Monday 20th April - Vila Senhora de Rocha, Portugal

Margot has agreed to join us for a night at Senhora la Rocha. As we have a couple of things to do we arrange to meet up at the parking a bit later having handed over the GPS co-ordinates. We first have the Monday chores of topping up the budget and getting a couple of things in for lunch I won't buy more dinners until a a bit later as we still have our two left over from last week. Shopping done, we have 93 euro left until next Monday when we expect to be home. The weather has taken a bit of a change today and we are tempted to stay in Portugal longer since we have already come this far. We have already decided, however, that we will come back this way so perhaps another time will give us the chance to really get into Portugal. We have hardly scraped the surface so far but we do like what we have seen up to now! We have only driven along the Algarve so there is so much more to discover. Before we drove to tonights stop we had a little look at Alvor and it seems a lovely resort, as promised by various friends. I did not go and buy a cork handbag so I will have to go back to Silves for that one day.

Before leaving Silves we heard that the homeless man had previously been burgled with his home being ransacked and his motorhome stolen. Poor chap!

Had a little clifftop walk with brave Margot - we took a long set of steps down to a little cove. Wandering along the beach a little we found some more steps which were a little less steep and on taking these came across some toilets which had a very useful shower to remove the sand from my feet. Very smart they were too and then we realised that we were in an hotel's grounds. It wasn't until leaving through the barriered entry we realised we had just used the facilities of the 5 star Thalasso Spa Resort! Ooops I say how the other half live - that's those that can't afford a motorhome and have to just go away for a week or so!!!!

Totally blew the budget. Went to a bar and had a couple of drinks with Margot together with a Portuguese language and history lesson. The very charming bar owner was incredibly kind, suffering us fools very graciously. On the way to Portugal we had both realised that we knew not one word of Portuguese. Whilst the area that we were travelling in was one where local people spoke very good and advanced English I make a promise that I will not travel to a country where I cannot learn a little of the language. Its just too embarrassing. Supper again became a plate of cheese once more as it was too late to cook. Due to the romantic setting but without any candles I had to sit, barely stifling my giggles looking at the head torch that was being worn to create ambient lighting!!