First post from Albufeira - 2009

This is Friday, day 5.
As this is my first writing the days already past blur a bit.

The plane was an hour or more late leaving Toronto so we arrived late to a sunny day about 16 C. After getting into our room and unpacking, we went immediately to the beach. Later we arranged our 3 day trip to Spain where we will visit Costa del Sol and the Alhambra in Grenada before going on to Cordoba. We leave on Monday, March 1 and return late on Wednesday. More about that after we return.

On Tuesday we went to the town of Loule (about 40 minutes from Albufiera) for the final day of the pre Lent Carnavale, a sort of mini Mardi Gras, an event for which Loule is apparently quite famous in Portugal. The afternoon parade lasts for about 3 hours with floats depicting all manner of things including politician bashing, beautiful costumes, music, general celebration and an opportunity for folks to act out a bit without fear of recrimination. Celebration no doubt goes on into the night, but we left when the parade was winding down. We had a wonderful time and took lots of photos, some of which I will post in this and one or two subsequent posts. As you will see, some of the costumes are scanty and not only those in the parade are in costume - many in the crowd, especially children, are as well.

We are told that all of the costumes are made by the participants and/or their families at their own expense which is impressive as many of them are very sophisticated and beautiful.

The photos are:
1. a view from our balcony, just to remind what we see each morning,
2. Some of the parade folks before it began,
3. Another before the parade,
4. The first float we saw,
5. One of the painted on costumes.

More photos of the parade in the next post.

Wednesday was quiet - John and I did our usual morning walk (4 kilometers), after which we walked along the beach to a restaurant for lunch. Then into "old town" for a bit of shopping and drinks at Sir Harry's pub then home.

Thursday I found an internet cafe about 10 minutes walk from home where I dealt with an "emergency" web site problem. I will be able to post to the blog from that location. In the afternoon Ruth did some sketching and painting and I took a few photos around town.

Friday we went with our friends, John and Margie Jackson, from Crow Lake, to the town of Tavira and the Ria Formosa park in the eastern part of the Algarve . More about that day trip later.