Our final checkout of the holiday - another hot day. We went for a walk after breakfast admiring the lovely mosaic pavements. We taxied to the airport and quickly got through security. But customs !!!! OMG we queued for at least an hour and a half to get through passport control, largely due to the lack of custom officers. The magnificent duty free was almost deserted with everyone waiting to get in then rushing for the plane gates. We had barely 30 mins to spare. Once on the

This morning we packed and called a taxi to Faro. We left our bags at the Senor Gigi guest house and enjoyed a coffee and cake at the cafe opposite. We strolled around Faro and went to the cathedral in all it's baroque splendour, and walked back via the marina. We had lunch in a little cafe near the hotel. In the evening we took a different route and discovered the main shopping streets nearby. Still not very hungry so we shared a risotto for the evening meal. The weather was

We ventured out into the heat of the morning at 10am intent on foraging and making the most of market day. Very many people - locals and tourists alike had much the same idea, the harbour was thronged. The whole space along the front lined with mostly fruit and veg stalls. Honey, cheese, eggs, olives - all very fresh and proper. We bought cheese, a slice of Iberico and more broad beans, plus strawberries, olives, lemons and bread. The bars were so full and busy that we abando

Early start again - kicking of with freshly baked pastell nata and americano's before hitting the road. We'd worked out a good route out of town, heading toward the coast path but carrying on to Queldes, swinging over on to Barrances and on up past quitados Poetas toward Estoi climbing higher into the hills around Sao Bras. As we climbed higher into the hills tha terrain became a little greener than down around the coast. The olive and orange groves were grassed with sheep gr

An early start to the 'rest day' as we wanted to catch the 10 ferry over to the Isla Armona. We had coffee and our first pastelle nata by the harbour before piling onto the ferry with a gaggle of eager holiday makers and a small army of excited young children, It took just 15 enthralling minutes to chugg along past the salt marshes to the island. After disembarking we walked the 1.2 km to the beach. It runs for miles along the lenght of the island towards Fuseta. Such a restf

The days are promising warmer fine weather and it was very sunny start to the day. We set off along a route K had mapped to get us out of Olhao. Thankfully the streets were pretty quiet and we quickly escaped the town into the glorious countryside. We had a lovely rolling ride towards Estoi with some steeper sections that the bikes took easily. Arriving in Estoi it was suddenly uncomfortably hot as midday hit the streets. We found a charming, welcoming and very busy restaura

Relaxed start - set off slowly and cautiously at 10:30 getting used to the bikes and the godawful one sided SPD pedals that we ordered by mistake. We'd decided to head toward Tavira by the coastal route. Finding the Ecovia was difficult - first to get out past the industrial/ port area and then to find the ecovera itself. It did not appear on google maps but in fact runs very close to the railway line at first. Once found the route was pretty easy along mostly board walks and

The Casa Rosa, Olhao, nr Faro on the Algarve It's 6pm and we're sitting on the stunning roof top terrace of the Casa Rosa listening to Fado and enjoying a glass of Sagres Cerveja. It has been cloudy and cool all day but the sun has just come through and it is very warm. All has gone amazingly well. Getting through Gatwick and flying to Faro was unusually smooth. On arrival however, we had to queue for nearly an hour to get through passport control. The delays seem to have be