Algarve - Day 1, arrival.

 A PCR test in Hamilton, dinner with Rick at Boston Pizza, a drive into Toronto to stay over with Chris and Jason and then a day with Cigi, was the start to my vacation.

She was fine in the morning but had an upset tummy in the afternoon so I got the unusual experience of cuddles with Cigi. She may have to pass on the kiwi next time, didn't seem to agree with her. Photo by Chris.

 

Chis and Jason drove me to the airport and we happened to drive up to departures behind Chuck's car. So Aimee and I met up there and navigated the various steps of getting boarding passes, dropping luggage, getting through security and getting to a lounge together. The picture was taken to give Greg a laugh, I wasn't really double fisting the wine. Photo by Aimee.

The flight left on time and I dozed for about 4 hours of the 7 hour flight. Customs and luggage pick up was a breeze and just the two of us rode in this huge bus to our hotel....

The Oceanus Aparthotel.

It was only 10am so our room was not ready. We ate a "full English breakfast" at the poolside snack bar and by the time we were finished we could get into our room.

One of our two balconies. This one overlooks the pool area.

Dining area

Kitchen area. We think we will probably eat lunch out but have breakfast and a light dinner at home. So after unpacking we walked to the Intermarche grocery store just down the road.

It had a great bakery section

We had to buy a couple of the custard tarts.

The basics. We will shop for dinners on the day we want to make them, very European. I found a bottle of Douro region wine for about E5, picked it up and then found one on the sale table for E1.50. Had to try that too.

After reading in the sun, on the balcony, for a while we opened the sale wine. I would consider it a perfectly acceptable $10 red at home, just over $2 here. Books from the hotel lending library as both of us were planning to read on our tablets which are not great in the sun.

 

We had cheese, crackers and smoked salmon for supper and we're now heading for bed, having made it to 7pm.