End of week two

Here we are - 2 days over two weeks since we arrived in Faro and thence to Albufeira, so we celebrated 2 weeks Wednesday evening and, once more, had a very tasty dinner at the Trés Palmeiras.

I was on the beach before sunrise Thursday morning and one never knows what one might find. So, here is a bit of a surprise - I assume that a child - parent combo created this very fine sand castle which survived the tide. Note the detail of the "building stones" carefully etched into the sand walls.
Remember to click on a photo for a larger image.

And apart from this and the usual pleasure of being there I noticed an additional appealing sensation. It was much warmer than it has been in the mornings past, and the sky was completely clear - not the stuff of beautiful sunrises but the harbinger of a beautiful warm day, and so it was. Sunny with a bit of a breeze and warm! It was 18º C at around 10:30 am and if felt like it was 22 or 23º C in the afternoon. 

And since the totally clear sky does not provide the conditions for spectacular sunrises I give you sunlit surf with your standard fisherman included! And an early morning sunlit beach with an incidental glimpse of our apartment hotel in the upper right of the image below.

As I mentioned above it was a gorgeous day, definitely short sleeves and shorts. In fact, that was my very attire on my way to town via the beach at 9:15 am that morning. So here I am, below, walking to town via the beach - note that I am wearing shorts. You can't see my short sleeves but can, I hope, appreciate the very light shirt, consistent with sunny warmth. And, yes, this is the complete photo.

And when I reached old town at that hour of the morning, all was very quiet. I thought that this was kind of an interesting image of the first street off the beach - I was on my way to the travel information store to pick up the schedule of events in the Algarve in March in anticipation of the arrival of Drew and Julia, grandson and great grand daughter, in a few days.

This street, left, later in the day, will be a challenge to negotiate as it will be packed with stuff displayed outside all of the stores and with people strolling and browsing.

Since a bit before Carnaval our days have been fairly quiet. Ruth's hip discomfort returned and it has now been complicated by a previous ankle arthritis so walking has been difficult. Fortunately, Thursday both seem to be improved with diligent application of treatment prescribed by her physiotherapists and judicious use of a bit of Ibuprofen cream on the ankle. We tested the improvement with a walk to the bakery - about a Km or a bit more - and that went well. So, we celebrated again that evening and had dinner at a small but very nice and very close restaurant called the Panacee. Good food, half the price of the Trés Palmeiras and 2 minutes from our apartment instead of 6 or 7 minutes to the Trés Palmeiras.

I don't know if you can appreciate it but this restaurant (above) and our apartment hotel, which is very close by, are on quite a steep hill that goes down to the beach/ocean. I realize that it is not easy to appreciate the degree of the slope but this rather fuzzy image is an attempt to show you the hill I have to climb to get from the beach to the entrance area of our apartment hotel. Trust me, this image to the left does not look this way due entirely to perspective - it is a substantial climb. Good cardio-respiratory exercise!

Now, this last image has nothing to do with the past couple of days, but I find it difficult to have a post without a sunrise or sunset, so for me and the sunrise/sunset lovers among you…...