne couple who recommended tapas in the city's square, pretty much the social gathering area for friends and family, we soon discovered.  We found a cafe called Matador, but were advised by the waiter that they had to "burn the kitchen" as they had been closed.  We then bumbled our way through the Spanish menu, only to be informed that you order drinks and get free tapas - no problem there.  Good tapas with pork and cheese in a toasted bun.  We realised we were on to a good deal here, so decided to do a tapas crawl through the city. 

As good as our intentions were, we found our second restaurant in the bespoke square, Bebidos, ordered our drinks and recieved said tapas.  These were not as good as the Matador, and so ended our tapas crawl.  However, we left the Bebidos with good bounty in hand, consisting of cappuccino's, hot dipping chocolate and a fist full of churros - doughnut like sugar coated sticks........mmmmmm.

We found Greg's namesake.

After the hustle and bustle in the square between 8pm - 9.30pm, there was no-one about on our walk back to the hotel.  It's like everyone comes out for dinner in that hour and half and then they all just disappear in an instant.  Such a culture shock, but so interesting to be part of it.

2 January 2012 LAST DAY AT VALE DE LOBO Monday

This morning was our first run to get us back on track.  We were tired but it's so worth it.

The rest of the day was a quiet one, finishing off the last of the groceries and finalising all our packing for the big drive tomorrow.  We're sleeping over in Granada, then on to Spain.

We definitely won't have wifi in Spain, but we may still have a chance tomorrow night.  If not, I'll catch up whenever I can........bring on the Starbucks coffee shops!

Cheers Vale de Lobo - obrigado.

1 January 2012 LEAP YEAR Sunday

2012

Lesson no. 1 for the New Year:  Do not try to keep up with the youngsters!

I should probably have mentioned yesterday that we decided to see 2011 out by doing something different, so we each put in a suggestion and started with mine, which was to build a magnificent sandcastle.  Yeah, yeah, not very unique I know, but something I've wanted to do for ages and we all got so embroiled in Romans and attacks and had a grand time.  Al wanted us to swim in the Atlantic, so into the ocean we ran, and very quickly ran back out, with me being unceremoniously knocked over by a wave.  Next was Matt's wish to have a traditional Portuguese lunch and Sandbanks on the beach was the place to be to meet that criteria.  Piri Piri chicken and grilled sardines are very Portuguese but maybe the sardines were not quite the flavour of the day!  After lunch and beverages, we never got to fulfil Greg's option of going to the golf driving range - we decided a siesta would be more Portuguese.

Pre-drinks (aka prinks) at the villa and then on to Monty's back at the beachfront.  It was great fun, Al and I got home at 2am, Matt and Greg got home at 5.30am, with Greg having gone by taxi to another club in Faro.  Suffice to say the 3 men are feeling a little sorry for themselves today. 

This is what some of the fun looked like.......it was a high 5 gone wrong!

Oh dear.....fortunately they were careful and "no-one got hurt in the filming of this clip"