Well, we are getting settled in our room in the Monica Isobel apartment-hotel but after some minor, slightly unpleasant, events which we could have done without.
The flight was fine, in fact the smoothest trans-atlantic flight I have been on so far - it left about one half hour late but took only 6.5 hours from Toronto to Faro, Portugal (normally just over 7 hours) and we arrived about 20 minutes early - just around 8 am on Wednesday. It was sunny and about 14 or 15 °C and the bus trip to Albufeira was uneventful.
When we arrived at the Monica Isobel, however, things began to unravel. Though the reservations had been made and confirmed in early April 2012, the folks at the desk claimed that they were not expecting us! So, there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, and blaming and consultation with superiors before they agreed to find a place for the Wheelers and us, but, we would have to wait until 3 pm before we would be able to get into our rooms - this was announced at about 10 am or 5am our time after a relatively sleepless night! So, though some were very tired and looking forward to a bit of rest, that would not happen until after 3 pm and, they informed us that the rooms would not be on the ocean side of the building! We protested and in time they found one room with an ocean view and promised a second one for the next day - John and Jean would stay one night in a less than pleasant room. (The desk clerks kept their word and J and J moved to a very nice room the next day - Thursday.)
It was almost 4 pm (6 hours after arrival at the hotel) that we finally got into our room. The space is fine - very large rooms rather cold (not temperature cold) and, while there is a view of the ocean, it pales compared to what we would have at our old place.
While we were waiting for our room we decided to go to the bakery to get some bread and on the way stopped at the atm to get soma cash. I looked for my debit card but it was not in its place, nor could I find it anywhere. Finally I recalled where I had last used it back home. There were some anxious hours ahead. I sent an email to Bob James asking him if he could check on it and, thankfully he discovered that I had left it where I though and they had shredded it, so no one will be depleting our account!
Both these photos were made looking out our bedroom window. We have a balcony off both our bedroom and living room with large patio doors leading on to each so the rooms are very bright.
Both photos look west toward old town Albufeira.
Out for dinner last night at the Trés Palmeiras restaurant then "home" (hard to think of this place as home yet) for an early to bed. Slept well and up for an 8 am walk. Rained in the night and it was off and on sun and rain during the day but warm enough at 19° C. Mostly grocery shopping today and visit with the JM Vacations rep to talk about possible trips. We are planning to go to Seville in early March when our friend Rose is here. And we are considering going back to Granada to visit the Alhambra and to Cordoba. Also thinking about a trip to the Douro river valley which we have heard is quite beautiful. We'll see what emerges.
We have also just learned that we have arrived just in time to enjoy a serious cold front that is coming from …. well, there is no Canada here so it must be from, say, Scotland? Anyway, they say the sun will shine but for the next 4 days highs will be around 14 or 15 ° C, not too bad for hardy Canadians. Again, we'll see - the weather guessers have been wrong before.
For some reason we have managed to shift to local time very quickly, which is very convenient.
It turns out that the wi fi area is the lobby and in the evening it is a zoo full of noisy people drinking, watching TV and using their computers, iPads, etc., so the internet is painfully slow. Fortunately, at 6:30am there is no one here, and as it is the time I prefer anyway, I will be using the morning hours for blog and email.
Hope to get out today for some photography, weather permitting.
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