Day 1/2, Alvor, Portugal, May 8/9

We left our home at 6pm via Red Car. Our seven hour flight got us into Lisbon with no delays. The line up to get through customs was a zoo. It took us 2 hours from landing to passport control. Thankfully, we had carry on. We caught a taxi at the airport taxi stand to the bus terminal, a €10 fare, with just minutes to spare. Luckily, Jill had pre-purchased tickets for the four hour trip. Check in to our condo was a breeze. We loaded up on essentials at the grocery store minutes away. We had fish and chips at the Chill Out Bar, which is part of our complex.

We had a great sleep as we didn’t sleep much on the plane or bus, and the beds are very comfortable.

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and a surprise. I checked my banking app, as I do every day. Our Visa card had been charged €250 for the taxi ride. I was glad I had a receipt. The front desk staff at our complex are fantastic. They tried calling the phone number on the receipt, but it was fake, as was the address and company name. We called Visa and because the charge was still pending, we had to call back once it was posted. After we both stopped shaking, we went for a walk into Alvor, an old fishing village/resort town. We had lunch at a roof top restaurant called The Olive Garden, owned by a lovely Irish couple. We had huge chicken and ham toasties on rustic bread, a shared bowl of fries and wine. We told the owner about being scammed. She came by and poured us another glass of wine for free to compensate us for our poor entry into Portugal. Lunch was very reasonable at €22.50 (CDN $34). 

It was pool time. The pool is huge with lots of loungers - even a pool attendant who brought us mattresses for our loungers and an umbrella. I bought us two pints of draught beer in plastic cups €5.50 (CDN $8.25) to bring into the pool which was just seconds from the pool entrance. We didn’t stay for long, but I still got my first day colour. It was now pool time at the Chill Out Bar. We had a beer while we played three games of pool, one Euro per game. Jill beat me fair and square 2 to 1. 

When we travel, we like having lunches out, and dinners at home. I made linguini with cherry tomatoes, onion, green olives, salami, piri piri dried flakes, white wine and of course, Portuguese extra virgin olive oil. Jill gave it a two thumbs up. We love eating on a balcony. These flakes are considerably hotter than chili flakes, 50,000 - 100,000 Scoville units vs 15,000 - 45,000. They are Bird’s Eye chilies, which the Portuguese brought back from South Africa.