El Cardonal Maspalomas

In between our first two and last two days in Lisbon we spent about 6 days in the Algarve at a very nice resort. Very relaxing and lots of sun to be had.  We also got to eat piri piri chicken every night which made up for the lack of Oporto in Lisbon.  The Algarve will definitely be a highlight of the holiday as it is where we got engaged!  Very exciting! Enjoy the pictures of us flouncing. Next stop: Morocco.

The Land Rover crew - now in four sharing the shrinking space inside Monty: Claire, Ada, Ale the dancer and I - finally leaves Casa Banderas in the early afternoon, and we start what will turn out to be a very long day on the road. We wanna arrive at the entrance of the Boom Festival site by nightfall, so that we can start to queue before the gates officially open tomorrow. We join the already ...

... Year's Eve was a HUGE mistake. It sounded like it would have been a great area for a party, and I had envisioned that it would be just like on the peninsula, with tons of people pouring out onto the streets. Even on a regular night, certain Spanish cities can have an electric atmosphere on the street - I could only imagine what New Year's Eve would have been like. Sadly, this tacky tourist trap was nothing like that. It ...

... bones, taken from anonymous Portuguese monks. A rather grim monument, but I love it. Day 4 - Estremoz This time I didn't know exactly where to go, just looked at the map, decided to head north, towards Portalegre (for no special reason, I had never heard anything about it) and went to the road. It was a ride in two parts, the first car to stop (after two hours of wait) only took me to a nearby village with nothing of interest. I took a ...

... war agains Germany in WW1. And then we´re off to Evora, in the South. Tuesday March 20 Well, we made it out to a Fado bar. It was quite the experience. We had to try the Absynthe when we saw that on the menu. It´s illegal in the states, but the green glow beckoned us. Big mistake. After a beer earlier, and wine for dinner, I was seeeing green fairies flying around. OK, it wasn´t that bad, but I had to say it. We walked around, map in hand ...

... luxurious living They balanced that by extravagant hospitality, agricultural expertise which to this day makes the surrounding area the most productive in Portugal, and their own brand of restrain: monks had to enter the dining hall through a narrow doorway - anyone who couldn't squeeze through was condemned to bread and water until more holy proportions were achieved. Nevertheless the dining hall suffered somewhat from waddling monks and laden banqueting tables. The ...

... until 11:30, alright, since I already paid for another night here I might as well go now. So 11:30 rolls around, and the bus finally heads out. Wow, there were times I thought it wasn´t going to make it up the hill, and I think we visited every little town and house that never made it onto a map. We had to change buses at a town about 10km. south of Leiria and then double back east to get there. 2 hours later and a little ...

This place was the central head qusrters of the Knights Templar in southern Europe. This is where the head knights of the Crusades planned their strategies in order to kick the Moors out of south east Europe. Not as exciting as expected (as there weren´t any suits of armour with the big red cross ...

3ª jornada de roçagem no Fragalho. Saí de casa às 5 e meia da manhã com destino a Alcouce. Carreguei o equipamento na minha viatura e toca a andar que se faz tarde. Já ia ao pé da casa do Veríssimo, na Portela do Gato , quando me lembrei que não tinha trazido as botas. Voltei a casa e por eese motivo só comecei o trabalho às 6 e um quarto. O Fernando chegou logo a seguir. Eu ...

... eu e o Toino Serôdio, a roçadeira deu os primeiros sinais de reabilitação. Assim aconteceu e por isso esta correcção. Sei que nesse mesmo dia, o Fernando Fernandes e o bebedola do Gonçalves foram para lá e também deram provas que um dia hão-de ser meus ajudantes na nobre arte de roçar mato. No dia 10 de Junho só se partiu um parafuso e perdeu-se uma chapa que não faz falta nenhuma. U.Roçador