Rob & Liz in Portugal

  Last day in Lisbon and the last day in Portugal. great adventure and great country. We loved it. Bit of a shopping expedition today so first of all we walked around to the laundromat because Liz had run out of essentials for the trip home. While the clothes spin around we pop two doors down for some croissants and juice and coffee. Though it's an expresso so a wee bit strong for me. Once we have dealt with laundry and breakfast we set off to see a few record shops and circumnavigate the city of Lisbon. The first record shop was Neat Records. Named after the Damned song. On the way passed King Edward Park again. This time there were 3 large colourful teddy bears on chairs. Very strange indeed. Neat had a few good records but most of their stuff was heavy metal and hardcore punk. Some great posters on the wall of The Damned et al though.  Next up was a few retro stores for Liz and she picked up some really groovy shirts. She has picked up some terrific vintage clothing here. A...

Leaving Faro today and going back to Lisbon. We start packing our bags and have a bite to eat. watching BBC World News. Blackpool is in the news for having 1 in every 50 kids in care. Jeez.  At 11am we manage to get our bags down the steep stairs and out into the pedestrian mall where we meet our AirBnB Host who takes us for a walk to her Mum's Clothing Shop where we will be leaving the bags until we catch the 2.15pm train. She has been a lovely host and we meet her Mum and Dad. We wander off and Liz manages to find a few more pottery things to take home. We are going to need some bubble wrap!  So we just stroll and look at a little market, the pair near the train station and so on. Grab a quick bite then make our way back to the shop to pick up our bags. Catch a Bolt to the station. Bolt cars are always cheaper. And wait for the train to board. When it comes time to board I put the smallest ones on first. The first one has the records and my laptop. As I reach out for the sec...

 Lately, it's been noisy in our room in the morning as we can hear every movement of the people upstairs. Very movement. But today is quiet. New tourists we reckon. So it's a breeze to have breakfast and get ready to go out early. We are going to take the train to a few small towns today. We never got around to hiring a car because it was 3 days minimum and we only wanted two days. Oh well the train has been fine. First, we go to Vila Real De Santo Appolliona which is on the border of Portugal and Spain. When we finish walking our way through the grimy streets we end up on the boulevarde that follows the Guardina river. The border. we can see Spain on the other side. The boulevard is quite nice to walk along. Sunshine, boat, fishing that kind of thing. Very clean. Halfway down we diverge into the town and check out the square. It's a nice place but not a highlight. We jump back on the train and head to Tavira. It's got a reputation as the prettiest town on the Algarve a...

 Time is beginning to move fast now as we head towards the last days of our holiday. We thought me going to the Bangiril Caves but we have heard they are not open to the public. And then some say they are and it's all a little confusing. So we go to the tourist office to see if they can help. They kind of say they are not open to the public but are not sure. It's a 2 and half hour journey so we're not sure we want to risk it. So we decide to take the train to Loule and then bus it down to Vilhamour. She puts us off the beach part of the trip though when she says it's just bars along the waterfront. So we are going to take the train to Loule but there isn't one until 12.30 so we Uber it which doesn't cost much. And later we find out the station in Loule is nowhere near the centre of town. When we get there we check out the famous Morrocan Market which is totally underwhelming and smells like fish. So we wander from there until we reach the Morrocan castle. A bit ...

  Not the usual morning routine! We have a kitchen and we stuff from the mini-market. Cereal and toast and bananas. It's a lot more fun and relaxing to make your own breakfast in your own time. And BBC news is on so we can catch up with the world news.  After breakfast, we go for our walk. Faro is a small town so we go virtually round in circles often passing the place we are staying. Firstly we head to the chapel of Bones at a Cathedral in what they call the 'old town' We were going to visit Evora for their large one but never got there. So this is like a second prize. Still, it's quite bizarre to see all these skulls and bones built into a wall to celebrate death. Quite a few have worn away over time. I think it's about 500 years old. From there we head across town to the Tourist Information Office to get a map. The lady points us to the town centre and tells us just to turn left and follow the road. When we get to the end we find ourselves at our apartment. So I ...

 Today we leave Porto so after breakfast we pack our bags and basically hang around the hotel until it;s time to take the Uber to Campanha train station. A final walk around the block and we see a couple of murals we've missed and then it's off to the station. It's only a few minutes away but we have some heavy bags. We have first-class rail tickets which are very comfortable but again we going backwards because of the seating. Not fond of that. The journey seems to go quickly until the last hour or so when we realise we are arriving later than expected. 6 hours becomes 7 hours but we get to Faro. Get a Bolt which takes us to the pedestrian mall where we need to walk the last 90 metres. Meet the owner of our BnB it the middle of the mall. Nice place from the first look. Just doesn't have any windows. We are really hungry and most places are closed so we grab some Maccas and bring it back to the apartment. And that's it for the day.

  See the start of every other day however maybe it’s the port wine but I feel like rubbish in the morning. I need to go for a walk. Today Liz and I are splitting up. It’s Record Store Day 2024 and there are 3 shops I want to get to. Liz is going to go back to her favourite vintage store and then do some washing. The first shop I go to Socorro nothing is happening at all. It begins at 4 pm so I will have to come back later. They have a venue downstairs and bands will be playing. So next stop Louie Louie where RSD stock is limited but I pick up Pulp’s intro album. Next up is Port Calling but I don’t get anything there although I’m tempted by Bowie and Jeremy Gluck. I run a couple more errands before catching up with Liz at the laundromat.  After dropping off the clothes at the hotel we walk back to the Vintage shop with cash for a dress she wants to buy. While we are there she tries another one on and buys that too. Which means we need more cash. The guy at the shop tells us ...

  Star off in the usual way with bacon and eggs (scrambled) fruit and coffee. We have a routine and we kind of stick to it. Get the laptop out and purchase vouchers for the Livrarvia Lello. It calls itself the most beautiful beautiful bookshop in the world and who are we to argue?  Supposedly an inspiration for Harry Potter set designs. We have to pre-book because the line yesterday was so long that we didn’t even attempt it. We arrive there at 11 am and surprisingly we just walk in the door. The queues are still very long and it makes me wonder why they don’t buy a ticket online for the time they want to come in. The bookshop is extremely cool especially the staircase in the middle of the shop. From below and above. A nd the whole place does have a Harry Potter feel. There is even a sorting hat on one table. It cost us 8 euros for a voucher so we could enter the place. 8 each. And the voucher can be used as a discount on a book. And only a book. No tote bags or fridge magnets...