Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Sunset on Christmas Eve from our roof-top balcony in Vilamoura.

Loule Christmas Lights Outing!

Merry Christmas!

We thought we would post some pictures from the area. We went to Loule last night to look at the lights. This town knows how to get it right! All of the streets near the town square were lit up.
Lanaia and Santa
The Loule town square
Even the alleys are lit up! The Loule castle is on the left.

To all our friends and family: Feliz Natal! Merry Christmas!

Matt and Lanaia

Rainy Day

We were planning on going to the weekly local market in Quarteira today, but unfortunately, the weather changed our plans for the day.

A dreary day in Vilamoura

Matt was devistated about not getting to go shopping today!

Our cozy living room on a dreary day, what's that orange lump?

Shopping in Faro

We went for a drive today and ended up in Faro. The capital city of the Algarve, southern Portugal and where you would fly into when you come to visit us. It was about a 30 minute drive taking the scenic route.We actually intended to check out Albufeira today which is in the opposite direction but after a missed turnoff or two we ended up heading to Faro. Oh well!

We ended up at the Faro shopping mall past the airport. It's funny that no matter where we are, women seem to have the uncanny ability to sniff out a shopping mall even in unknown territory. Matt was so excited!!! Ha, Ha!

This was a very nice shopping center with a huge supermarket in it called Jumbo. The stores were on two levels surrounding a huge outdoor courtyard. There was a cinema, lots of different stores, a hair salon and a food court as well.

We went to see a matinee, The Golden Compass, it was great, the first theatre movie we have seen in months. All of the movies here are in English with Portuguese subtitles. There is even a tiny little theatre in Vilamoura and they show their one movie a week in English. WAY better than Spain, we could only find one theatre in Pto. Banus that showed an English movie and they only had one, the rest were in Spanish.

We had a great afternoon of shopping (I found some boots), movie watching and a food court dinner. Bought some groceries, we are actually cooking here! And then the trek home in the dark. We made it!

This is a pic of the courtyard in the centre of the mall all decorated for Christmas.
Yes this is a skating rink. There is actually a rink in the mall courtyard and the kids seemed to be having a ball. Just like West-Ed!

Matt beside the rink at the mall in Faro, they had just cleared all the people off to clean the ice. Does he look excited about shopping? New hair cut too!

Quarteira

Quarteira is a town about 5 minutes from Vilamoura where we are staying. This is a small town with a few more ammenties than we have in our area. We came to get our phone set up and to scout out the area for shopping, restaurants, movie rentals etc. The beach is one block down from where Matt is standing and this two block pedway has many little shops and cafe's. The weather was amazing, low 20's, and we had lunch on the beach in the sun and went for a long walk along the beach front.

Matt standing on the block facing towards the beach area.
I am facing towards the town area away from the beach.

This is a pic of Matt at the beach in Quarteira, actually the next day from the pics above. The weather turned a little worse and is windy with some rain. You can see by the waves on the Atlantic how rough it is but the temperature was still in the high teens and quite pleasant.
We had lunch on the beach both days, the first we were couldn't believe how nice it was and we went for a long walk along the beach after lunch. The second day was still pretty good though for December 18th. Look gang - NO SNOW!!!

Lanaia

Villamoura Marina - our first day

See the smiley faces? No snow here!

The beach at Villamoura. It was amazingly clean! Not so busy at 19 degrees.

Pictures of Lanaia and I at the marina.

This is the bridge over the river from Spain to Portugal. No guards, no gates, no passport control.

Off to Portugal!

The view from our deck is impressive! The Atlantic Ocean is in view as far as you can see in both directions up and down the coast.
The view away from the coast. The large hotel is the Hilton, with the Pinhal golf course driving range to the right of it.
The kitchen in our unit. Very well appointed! The picture below is our deck with the BBQ area. The stairs you can just see on the left go up to another deck on the roof with panoramic 360 degree views.

After I returned from Houston, we made the 5 hour drive from Riviera del Sol to Villamoura, Portugal.

We were surprised to find that there is no passport control between the two countries. We crossed the bridge into Portugal and that was it. No gates, no guards, nada.

Our first impressions of Portugal are great! The country is very natural, not as developed as Spain, and amazingly clean.

We found our apartment with no trouble. The view of the Atlantic is amazing! The apartment is bright and comfortable, much nicer than our unit in Spain.

We went down to the Marina, one of the largest in Europe. There are some amazing yachts, great shops and hotels, and a Casino. The weather is hard to take, it was 19 degrees yesterday, and more of the same in the forecast.

It is pretty quiet here, off-season for golf and the beach. Some of the restaurants are closed for renovations, tee times shouldn't be a problem. We are in the middle of some great courses in our subdivision. Pinhal, Millennium, Victoria, and Vale del Sol are within walking distance. There is a range nearby with a Butch Harmon golf school.

More pics to follow!

London

The London Eye. The largest observation wheel in the world. It sits across the Thames from the Parliment buildings.
Big Ben and the Parliment buildings. Impressive architecture! Lizzie's house - Buckingham Palace. Liz wasn't home - her flag wasn't flying, just the Union Jack.
Lanaia in Piccadilly Circus. It was raining most of the time we were there. The double decker busses are pretty cool.

Tower bridge - you can't appreciate the size and detail in the towers without seeing them in person. The bottom span is a drawbridge.

Lanaia and I were in London last week. I had to go to Houston for a couple of days of meetings with our management team. Flights from the field to London are hard to schedule efficiently, so I had to come out of the desert on Friday, stay over the weekend in London, then fly to Houston on Monday. Our travel service rep, Janet, booked a flight for Lanaia to come from Malaga on Friday. Flights are ridiculously cheap in Europe - Malaga to London Gatwick return was only $180, including taxes - it's a 2.5 hour flight.

We stayed in Mayfair, which is an upscale area in London, very close to downtown. Our hotel was the Thistle Marble Arch, which I would recommend to anyone staying in the area.

The Thistle is located on Oxford Street, which is a prime shopping area. With the Christmas season in full swing, it was very busy! All of the big department stores are there - Selfridges, Marks and Spence, etc. In close walking distance was Old and New Bond Streets, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Totenham Court Road. We went to the Burlington Mall also. Bond street has the type of shops you need an appointment to shop at - Chanel, Tiffany's, Dolce and Gabana, Burberrys, etc. There were a few car dealers in the area - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Noble, Morgan, Mercedes, Bentley and BMW. I think my favorite was the yellow Lambo Spider cabriolet for only $230k. I think I will write a letter to Santa...

We saw all of the sights in London. We took the Big Bus tour and saw Buckingham Palace, the Parliment buildings and Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the Law Courts, City Hall, and the Pickle. We also took the train from Gatwick to London Bridge, and the Underground from London Bridge to Bond Street. You haven't really been to London unless you ride their Underground subway. Mind the gap!

Be sure to put London on your list of places to see. Be sure to bring your wallet. The Pound was at CAD$2.06, and London is expensive for the UK. We had a great time and are looking forward to our return.

Gibraltar Apes

This is a picture of one of the Barbary Apes in Gibraltar. He is a young male that I took several pictures of. He never moved once, except his eyes which followed me as I walked in the area taking pictures of some of the other apes. Maybe it's not a bad life - sun yourself on the rock, eat some fruit, check out the tourists, have a nap, steal an ice cream bar...
While we were waiting for some of the others on our tour, a lady went into a little pub to get an ice cream bar. The shop lady took it out, set it on the counter, took her money, and one of the apes jumped on the counter, grabbed the ice cream and ran off. Not her first ice cream bar! The taxi driver told us the apes get all the ice cream they want - they know just when to make the move on the unsuspecting tourists.
M

Ronda

The mountain road to Ronda, looking back toward the coast.

A little roadside cafe on the side of a mountain on the way to Ronda.

Our first look at Ronda from where we parked the car.

This is the main part of the castle, that is now a seminary school.

Matt testing his vertigo!

We are standing on a balcony beside a hotel by the bridge. The valley is a long ways below as you can see by the previous pics of the town.

The church was an amazing site to see, it was beautiful! The architecture inside was unbelievable! We took so many more pics than I am putting on the blog.

The streets in Ronda, the ones that allow vehicles are not much bigger, there is usually room for one car to be parked and one to just pass by. The church is in the background.

Lunch at a little cafe!

The bridge at Ronda. It was built in 1750 to 1783.

This is the bridge that connects the two sides of the town. It has been rebuilt several times throughout its history and keep in mind that when it was initially built, there were no cars. However, you can travel from side to side by vehicle now. Scary! We walked!

A view of the old town from the middle of the bridge.
Lanaia standing on a landing by a restaurant right by the bridge. It is about 300 feet down to the river.

Plaza del Toros

Ha! Ha!

Matt's version of Running of the Bulls!

One of the oldest Bull Rings is here in Ronda, underneath half the seating in the ring is a museum showing history of costumes, guns, famous matadors, etc. Underneath the other half of seating is the stock yards.

The new town square.

Ronda is a village built on a mountain plateau. Our trip to this village was amazing! The history and the scenery made my trip to Spain worth it alone. I could spend weeks here, I hope to get back for the shopping one more day while Matt is at work. It is about an hours drive up a windy mountain road but it will be worth it!

Dona Julia Golf Course

I think this is the longest Par 5 we have ever seen or played!

Golfing at Dona Julia Golf Course. Very nice! Great view!

These are the construction cranes working at Finca Cortesin GC we found out later. You can see the construction in my pic at Finca Cortesin GC.