December 25 to 31, 2022 ; Praia da Rocha, Portimão, Algarve, Portugal
Sunday ; CHRISTMAS DAY
MERRY CHRISTMAS / FELIZ NATAL
Sunny and warm. We had a very nice Christmas Day.
This morning we went for a long walk along the beach, then “up” into town and around town back to our condo. We walked about twice our usual distance, expecting that we would not have an afternoon walk due to forecast bad weather later in the day. The bad weather did not materialize as forecast. Nevertheless, we still did not have an afternoon walk.
Late in the afternoon we had a Zoom call with Joanne’s sister and two nieces. It was wonderful. I feel “family deprived” so I cherish interaction with Joanne’s family. Thank you, Lorraine, Madeleine, and Amelia. Congratulations on the new job, Madeleine.
Joanne roasted a chicken with stuffing as our Christmas dinner. The other day I purchased a cheap bottle of Portuguese rosé wine for Christmas dinner and New Year’s eve. We drank half of it with dinner tonight. It was quite good. Thank you for a wonderful Christmas dinner, and a special Christmas Day, my love.
WOO-HOO ! Tonight I succeeded in buying train tickets online for our trip from Portimão to our next destination, Cabanas de Tavira, on the other side of the Algarve.
Monday ; Boxing Day (in Canada)
WOW ! Bidets are really useful for washing a putrid combination of jellyfish slime and sand off the bottom of one’s shoes ! Who knew ? HA HA HA HA HA !
Sunny and warm. AHHHHH !
This morning I baked brie cheese and strawberry jam in puff pastry for brunch. Joanne doesn’t particularly like either brie cheese or strawberry jam, but she (and I) loved this concoction, which I learned at an Angra do Heroisma Christmas Festival cooking demonstration. It inspired her to tell me that she has endured my family’s Christmas morning brunch tradition of waffles slathered with strawberry jam and vanilla ice cream for 48 years … and has disliked it for 48 years ! ! ! ! ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA ! Who knew ? ! ? Thank you for your endurance, my dear. As of now … our family’s Christmas or Boxing Day brunch tradition becomes brie and jam (or fresh fruit) baked in puff pastry.
Around noon we went out for a long walk on the beach. We dumped our garbage and recycling in the nearby bins, then headed down the main street towards the tourist information office to get some Portimão information before heading “down” (very literally) to the beach. We did not get very far before Joanne had an inexplicable attack of vertigo and feeling “faint” / lightheaded. We sat and rested on a bench for a few minutes, then slowly returned to our condo suite where she lay down to recover.
Once I was confident that she seemed okay, and was resting comfortably, I went back out to resume my long beach walk. It wasn’t much fun walking by myself on the beach, worrying about Joanne. When I returned to our suite she had just awakened from napping, and was feeling better.
We took it easy for the rest of the day. Joanne wasn’t feeling well. We had a late lunch. I napped. We went to two nearby grocery stores and replenished a few items. We made and ate supper.
Joanne did some internet research and discovered that feeling lightheaded can be a symptom of having cataracts.
Tuesday ; Sunny and very warm. What a marvelous day to spend at the beach !
This morning we walked to the end of the main street, then “down” (literally) to the beach, then walked back along the beach, shoes and socks off, wading in the (icy cold) surf. While walking down the main street we stopped at the Spar grocery store to get a correction for a pricing error on yesterday’s purchases. And we stopped at the Tourist Information Centre to get some information on taking a bus into the downtown of Portimão.
While the Portuguese people seem relatively friendly it has been our experience that retail and service staff often are rude and/or indifferent. That was the case with the woman at the Tourist Information Centre and one of the two cashiers at the Spar grocery store. The cashier who dealt with our pricing error was apologetic … almost horrified at the error … while her colleague was downright disdainful. As if the pricing error was somehow my fault. Eat ****, ***** !
We wandered down the beach back to where our condo is located, then beyond until we were hot and tired. We climbed the 120 stairs from the beach back to the street, and huffed and puffed our way home for lunch.
I napped, then we walked down to the Intermarché supermarket for more grocery replenishment. WOO-HOO … freshly baked croissants on sale ! WOO-HOO … freshly baked Portuguese crusty sandwich buns on sale. WOO-HOO … chocolate milk on sale ! WOO-HOO … potato chips on sale ! WOO-HOO … first time in six weeks in Portugal that we have found celery in the produce section. WOO-HOO … Waldorf salad with supper tonight ! WOO-HOO … pastels de nata on sale !
We brought our groceries home, then walked down to the beach again around 5 PM. We sat on the beach enjoying the warmth and watching the sun set. As soon as the sun was down the air cooled rapidly, so … back up the 120 stairs and home.
Wednesday ; Sunny and very warm early in the day, cloudy and warm late in the afternoon.
This morning I experimented with some puff pastry creations. My jam tart and jam & peanut butter tart turned out great. My croissants turned out to be … breadsticks. Joanne called them my croissant turds ! HA HA HA !
Our early walk was to the edge of town, then down to the beach and back home along the beach. A lot of seaweed had washed up onto the beach overnight. Just before arriving back home we replenished some groceries at Intermarché.
Late in the afternoon we walked to the edge of town again, then out onto the breakwater and along its length to the lighthouse at the end. I stopped at the Tourist Information Centre to ask a question and at a travel agency to get some information on a bus trip to the weekend market in Loulé. That’s what Joanne wants as her Christmas gift from me.
DARN ! In the evening (afternoon in Winnipeg) Joanne received a phone call from her eye surgeon in Winnipeg offering a cataract surgery appointment in two weeks due to a cancellation. DARN DARN DARN !
Thursday ; Praia da Rocha to Portimão and return
Sunny and warm.
Today we went to explore the nearby city of Portimão, population around 65,000, so … not as small as I had thought. We left our condo around 11 AM and took bus #33 from Praia da Rocha into and around Portimão until getting off the bus near the “middle” of the waterfront walkway along the Arade River which reaches the Atlantic Ocean at Praia da Rocha. We wandered north along the waterfront walkway, reaching the “end” of it at the Ponte Velha (Old Bridge). We walked back towards where we had begun, stopping to have lunch at Quiosque Chiquinho, an open air café on the edge of Jardim (Park) Visconde Bavar. Mediocre food, slow service, … warmth and sunshine, beside the river. <shrug>
After lunch we continued wandering and sightseeing along the waterfront, passing the large marina, eventually reaching the other (south) end of the walkway. At that point I checked the GPS map on our i-Phone, and we were about 3 km. from where we had to catch the bus to return home or … about 3 km. from our condo. We decided we might as well just walk the rest of the way home.
We arrived home around 5 PM. Tired !
Friday ; Sunny and warm.
Tired from yesterday, we had a slow, relaxing day. We went to Intermarché and replenished a few groceries, which we do most days. We went on two long, leisurely beach walks. We made lunch together. We made supper together. I did some trip planning.
AHHHHH … the “golden years”.
Saturday ; NEW YEAR’S EVE
High thin overcast, mild, windy.
Today’s moral ; HMPH … don’t go for long walks on a soft sand beach wearing cuffed pants.
It had been our plan to go for a couple of long, leisurely, sun and warmth drenched romantic beach walks on New Year’s Eve. It didn’t quite turn out as planned. Our morning beach walk wasn’t sun and warmth drenched. Our afternoon walk was “inland”.
On our afternoon walk we went to a local Asian (Chinese & Japanese) restaurant and ordered some sushi (for me) and Peking Duck à l’Orange take-home for dinner tonight. We had half a bottle of rosé wine left over from Christmas. Joanne made créme brûlée for dessert.
It certainly is cumbersome getting all those accents in there, n’est-ce pas ?
Supper was good. Particularly enjoyed the sushi with caviar, both red and black. Wine was good. Company/companionship was superb ! DARN ! Broke a wineglass, knocked it over in the sink. Watched “New Year’s Eve Live Around The World” on CNN.
At midnight we were on our balcony watching the shoulder to shoulder crowd on the main street. Just a minute or two after midnight I went down to the street to see the end of the fireworks on the beach. Joanne did not want to come with me. It was a pretty wild street scene ! Who knew Portuguese beach resort towns are so wild on New Year’s Eve ? ! ?
DSK
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