I always copy and paste my blog into a document because they take so long to type and I fear them disappearing. Today I did not save it and guess what? My blog didn't save. I should have known when Picasa shut down while I was trying to load photos that something was wrong, but blogger.com is constantly autosaving and I've never had an issue... but lesson learned and so an hour of time is out the door and I'll begin again.....
We woke up to the most spectacular weather we've had so far. Not a cloud in the sky and the air finally feels warm. Again, breakfast is quite the spread and I basically had a repeat of delicious food items as yesterday. We sat out in the sun and it was just lovely. Before leaving, I snagged a few little packages of butter for our lunch, and the conversation turned to Grandma Gladys. We started telling our favorite stories about her and it wasn't long before we were both drying some misty eyes. Good memories...
We went back to the room before heading down to the little town around the corner from the hotel. It is walking distance and I think it is still the town of Olhos D' Agua, in the region of Albufeira, in the region of Algarve. Confused? Yeah, me too...but that's okay. As we walked down we stopped at a shop that made leather from cork. The items were lovely, but very expensive. We continued on around the corner and entered the little pedestrian area that dead ends at the ocean. It is lovely and most of the houses are white washed and it reminded us a little of the town of Oia in Greece. We walked along and visited some of the shops, picking up some post cards and a few gifts. Guy was already at the area where the little boats were and had watched a fisherman come in and unload his catch. As we walked around there were these adorable fishing huts all lined up together and I'm sure some pretty big fish tales have been told here. One man was repairing a net and the scene gave us a deja vu moment from past Italy trips. As we ventured along, we saw some people walking up some paths to the top of the small sea side cliffs and decided to check it out ourselves. Yes, we were careful, but it did warn you going up that the cliffs are unstable. We are really amazed at the terrain, but can't believe it isn't stone or rock, but appears to just be soil. How the cliffs don't erode, we aren't sure. Our hotel sits right near the edge of a pretty big cliff! Anyway, we walked all around and had some good photo ops.
We walked back to the hotel and put our swimsuits on. We only found two unoccupied chairs and we hopped in. It is the perfect day for sunbathing. Warm sunshine, but the cool breeze kept you from getting too hot. In the shade you cooled down in a hurry. Perfect. At about 1:30 my time, I text Emily to wish her a wonderful graduation day. I'm really sorry I'm missing it, but wanted her to know how proud I was of her. For the second time today, some tears were shed. Not 10 minutes later, Amanda text me that Mom and Dad were in her kitchen and they were all having coffee. I ran up to the room where the wifi was better and I could talk louder and we Facetimed for about 20 minutes. It was good to see them all in "real time" and they got to see the views from my balcony and a look at the room. I'm not homesick, but it was really nice to video chat. The lag time wasn't bad at all, which made it really nice. Back at the pool we hung out most of the afternoon and listened to our ipods. We ate a snack and decided to take a final walk on the beach. Down all 135 steps, we walked the beach for nearly an hour. We walked on the rocks and followed them around several bends. After quite a while, we ended up in the little town we were in this morning! We had asked the gal at the desk yesterday if you could get to the little town via a path, but she said no. We suppose that if it were high tide you actually wouldn't be able to go where we went. We decided to go back the way we came instead of walking through the town like this morning, because the sand and ocean path is much more fun.
I went to the front desk to ask them to make us a reservation tonight at the Castelo do Mar. Third time will no doubt be a charm, but we wanted to make sure we had a seat. The grump at the desk helped me out. Guy said yesterday he ran into his first grumpy person in Portugal. As I walked up I knew it was him before we even spoke. :) I showed him the restaurant's website I had pulled up on my phone and he called for the reservation. He was first speaking to them in Portuguese, then he started speaking in English. He gave them our name and we were set! After hanging up he asked me where the restaurant was. I told him by the Marina. He said it was odd because they didn't speak Portuguese and every local did. I asked what did they speak and he said "English". So the mystery continues....but that did make me go back to Trip Advisor and read the review again. All were outstanding and I felt confident it would be worth all this drama!
Back to the room, I blogged while Guy showered (yes, that blog is gone), but we were ready a bit early for dinner and headed out, giving ourselves time to find parking at the restaurant. When Guy walked in the restaurant, the owner (that he had begged last night for a seat) looked at him and said "Please tell me you have a reservation" because they were booked. Obviously we did and our table was waiting for us. It was already full and the views were beautiful. We didn't want to order an appetizer because we had heard about how good the desserts were, so we ordered entrees only. The owner came by and said "After all this you only ordered entrees?" We laughed and said that if we had to choose, we always opt for dessert. We told him about our hotel being surprised they didn't speak Portuguese. He was from South Africa and the other owner was a Brit I believe. We aren't sure what brought them to Portugal, but the locals are not too happy that "foreigners" run a business there and do not speak the language. Maybe that is why the other night at the hotel we stopped at for directions said they had never heard of them. They do not get much support from the community apparently. However it is 2014 and you don't need community support if you have an online following, which these guys do! Obviously, if they are rated as the #3 restaurant in the entire area on Trip Advisor and are booked most nights, they are going to do fine. The Internet has definitely changed how people do lots of things...but this is just an interesting example of the new era. He said they get many European snowbirds (Brits, Dutch) that come there for the winter and stay 3 to 6 months, so to only speak English hasn't been a problem for them. They have only been in business for two years, but this location has been a restaurant for years. At one time it had been the home of a local fisherman.
So as the dramatic soap opera of the Castelo do Mar unfolds ... let's talk food. I ordered Salmon over red pepper and chorizo risotto with salt and pepper squid. Guy ordered a steak with pickled onions and potatoes. By far, mine was the winner. Not only for the night, but this was the most delicious food I've had on the trip. I described it to Guy as "beautiful". I'm not the biggest salmon fan, but it got rave reviews on the Internet and I had ordered it because of what was UNDER the salmon. Guy enjoyed his steak, but again, I wished he had ordered what I had ordered. If I had not been in public, I would have licked the plate with my tongue...it was that good. The salmon was cooked perfectly and was not fishy tasting at all (a problem I often find with salmon). The risotto was creamy and delicious, with a wonderful balance between the red peppers and the chorizo. The squids were obviously hand breaded and cooked to perfection. There was only one problem...there wasn't enough of it! I told Guy he should just order the salmon, too, and we'd just take the steak to go! This meal was so amazing I almost shed my third tear of the day! If tonight wasn't our last night, I guarantee you we'd go back again tomorrow. Words just can't quite describe it. We both ordered dessert but wished we had ordered a starter to have tried some of the other eclectic foods they offered. I got the brownie with "clotted cream" and Guy ordered a strawberry and cream dessert. Both really delicious, but not even coming close to my entree. However, it was the perfect ending to the perfect meal.
So now that the mystery of this restaurant has unfolded and I have basically typed this blog twice, I bid Albufeira good night and tomorrow we head for the city of Lisbon. For those who follow soccer, every TV in Portugal is showing the big soccer match in Lisbon tonight between the two Madrid teams. I don't follow soccer, but trust me, I can hear yelling from the first floor all the way up to the room I'm blogging in. There is quite a buzz in the air. Let's just hope when we drive into the city tomorrow the traffic and crowds are gone!
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