Sunday, March 30, 2014

Happy 11th birthday Ryan! Hope you have a great day!

For us 3 days, counting today, before our 6 am pick up to drive off into the sunrise to the Faro airport. So we are definitely thinking about getting organized for that event. But first, we have at least one last gift to get so, as it's a lovely day, we are off to old town sometime today for the last time. (In truth, this trip was yesterday.)

Speaking of old town, it has occurred to me that I have yet to share more than a couple of local images, so now's the time to have a peek at some that have become so familiar to us that we barely notice them, in some cases, for good reason.

This is a long post but I think worth reading in order to follow the images and, as the reading will not be arduous, it will go quickly.

In the photo above are two bars we pass every day on our way to the apartment. There used to be a Canadian flag displayed in the far one but the flags are no longer there, a change I think made by new owners. We have had lunch and enjoyed a sangria occasionally at the pastelaria/coffee shop with the red tables and neat cobblestone floor, which is just past the bars.

The image left is a copse of Mimosa trees, now in full bloom, which we pass on our short-cut to the Modelo, the supermarket.

When we go to old town from our end of town the bar in the photo on the right is one of the most prominent. As you will see in some of the following sign photos, in spite of the paucity of American tourists here, there seems to be a penchant for using names derived from the USA - here Louisiana

and this one, in case you can't make it out, says Vegas Bar, and down the street a nod to Ireland with the Shamrock Bar.

A bit further down the same street is the Hotel California and the sign below in front of a neighbouring bar offers several drinks with names like Long Island Ice Tea and something about San Francisco. I don't know anything about drink names, so these may be in common use - if so, their use here may not be as surprising as it seems to me.

Once we get past that area of bars, of which there are many, we get to the town square, or Praça, with lots of restaurants and their pitchmen who smilingly attempt to  entice you to eat or drink at their establishment.

Several streets exit the square usually to shopping areas with a variety of shops, some quite pricey and many which seem to have the same supplier of stuff with minor variations, most of which one would be wise to leave on the rack.

 This one is a good example of that.

This shop, to the right, is a bit more interesting - goods from the Andes where you can find some very nice clothes, bags, etc., and Ruth bought some things here today. They also entertain in the square with pan-flutes, ancient folk instruments, creating rather haunting versions of North American oldies. How these folks found their way here I don't know.


This street at the left is one I showed in an earlier post in a photo taken early in the morning with nothing in the street and no one around. This is also quite early  but activity has begun - you can see the woman sweeping the street in front of her gelado shop. Continuing down this street we are on our way to the escalators, which I have shown in a previous blog post, on our way toward home.

The escalator takes us up to the higher level "overlook" area where the next three photos were taken. In this photo I think you can appreciate that the folks in the distance on the right are on the overlook level and to the left of the foliage the buildings are at a much lower level. Since there should be a bit of mystery, I will leave it to you to sort out the centre part of this image, suffice it to say that this one

and this one were taken from pretty much the same place.

Moving along on the overlook level I passed this couple relaxing in the sun, appearing to be paying attention to the gull standing directly in front of them.






Here, a bit past the couple watching the gull, is the route home along the overlook level which gradually descends to a low spot then a steep climb to get to the area of our apartment. If you click on this photo to see a larger image (which you will want to do for all of the images), in the distance, I think you can see the breakwater that is a part of so many of my beach photos - well, maybe you can't see it - but that breakwater is right in the area of our apartment so that's where we're headed.

When I reached the beginning of the steep hill, I decided that instead of climbing it I would take the beach route the rest of the way.

While on the beach on the remainder of the walk "home" I looked back toward old town to find this dark cloud coming my way, so best not to dally.

Moving right along I passed these buildings which may be a part of our Apartment Hotel. The storm is moving pretty rapidly but I risked stopping to take this because I liked the dark clouds above the white buildings and the blue topped chimney pots.

Going the beach route to avoid the steep hill I mentioned above did not allow me to completely escape a hill. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, the hill from the beach to the apartment is also a steep climb but neither as long nor as steep as the one I avoided. I made it home ahead of the storm and on the way up that hill to the apartment building I stopped to take this photo of one of my favourite rows of chimney pots, then up the rest of the way and inside before the rain began.

"Home", sweet home!

The End.