Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

Randy and Marc introduced me to the town of Loulé by a visit to it’s Saturday market. The market opens early in the morning and by noon the vendors are packing it in and heading for home so our day started relatively early. According to Wikipedia, the 2011 population count was slightly over 70,000.  Saturday…

Portugal is famous for cork production and my current digs with Randy and Marc are in the vicinity of one of the major producers of cork s for the champagne and wine industry in France, Spain and Italy. So, off I went for a guided tour of the Nova Cotiça Cork Company on Friday January…

First off, it’s been a week or more since I have posted anything here, mostly because it began to seem like work and not a vacation and being on vacation is a lot more fun. On Thursday January 4, Randy took me on a tour of Tavira, an ancient port town that has history beyond…

Going to an actual beach on the ocean, any ocean, regardless of the weather, is always an exciting event for me. I was born and raised as a landlocked individual within sight of that inland ocean remnant known as Lake Ontario. No vast sailing ships, mostly – motorboats. In any case, Wednesday was an exceptional…

Go out and howl at and dance around beneath the rays of the first full moon of 2018. It might bring you  good luck, a better harvest, or get you arrested, depending on where you are. My good fortune, with the instigation of Randy and Marc, was to be in Fuzeta on the salt flats…

New Year’s Eve day was a mix of highs and lows – literally. As Marc was feeling under the weather, Randy decided to take me for a tour of Mount San Miguel. Its the highest point in the area with communication towers at the top and a wonderful view of the coastline. The road, however,…

Jet-lag and general over-all fatigue have caught up with this intrepid blogger. However, the enticements of a local Saturday market drew me into a journey with Randy and Gwen to Olhao. I thought we were going to a gypsy market – that’s actually on Sunday in another town. This was an amazing market, just the…

Friday morning was devoted to doing some grocery shopping for the weekend. There are similarities to a Canadian supermarché and there are differences. A display of whole salt cod next to the butcher’s counter was one of those differences. There was also a fine selection of wine, including porto – of course –  and scotch…

It was a slightly overcast in the morning and the rain clouds hung back over the mountains as the sun broke through in the afternoon. Marc and Randy took me on a delightful tour of Fuzeta – the beach and the town. We had lunch at Pedro’s restaurant, Snack Bar Galactica. The corvina was delicious.…