Saturday, August 30, 2008
Going Dutch magazine
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Family Visit
Madurodam above
Duinrell below
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Portugal - final entry
:O)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Portugal Part 5 - To the End of the World
And a side note here that the tour guide for this trip was the best ever. He was a young Portugese gentleman, very proud and passionate about his country, and with an impressive knowlege of its history and culture. He seemed to know everything about everything and was able to communicate his knowledge to make absolutely everything interesting.
Portugal Part 4 - Vilamoura
During our stay, we visited the posh area of Vilamoura. I say this because the town (and actually not a town, but an area), built specifically for tourism, is essentially a haven for golfers and people with yachts and very fancy, expensive boats.
According to one of our favorite hotel staffers, Vilamoura was built only about 36 years ago by a rich dude who wanted to build a city. So he did. So Vilamoura doesn't have the interesting history of many of the other places we visited, but it is colorful and certainly someplace you want to visit if you are a golfer.
When one walks through central part of the area, a purpose-built marina surrounded by restaurants, shops and hotels, many of the pubs and shops have names related to its purpose - (19th Hole, Fairways, Par 3 - that kind of thing). There are also numerous shops that sell golf clothing and equipment. There are six golf courses in the immediate area. There is also evidence of who spends time in Vilamoura by the Bentleys, Mercs, Porsches and other such cars parked and driving in and around the area.
As we admired all of the exotic cars, we thought of my uncle Denis. The boats made us think that Ruth and Dean would be right at home here, and of course, my parents would be delighted to be golfing in these beautiful surroundings.
Side note: Sir Cliff Richard (a famous 60ish UK rock star known as "bachelor boy") spends a fair amount of time in Vilamoura, and we'd heard from others that he was there while we were in the area. Sir Richard owns a vineyard in Portugal and we did actually enjoy one of his wines at dinner one evening. It was reasonably good - and we did managed to finish the entire bottle :)
Portugal Part 3 - the Holiday Cat
This is Chicken, the holiday cat at the Falesia Hotel. Chicken was ill when we arrived, and some of the staff who were looking after Chicken wanted to take him to the vet, so they took up a collection and raised enough cash to get the cat some medical attention. Chicken had been unable to eat and was looking pretty poorly, but the vet was able to help him and within a couple of days he was looking healthy.
Chicken seemed a nice enough cat - but I'm still leary of the orphan cats at these places as I'm a bit paranoid about what disease they might carry, so I didn't ever pet him (who, by the way, would wander up to tables by the pool hoping to get some scraps - and chased away by one of the entertainment staff, Rachel, who thought they should have just put the old, mangy cat down.)
Anyway, this is Chicken.Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A Taste of Edinburgh
We did manage to get in a comedy act - an interesting and funny history of swearing. Yes, it was a bit rude, but well-researched and quite hilarious.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Portugal Part 2
The beaches really speak for themselves - just gorgeous. One can rent umbrellas and chairs, as well as buy goods from passing vendors - from donuts and jewelry, to a massage (granted - neither of us was tempted to pay a strange man wandering up and down the beach offering this service :) We enjoyed watching people involved in sailing, parasailing and other water sports, building sand sculptures, playing with their children, and sunbathing. The water was cold but not too much so. As with everywhere else in the Algarve, the beaches were also very colorful.