Day 13 Portimão

Today we are in Portimão Portugal, an old fishing village that is now a big tourist area. Donna and I went for an early morning walk after we were cleared to leave the ship. We had breakfast with the Larkins and made a plan for the day. The Larkins were on a different tour today than us so we decided to meet up later and have them meet my sister who drove over with her husband Bill for drinks and a little food. We had a water excursion to the caves that line the cliffs around here. It was fun right up until the sister boat to ours sprayed us with a prop wash that soaked most of us on the little RIB (Rigid Inflatable boat) we were in. After we returned to the dock, we met up with my sister Janice and Bill for drinks. The Larkins joined us a short time later after they got back from their tour which went long due to traffic. We all had a great time hanging out together until we had to call it quits so we could get ready for our cocktail party with our group. After cleaning up, we met up with our group for the cocktail party. I had purchased a bottle of Sandeman ruby port while we were in the Douro Valley and was able to share it with the group. They all seemed to like it. My sister had walked to the end of the pier with Bill to see us off and wave goodbye. I am sure she had a tear in her eye because I sure did. After the cocktail party we went to dinner and then off to bed. Here are today's pics.


Lots of storks in southern Portugal.



Our boat for the cave tour.

Some of the beaches here are beautiful.





Hanging with our family.

One of my favorite pictures.

Janice took this picture and sent it to me.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jewels of Iberia

Image
We will begin our adventure on September 20th Flying to Lisbon and meeting up with my sister Janice who is living in Portugal for a year to try it out. We will be staying with Janice and her husband Bill for a week before getting on the ship. They have an itinerary that takes us back up to Porto and the Douro Valley for a few days before dropping us back off in Lisbon where we will meet up with Joe and Cindy Larkin and embark on our ship, The World Navigator by Atlas Ocean Voyages. Stay tuned for updates,  I will try and update daily as long as the wi-fi works. The Title of our Cruise The Map of our Cruise
Read more

Day 17 Marbella Spain

Image
Medical Update: I went to sick bay a few days ago and received antibiotics for the crud I picked up earlier on the trip that had spread to my lungs. I am feeling much better and the lungs are much clearer.  Today we arrived in Puerto Banus and had to tender into the harbor where we caught a bus for an hour and a half drive to Marbella Spain. We arrived at a very small winery to have a tasting at an incredible location that was a monastery that was built in the 15th century. The owner, who is an architect, rebuilt the monastery into a winery and used the old chapel as his barrel room. It was amazing. The wine was very good and we purchased a bottle of red wine for dinner tonight. Then we took the bus to town which was incredibly crowded with tourists. We walked around for about an hour and saw a famous bull ring and an amazing bridge that spanned a very deep gorge that was about 300 meters deep.  Then we headed back to the harbor to catch the tender back to the boat to pack for...
Read more

Day 21 Travel Home day

Image
Today we slept in and did not say goodbye to the Larkins as they were already on their way to the airport. Hopefully Joe's head hurt as much as mine did when I woke up from all the fun we had last night. After breakfast, we packed our bags and checked out of our room. We had the bell person stow our bags so we could go for a walk. We found an old area of Barcelona called the La Villa De Gràcia district. Our guide from yesterday told us about it and said it hasn't changed much in over a 100 years. He was right! The streets are very narrow and the people are older and there were not too many tourists. We stumbled upon a small square where some older non-FOP's were dancing away and gave us a great show to watch while we sat at a cafe and enjoyed some wine. Then we had to start our way back to the hotel to catch the bus to the airport and start our way home. After checking in and going through no less than three passport control areas, we were able to make it to the gate and bo...
Read more