The Grande Finale

All good things must come to an end. Sad but true. A short, fun filled interlude in southern Portugal is no exception. The foods, the companionship, the beauty, the laughter, the adventure...all are almost over when we wake up that last morning. Almost, but not quite...

We wake up to a beautiful sky, not a cloud to be seen! The sun is sparkling on the ocean and the red striped and green striped lighthouses stand out on the edge of land. Our balcony overlooks a tropical pool setting, surrounded with lounge chairs and green and flowering plants and palm trees. That is surrounded with large rattan lounges, sofas and chairs under canopies to escape from the sun. César wonders how the 2 people can be in the pool, to the Portuguese it is a cool morning with the breeze, but I know to many it is not too cold to enjoy the water. Or the beauty of the perfect day.

We get up and dress for breakfast, in clothes we will then wear to wander down to the beach. The beach is just past the pool, 'calling our names'. Finally, on the very last morning I wake up to a hotel with a beach right at our hotel. This has been my goal but now I know why we didn't have this until the last day...if we had found it sooner, I am slmost positive we might not have left the hotel! So we had seen the sights we could and now we had a morning in this perfect Portuguese paradise!

I didn't mention that we had to set the alarm each morning so that we would make it to breakfast. We missed it the first morning and decided that we had to make it the rest of the time even if we were tired enough to go back to sleep afterwards. Breakfasts are quite the experience, large buffets and as I mentioned some have more food choices than others, but all are delicious. There are always desserts at breakfast too, the first hotel had a full table of choices, but since then it has been a few cakes and puddings. Definitely not a meal to be missed! There are sparkling wines and champagne too. If there were Sangria, I might take up drinking at breakfast!

Breakfast ends at 10 or 10:30 at the hotels, way too early for us on holiday! So we usually get up around 9 or 9:30 to take our time getting there. It seems the nights are the best time for conversations and they last well into the early hours of the morning. So we are up and quiet, knowing it is our last lucious breakfast together. We walk into the restaurant and it is a wall of windows facing out to outside dining and the pool, absolutely beautiful! Such interesting people to look at too, César pointed a couple out and asked if I remembered what he had told me. I didn't know what he meant but he reminded me that if a lady is wearing sunglasses inside at breakfast she is Portuguese, and it appears he is right. The guests in the Algarve seem to be all Portuguese, British and German, at least at this time of year. We did not cross paths with one other American the entire trip, quite unusual for us.

We had expected the not as impressive breakfast that we had had the day before because the hotels were the same company. But we were in for a delightful surprise, it was fabulous! As always there was a table of "American Breakfast" items, the eggs, bacon, hash browns, sausages (although they don't look like ours, but more like little hot dogs) and baked beans. Baked beans aren't an American breakfast food that I know of but is served everywhere there. There were sauteed mushrooms and a few other items to choose from. There was a cooking station for omelets made to order or you could order eggs any other style. There were Portuguese pancakes which looked like crepes to me and when I asked César about them he said they were crepes, and there were different toppings for those. There were some bowls of fruit although it didn't look fresh cut like at some of the hotels. There was a table of breads and rolls and a toaster. There were baskets of jellies to choose from. And of course the meats and cheeses that are ever present at a European breakfast. I may have left out something, but you can tell it was a feast for the senses, all set up in lovely style.

We enjoyed our breakfast and then headed out to experience the beach. Yes, if we had found this hotel first, I doubt we would have ventured out much beyond the beach, it was ideal! We picked up towels as we passed the pool and came to a beach style bar and even though the hotel had advertised a 'private beach' it seemed that wasn't the case. César thinks that having a private beach in Portugal is illegal. There were large beach mattresses scattered about, along with some single ones and some beach beds, covered and so luxurious. It was still a bit early and being fall the beach was not crowded at all. The big comfy white mattresses were 10 euros a person and that included a drink. Usually the drinks were 10 euros in addition but since there were no towels there, it was a discount day. When I visited César at his hotel in Cascais I used to love to lounge in the canopied beach beds so I asked how much those would be and when I was told 100 euros, I decided the mattress would be fine. César thought I was crazy to pay for that, but it was my last day on a beach in the luxurious Algarve of Portugal and I thought it was a deal! We don't drink so we ordered our smoothies to be brought to us later when we requested them and settled down on an amazing mattress in the sun. The cool breeze made the day just perfect! Not too hot and not too cold. After lounging a bit I walked down to the water and saw that there were seashells along the beach. There hadn't been any when we were at the beach near Albufeira or where we had stopped in Salema so I did gather some to add to my collection and my memories. I had some from the beach in Ayamonte, Spain too, another nice addition to my collection. When we finally ordered our drinks they were delicious and only the 10 euro a drink price prevented us from ordering another.

The morning passed entirely too quickly and quite begrudgingly we packed up our things a bit after 1PM and left our comfy 'home' on the sand and headed back to the room to pack and get me to the airport. Yes, I can see why the Algarve is the perfect place to escape and relax although I am quite sure I would not enjoy it in the hot, crowded summer there at all! But the fall, yes I just might have to plan a return trip another fall!

The trip to the airport in Faro was uneventful, thank goodness! A bittersweet drive that was. The end of a grand experience, but the end none the less. And saying goodbye to a dear friend when we have no idea if and when we will see each other again is hard, but I know I was grateful for the incredible time we had. Who knows where in the world me may next meet...perhaps the Canary Islands?

Algarve and César...hasta proximo!