Yikes, we actually had to get up by an alarm clock today! We hated to say good bye to the nice folks at the Casa 1800, but sadly, yet excitedly we were out the door by 8:30 to get a cab to the bus station. When we arrived we went straight to our platform and waited for the bus. It was pretty full and some of the people had seat assignments on their tickets and others (like us) did not. The bus driver said the seat numbers don't really mean anything. Some people moved seats, but for the most part, nobody really cared where they sat. Several Americans and Canadians were on the bus with us. The trip from Seville to Faro, Portugal was about 2.5 hours. The scenery was a little different, but not exciting enough to help us keep our eyes open. The bus made a few stops and then arrived at Faro. From there we could have taken another bus to the airport to pick up our rental car, or we could have caught a cab. The cab sounded much easier, so Guy asked the cabbie how much and he said less than 10 Euros. Sounded good to us, so off we went! The ride couldn't have been more than 10 minutes and he dropped us off at the car rental area. For an old gentleman, his English was very good.
The car rental was the same ole same ole routine as usual, and the young man who showed us the car was great and spoke perfect English. The key fob fits into the middle dash board area and you press on the brake while pushing the on button. It took a little bit to figure out how everything worked, but FINALLY I get to drive an automatic in Europe, so I'm happy. Our Garmin wasn't playing along very well, so Guy did have the directions from the airport to the hotel printed out from Map Quest. The streets are not too confusing and we made it to the hotel quite easily. We later found out that the hotel won't be found on the Garmin because it is private property. Had we known that we would have typed in the Sheraton that is a few doors down!
Upon arrival our room wasn't ready, so we sat out by the pool and ate a sandwich from the poolside cafe. Even tho it was just basic pool food, it tasted good because we were starving! After lunch we walked around the property and I took a few photos. Our resort is on top of a cliff that overlooks the ocean. It is quite spectacular. Our room was ready, so we went on up and unloaded our things. The room is simple, but very clean and has a balcony that over looks the pool and ocean. Lovely! So we hooked up to wifi and I chatted via Viber with Amanda and it seems to be working well. After settling in, we walked down (135 steps - not that we were counting) to the road that led to the beach to check things out. It is really windy and pretty darn cold. We walked along the beach and picked up a few rocks, but we quickly found a spot on the sand that had a bit of a wind block and we enjoyed the ocean sounds and tried to avoid the goose bumps. Even the life guards were wearing long pants and sweatshirts with the hoods up! After about an hour, we headed back up to the hotel where we scoped out a place to sit and take in some sun. The pool area was packed and the yard area had two open chairs. Guy grabbed them while I ran up to put some shorts on and get some towels. At this hotel the sunbathers are...well, pretty much a lot of old folks. The lawn area had lots of chairs and umbrellas and I told Guy I expected to see them all in long dresses, holding parasols and playing croquet.. :)
We are going to have to Trip Advisor choose a place to eat tonight for supper since we have a car and can go anywhere. Guy searched for over an hour and talked to the front desk twice before making the final decision of the Castelo do Mar. It is rated #3 in all the area. So we got ready for dinner and had the front desk call for reservations and give us a map. The gal at the desk Map Quested it, but it was in Portuguese, so she just highlighted the map in yellow. We followed the map all the way down to the marina (took about 15 minutes) and then we drove around the tiny twisty little streets of this town for one hour. I'm not joking - one hour. We even asked some locals AND a cab driver who so kindly offered to let us follow him. We did and when he pulled over, we did as well. He said up the street, go left at the roundabout, then straight make a right and left. We offered to pay him but he refused and smiled a big friendly smile, gave the car a tap and a wave goodbye. That didn't help either. We KNOW we were in the right area, and how we were missing it we have no idea. We got on a street that was so narrow we weren't sure cars were supposed to go down it. So when it started getting dark, we decided to throw in the towel. Well, that was all good, but we now couldn't find our way out of the little town back to the main road. So Guy popped into a hotel and got directions out of the town. We just needed a bit of help because we'd been up and down every street, but seemed to be turned around. We quickly saw the way out once we made a few of the turns that she told him. I asked him if he happened to ask her where the restaurant was. He said "why yes I did...she has never heard of it". Sigh... a sign to head back to the hotel. Guy still wins the award for being great with directions and in the family is known as Christopher Columbus. Tonight was just too weird for words - for both of us.
Back at the hotel, it is now just before 10pm and it is dark. I lost my adventurousness about 45 minutes ago, so we asked about food in the hotel. There just happened to be an Italian restaurant that she promised was very good. It was called il Basilico. We ordered some bread and a cheese pizza with two cokes (neither one of us really had the energy to read the menu or make any kind of decisions). The food came out quickly and we weren't even really hungry. After finishing the pizza we treated ourselves to a brownie sundae and it was awesome. The staff in the hotel and the restaurant are very very friendly. Earlier today they gave us a map to walk to the grocery store, but we just don't have it in us tonight.
So tomorrow there won't be much to blog about. If the sun is out, we'll be at the pool all day. We'd go to the beach - you can even get a massage down there in a tent that has "massage" spray painted on it - #sketchy, but if it is as chilly and windy tomorrow, we'll need to use the trees from the hotel as windbreakers. Night for now and enjoy the photos of scenic Portugal.
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