Algarve, Portugal weekend

I met up with John at the airport on Saturday for our flight to Portugal. He’s staying for two weeks, and I’ll be staying four days, but we had the same amount of luggage. I’ll let you decide if he travels light or I travel heavy.

We had a healthy sushi lunch at Yo Sushi before doing a quick recon at Duty Free to pick up some wine for the trip (No, not the trip TO Portugal, but to have in the house once we are there). As much as we would like to think that we can get cheap local wine in the Algarve, one can never be too sure. John went for the extreme and bought a bottle of Dom Perignon. I played it safer and got 3 bottles of basic Rioja, Cotes du Rhone and Marlborough Sauv Blanc for £15, along with a Pouilly-Fume and a Gigondas, all for ½ the price of the Dom. At least we knew we wouldn’t have a dry house for a few days….

After a quick 2.5 hour flight, we arrived in Faro, stepping off the plane onto the tarmac where a warm 25 degrees Celsius warmed our skin instantly. It was already 4pm and the heat and sun still had staying power. We were at the house by 6pm, including rental car pickup, getting only slightly lost, and checking in at reception at the golf resort where John will be ‘working remotely’ for two weeks.

The resort is in a hilly area overlooking the ocean (5 min drive to nearest beach at Salema) and is very new, which means the housing reminds me of Southern California. All the condos and homes are of a matching colour palette, and the interior furnishings are modern, comfortable and spacious. The one we are staying in is at the corner of a building of condos. The upper level that you walk into from the parking is the main living area, with kitchen, toilet, dining and sitting area and private balcony. Downstairs there are two bedrooms and two full bathrooms, with one bedroom opening onto a backyard area with lounge chairs and palm trees. Not bad!

Even though we stocked up on groceries at the local Ecomarche, which was much better than we had expected, we went out to dinner the first night at a steak house just outside the resort grounds and run by a British woman who has been living here for several years. The restaurant had 8 tables, so we had made a booking earlier (who knows, it could be a popular place?!). Sure enough, it was a packed restaurant, with live music (some guy singing along to 60s music with a karaoke machine, haha) and lots of friendly expats and visitors. All up, our two shrimp starters, two steaks, two bottles of wine and two desserts were 70 Euros. And, we were back at the house by 10:30pm on a Saturday night. Nice, relaxing holiday pace….

Sunday morning, up early (that’s 8:30am by my standards) we had a snack and went for a walk around the grounds. I had a headache from the previous night’s wine, so exercise was not on the top of my priority list, but it was such a warm, beautiful morning, that I didn’t mind. We hiked (yes, I can say hiked, because of the hills) around the resort for 30 minutes before returning back home for a fry up and coffee. After all that, I needed a nap and slept between 10:30-12:30 like a….well, like me on holiday.

Sunday was HOT so we headed down to Salema beach to walk around and have a lunch of fresh fish and local Vihno Verde (green wine, meaning young wine) before driving on to Sagres, and St. Vincent (the south westernmost point of continental Europe) and then onto Lagos. Nothing was terribly exciting, but all the views were pretty and there was no one on the road, considering it was a Sunday afternoon. We cooked dinner on Sunday night (grilled chicken in a lemon and herb marinade and Mediterranean grilled vegetables with the Pouilly-Fume) and watched a bit of TV before turning in at 10:30pm. I think being on holiday is the only time I’m able to go to sleep much before midnight.

Sunday night and Monday all day were really windy. So windy that it wasn’t really pleasant to be outside and I happily spent Monday morning (after getting up at 10am) reading and the afternoon going to the market for more provisions, making chicken sandwiches from leftovers, and actually doing a few hours of work. Before anyone gets on my case about working on holiday, let me say that a. I really do have *that* much to do, and b. I’m not taking one of the two weekdays I’m here as holiday because I’ll be doing enough work to make up for it.

Dinner on Monday night at home was decadent, but simple. For starters, we had a bottle of Pommery champagne (a new favourite of mine since the champagne trip a few weekends back) with cheeses and crackers. Later, we had spaghetti bolognaise – the bolognaise sauce had been simmering on the stove for 4 hours and that, with the fresh tagliatelle and the bottle of Gigondas Rhone wine, made for an excellent meal. I attempted a balsamic reduction with strawberries for dessert, but admittedly, John’s creation of melted dark chocolate with truffles over the strawberries was the best combination.

Tuesday was my last day, but no less satisfactory. I was up by 8:45am and slowly awakened by reading my novel on the balcony and having a cup of tea. Once ready for a full breakfast, I made eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit salad for John and me, including cleaning it all up by 10am when we had been forewarned the water would be shut off for a few hours. (I assume it had something to do with the continuing resort development). Although just as windy as Monday, I forced myself to sit in my bikini, chilled, on the balcony to get some sunshine until midday when I took myself indoors, finished my book, played (beat) John at a game of Scrabble and had a late lunch of grilled salmon on salad with Vihno Verde.

Showered and packed, I was out the door at 5pm heading back towards the Faro airport to catch my 7:45pm EasyJet flight back to London where it is apparently pissing down rain (it makes the wind, amongst the heat and sunshine, seem not too bad!) Although brief, my long weekend here in Portugal was much needed, and a nice non-hectic holiday that happily revolved around sleeping, eating and relaxation in a beautiful and chilled out country.

Once back in London, I will have a whirlwind short week of 3 days in Northampton, dinner party at a friend's on Friday night, and final packing for the States. I leave from Heathrow on Saturday morning for over 2 full weeks in the US (Chicago and California) for both holiday and training, and I’m really looking forward to all of it.