Portugal Coastline with Derek, Wendy & Melanie

After a very excitable journey, we arrived in beautiful Portugal. The sun shone from the moment we stepped off the plane, and we didn’t see a cloud in the sky for the entire holiday! During our week, we struck the perfect balance of relaxing and exploring.  We enjoyed some refreshing swims in our hotel pool, leisurely dipping in and out as we wanted. Some of us loved to sit and soak up the sunshine, while others preferred the cool of the shade.  A number of us enjoyed walks along the beach, paddling our feet and sitting on the shore. 

 

The food in the hotel was absolutely excellent and we made sure to have a hearty breakfast each morning. There was so much to choose from – some of us devoured a cooked breakfast whilst others enjoyed fresh fruit, cereal, and continental breakfasts with ham & cheese! The dinners were scrumptious, again offering so much variety of good food. The waiter’s were always smiling and happy to help. 

We took a very picturesque drive into a historical town called Lagos.  Its origin dates back to 2000 BC! We wandered around the old town and dipped into an amazing ice cream parlour and chose from an impressive selection of incredible flavours!  Some of us bought postcards and souvenirs.  In the market square we saw a man making bubbles from two pieces of rope – he invited us to all have a go ourselves which was fantastic fun!  We ambled alongside the vibrant harbour and found a fantastic cafe for lunch.

 

The entertainment in the evenings was wonderful. We joined in with some Brazilian Dancing, soaked up some smooth live jazz, watched an Elvis Tribute act, danced to Fabio’s fantastic music and one evening we watched a parrot show!  We got to touch the parrots if we wanted, and had our photo taken with them.

 

We spent one brilliant day at Zoomarine, where we watched a variety of excellent shows!  We saw an Acrobatic Pirate Show, a Sea Lion Show and of course the famous Dolphin Show!  The Dolphins entertained us with many tricks, shooting up out of the water and turning in unison!  There was even a sweet little baby dolphin, too.  A number of us had the wonderful experience of swimming with the dolphins, whilst the others watched from the fancy spectator’s gallery! 

 

On another day, we took a stunning drive up into the mountains and stopped at Silves, the old Capital and wandered around the old castle ruins.  We then stopped in an enchanting little town called Monchique where we stopped for lunch and visited a few art & craft shops.  Again we enjoyed delicious ice creams and even took a drink from a fresh water fountain (which was hilarious!).

On our final day, we took a boat trip from Lagos to a beautiful fishing village called Alvor.  When they anchored the boat, James had a dip in the lovely ocean and swam around the boat!  It was so relaxing to sit on the boat and take in the gorgeous scenery all around us. 

 

As always, our fantastic holiday came to an end all too soon, but we had all made some new friends and were excited to tell everyone at home what a great holiday we had!