Algarve - Day 2, settling in

 Aimee went to bed at 7pm. I went at 8pm and was asleep almost immediately. I woke at 3. That was 7 hours sleep, pretty well a normal night for me, but there was no way I was getting up at that time of night even though I could see that Aimee was no longer in bed (she woke at 11pm!). By 4:30 I managed to get back to sleep and woke, refreshed at 8am. Shower, coffee (we need to find a coarser ground, shopping is ok if you are just looking for coffee but as soon as you are identifying grind parameters the language difference gets difficult.) and breakfast and I felt great.

We walked across the street and talked about tours. Booked a half day tour to the western end of the Algarve for tomorrow (E25)

We continued down the street to the grocery store to pick up the couple of things we hadn't thought of yesterday; paper towels, kleenex, butter, medium ground coffee and Aimee found a shrimp dip we just had to try.

Not so jet lagged now and I am noticing things. This is a wall made of old tires that has then been planted with trailing plants.

This is a cactus flower. Notice the ornate chimney in the background. Iconic of Portugal and I am sure there will be more pictures.

We then walked down towards the beach. The weather forecast was 40% chance of showers so we did wear rain coats. We were soaked in spite of them. As we left the hotel we experienced a torrential downpour and both of us were soaked to the skin. We walked down to the beach, no pictures as I didn't want to get my camera that wet. I am looking forward to taking pictures on a good day because it is a pretty little beach with lot of places to have lunch and/or Sangria. But a heck of a walk back up the hill in the rain.

So we stripped off our wet clothes and settled down with our books. A couple of hours later it cleared and there was blue sky and sun again.

We went out again, to walk, as we want to build up our endurance for some visits to town. We just walked along the main road in front of the hotel and checked out menus at various restaurants. Turns out both of us love Indian food so we stopped for Samosas and Prawn Poori from this restaurant, which we will have for dinner.

Mimosa in bloom. We walked past a party house, though a quiet residential area and down to Club Med (but couldn't get to the beach) and then back. A 9,000 step day.

This succulent grows all around our balcony. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading on the balcony, then wine, crackers and seafood dip, followed by Samosas and yogurt.

8pm and I am still up, pushing for 9pm tomight.