Back in the old home town to see the people, drink far too much beer and watch a football match. It was a very windy day with frequent heavy showers courtesy of Storm Brian.
Some pictures at https://1drv.ms/i/s!Am0w7qp9HCpqguwryr-6gcQDnRlUeQ
Sample
Tonbridge Castle
The gatehouse is the substantial remains of the 11th Century castle that protected the important bridge that crosses the River Medway.
Trip to Messines Saturday 14th October
Off to Messines to see my local football team, Imortal Albufeira, play in a local League match. It’s an easy trip for me as I can take a bus 50 metres / yards from my apartment all the way there.
São Bartolomeu de Messines, to give it its full name, is a town of about 8,000 people 23km (14.5 miles) north of Albufeira. It’s decidedly not touristy! It is among wooded hills on the edge of the ‘populated’ area of the Algarve. There is not a lot further north.
The hills from the railway.
The town itself has a very old part near the church, which dates from 1716 and thus survived the earthquake of 1755.
See the cracks in the marble though!
This is a well kept building by the church.
And there is this little place to sit.
Narrow streets, with a lot of empty and derelict buildings as is so common in many small towns.
The more modern parts are fairly well kept however. The town has a little railway station, four trains go every day to Lisbon, three come back. The old station building and platform are no longer used, there are no station staff. The building is now used to house communications equipment.
The modern station is not much used and weeds are not being being cleared.
The neat football ground is fairly new, having replaced an older more basic facility elsewhere in town. it has a synthetic grass surface with a bewildering array of markings for 11-a side and small side pitches for the boys (girls football? Not here!) to play their games on. Before the start, a few players warming up.
The scene at the bar at half time.
The match itself was horrible, we lost 1-0 despite them having had a player sent off after 25 minutes. Always lose to them it seems.
High above the town, modern windmills swish around, generating electricity.
If you have half a day to spare, the trip out by car or bus (even train!) is fairly pleasant. There is a small indoor market every morning except Sundays and religious holidays. The ‘main street’ has a few places in which to eat and drink should you so wish. There are two small supermarkets in the centre should you prefer to take a picnic into the wilds.
Some words and a few pictures later from my Saturday trip to São Bartolomeu de Msssines (Messines) a town half an hour from here on the bus.
My trip to Lagos last Thursday (5th October, Republic Day holiday here) would have been better if :
(a) I had remembered to put a memory card in my new camera. It won’t take pictures without one not like the other one could;
(b) it hadn’t been quite so hot!
(c) we hadn’t lost 4-1!
Still I popped off a few of pictures of Lagos using my phone, just to give a small flavour of October in the sunshine. The weather here is still as in high summer, daytime temperatures are around 6º higher than the average for this time of year, even hitting 30ºC once or twice. As I write today from Albufeira at 1030am local it is 24ºC.
A couple of samples below, about 10 others at
Lagos Marina
The riverside ‘Esplanade’ in Lagos.
I have now worked out how to take a picture at least! I have also invested in a new desktop computer, to replace the seven years old model that is showing increasing signs of old age like running out of memory!
Transferring all the stuff you want from old to new while getting rid of the junk is almost as bad as moving home. Some time later this week I shall be back in the real world. A day out in Lagos (Portugal, not Nigeria) is coming up on Thursday. It’s a good while since I have been there, camera(s) will be to hand.
I have finally purchased a new semi-decent camera to replace the one that died a few months back. Once I have mastered it, there should be some better quality pictures here.
As usual with things technological, it is about the same price as I paid ten years ago. But it has probably more functions than I have had hot meals. The instruction manual runs to 311 pages!!
Até logo.
A couple of pictures I took yesterday when I walked across from Páteo to the Algarve Shopping mall. There has been no rain for months, it’s just straw and dust underfoot. Click picture to see larger size.
A normal day, went to a charity shop with some surplus items which they can sell to help the doggies and pussycats of town, then off to get my hair cut (looked terrible in the mirror this morning!) then to the supermarket to get some wine as birthday present for a friend. When I saw €9,99 bottles of this and that on sale for €2,99 I could not resist having a couple for myself. I feel the need to return without too much delay.
I had time to take a few pictures. It has been a fairly sunny day except that when you look out to sea it is quite misty. Temperature was up around 25ºC, the town is quite busy mainly with those who have no children at school, there are a lot of golfing parties here also.
Largo 25 de Abril and main town beach
The beach with all kinds of watery fun being had, including the inflatable water park.
Picture below taken at lunchtime 20th September 2107. For those who may not know the area, to the right are Turial Park apartments and to the left is the large building called Edificio Albufeira. The top end of the Avenida opens out into the main old town square, Largo Dr Enginheiro Duarte Pacheco. On the skyline at the right is the ill-fated Oceanville hotel and to the left is Albufeira Jardim 2.
Albufeira Rua Dom Afonso III, in the heart of the oldest part of town. The kind of pretty touristy picture that gets in the guidebooks. Reality check is a few yards further down the hill!
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