The Best of Plans (edited version)

Day 3 in the Algarve started out a little more restful. No great rush to anything scheduled and although we joked about taking another boat ride out to see the caves, neither of us had any intention of setting foot back on a boat! So we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before packing up and moving on. The hotel had a lovely view of the top of a cliff and the sea in the distance. Unfortunately we weren't high enough to have much of a view so I was disappointed and made another note to self to always ask for a higher room with a view. The breakfast was quite spread out on different tables looking like much more than it was. Another disappointment that it wasn't as nice as the previous hotel's breakfast. But we ate enough anyway! Then we went to the room and gathered our things and packed the car for the next hotel in my quest to find the perfect Algarve hotel. Both of us were tired of packing and moving hotels, but no hotel had the beach access I'd wanted...so we were headed to one more for the last night there. We went to the Tivoli Vilamoura Marina. It was the first hotel I'd chosen after literally days of searching online originally, but Cesar had explained it was quite far from where he lived so we wouldn't be able to get to his 'house' for dinner at night. So I continued to look and booked another that was closer to start with. Vilamoura is a beautiful town, the whole town is like a large resort and the marina is almost as beautiful as the sea. The hotel was quite modern and elegant and we hoped we had found the best. I've decided this trip was the pursuit of the perfect Algarve hotel and it appeared as though we had found it. We had to wait a while to even get up to the check in desk and then were told our room was not ready. Cessar said that is because I requested the special things, high floor with an ocean view. Yes, I had learned that if you don't ask, you don't get it! We dropped off our luggage, well my luggage and his backpack, and headed towards Spain. It was a lovely drive, he took all the backroads rather than the highway and the sights were beautiful. Such a variety of things to look at along the way, old towns, new buiildings, flowers, trees, orange orchards and more. The beautiful pink bouganvilla drapped down the sides of the Portuguese style white houses was a sight to see!

Cesar's family always spent time in the Algarve in the summers when he grew up and they still do. He took me by the beautiful guest houses, like bungalows, in Tavira where they usually stayed, so nice I had to take pictures. It was one of the rare times I did get to take pictures because we turned into the lovely area, off the main road. It is illegal to stop along the highways or roads so I missed many beautiful pictures! Then he suggested we have lunch at a restaurant where his family always went. It was very good, he had the octopus pastry, which was very good but knowing it was octopus I just couldn't eat it. I had the fish filet which was good.

Driving through the villages is a delight because of the diversity of housing. I love seeing the traditional white buildings, so much like Spain, but so different too. And I love the homes that have the tile fronts, such an interesting concept. This trip I read that the azuelos (spelling?) are originally from the Moors influence there. Those are the tiles that are all over Portugal. Of course there are many old buildings that are homes, with paint peeling and very run down. One lady came out on the street to stare at us and the door to her 'home' was open and it was a tiny room with a bed and chair. What would it be like to live like that I wondered. But the people in Portugal make the best of a tough life. The economy has always been bad and now with the way things are it is even worse. That is hard to believe driving through some of the areas in the Algarve though. We saw some of the most gorgeous homes and I thought how much fun it would be to build a home here in the Portuguese style. Won't happen for me, but it is a fun dream. I wish I would have had time to take more pictures of the homes, so elegant and interesting!

Well, back to our journey to Spain...
There is a ferry to Spain but we weren't going to take any more boat rides, so we took the highway into Spain. We went into the small town of Ayamonte and first stopped at a gas station to get gas. I learned how to tell from the license plates where a car was from. All plates have the EU flag on them but under each is a letter for the country they are from. Cesar pointed out that the gas station across the border in Spain had a long line of cars with a P on them, the reason being the gas is between 12 and 20 euro cents a liter cheaper than Portugal, because of the way things are taxed. Very interesting. And the Spanish people go across the border to Portugal often for the delicious food he said. The different countries tax different items. Portugal is upset because they have just raised the taxes on many items. Foods that used to be the lowest taxed are now much more expensive. There are more tax categories and it is higher, now in a time of so much unemployment. After we got our car filled up with all the other Portuguese, saving about 10 euros at least, we found a close place to park by a beach. A beautiful day, a cool breeze and the sun made it a pleasant visit. We both wished we had towels to just sit and enjoy the beach although it was a bit cold for Cesar. For me it was perfect. Then we stopped at a little tapas bar near the beach and although we weren't hungry I wanted tapas. I ordered the Spanish potato salad and it wasn't very tasty so I didn't eat much.

We went back to the car to find a flat tire. Not good news as it turns out there is no where in Spain or Portugal on a Saturday or Sunday to get help or a new tire. Cesar had never changed a tire and of course i hadn't, I have AAA which is unheard of over there. The Spanish people were no help and I was shocked by their indifference at our problem. The lugnuts were so tight that Cesar couldn't get them off. I went up to a man who was in the park there and he called over a family member who did speak English and it turned out they were Portuguese and the man was able to jump on the lugwrench and get it to turn. He helped us so much! Amazing, we were in Spain and the only helpful people were the Portuguese. I have to say that I was quite disappointed at the fact that the Spanish people we talked to were so indifferent to our problem. I know it was only a few people in that small town that were around. We got the tire changed and I wasn't upset to see the big sign on the tire that we couldn't go over 50 miles an hour on it. Everyone drives so fast there and it was rather funny going so slow as cars flew past us! But I was qutie adamant that we follow the directions in big letters on the tire, it was there for a reason and we had a long way to go and if we lost that tire we were in big trouble! Although Cesar kept telling me if we got back across the border we would be okay. When we did, I noticed phones along the highway every couple of miles for emergencies. However I wasn't sure they would work if you need them, one of our jokes was that something in every hotel didn't work right, the upkeep is not what I am used to here. This was not the way we planned to spend the late afternoon and and evening, a long, quite leisurly drive back. It changed our plans for the evening. Chef Cesar was going to serve me his Portuguese pasta for dinner but by then we were too tired to drive all the way to his house so slowly so we opted for an alternative. The view was also beautiful from the highway. I fell asleep at one point and felt the car speed up. I opened my eyes and asked him to please drive the suggested speed and when he said 'go back to sleep' and I said I would as soon as he went back to 80km. And so we continued the very long drive to our hotel in Vilamoura. Vilamoura was closer to that side of Portugal so it turned out to be a good place for us to stay that night. I had read about a highly recommended restaurant that was in Faro by the train station. Cesar had said we wouldn't be there at dinner during the trip because we'd be eating at his place. Well we were so tired from our ordeal and the long drive, as we were passing Faro he asked if I would like to try the restaurant I'd heard so much about. We weren't going to his house and we weren't up for more sandwiches at the hotel. I was excited to try it, I love Portuguese food and this was supposed to be one of the best and most reasonably priced places. However I didn't have the name or exact directions, I only remembered it was on a street not far from the train station and had Adega in the name. We eventually found the train station, we couldn't ask for directions to get there because we WERE NOT lost! We just didn't know where we were! After the day we had had, I knew it was a good time to sit quietly and let him find his way. We did find the train station and he left me in the car to go in search of some restaurant that had the word Adega in the name. At the last minute I remembered it had the word Nova in it so off he went in search of the 'perfect' Portuguese restaurant which he had never heard of. He came back a few minutes later with good and bad news, he found it but there was no parking near it so we had a very slow walk the couple of blocks and found it well worth the search! It was charming inside! Elegant was the English word for Cesar's description of it. Most places we had eaten were plain and that was fine, but this had a lot of special touches. I'd read about the 'steak on a stone' and wanted to try cooking at my table on a stone. Quite an experience. While we were deciding what to order the man right next to me got that so we started talking about it. You get a hot stone and a tray of sliced beef seasoned and you put it on the stone and it cooks. I wanted to do that and Cesar ordered something I can't pronounce or spell. We were so hungry by then and enjoyed the traditional bread on the table. I think I mentioned that they serve things and you pay if you eat them. Some places in Europe are so expensive to have them but in Portugal it might be about 75 euro cents for the bread basket and 30 euro cents for the butter or spreads. The sardine spread that Cesar thinks is delicious was worth trying, but not so delicious to me. He had soup and I had salad and then the main course. Soon I was cooking my own dinner. It was fun but I didn't love the flavor of the meat, however the very strange looking thing Cesar ordered was delicious and since he didn't feel too good by then I enjoyed eating part of his too. Somewhere I had him write down the name, it was delicious and I will highly recommend anyone going to Portugal try it. However I did find out that just as in the US, different food items aren't necessarily found all over Portugal but rather in the regions we found them. Disappointing. Oh well, we enjoyed another lovely dinner and although we had gotten there probably around 7:30 and the restaurant was quite empty, by the time we were finishing there was a line into the street. Mostly 'foreigners' were there when we arrived, but the Portuguese who eat much later were there as we left. Cesar said that the restaurant was definitely an excellent authentic Portuguese restaurant and the prices were great. We both enjoyed this Portuguese experience. Finally we were headed back to our hotel and looked forward to sitting out by the beautiful pool, but by the time we got there the pool and beach access had closed for the night so we stayed in and spent a bit of time on our balcony with the gorgeous view, it pays to know what to ask for! Then we spent time on the hotel computers.

Unfortunately we found out, as perfect as the hotel seemed, that was not the truth. Our room was miserably hot. I couldn't sleep being that hot and miserable. By 2AM even Cesar was hot and we talked to the desk and they sent a maintenance man up and he seemed to fix it but in no time it was hot again. So hot that the chocolate caramel kisses melted right in the room! I'm not sure if it was a good thing or not that it wasn't one of my personal beach moments! At least those pass, but this night I continued to wake up miserable. We had gone out on the hotel balcony facing the marina and it was very cool and windy so I guess if we had been on that side we could have opened the balcony door and enjoyed the breeze, but that was not true on our side. I have a cute little purple hand fan that I bought in England, Terry appropriately calls it my 'hair tangler' because when I first used it I put it too close and it took a very long time to unwind my hair from it and quite a bit was just lost! Anyway, I had that and Cesar propped it up to blow on me but the batteries died sometime in the night. Next time...I take the small fan I bought for traveling! EVERYWHERE just in case! It was a long hot miserable night, but what a view we woke up to the next day!

And that was day 3 and night 4 in the Algarve!