Tues Feb 25th.  At the lounge at Lisbon Airport on route to Malaga, Spain.  We have said good bye to our Portugual guests and this wonderful country.  Visited Evora yesterday. a place we have been before.  Still, it is alwasys ane enjoyable town to visit.  The highlight of this day was a fantastic lunch inside the walled city.  We ventured up the cobblestoned streets for a good 40 minutes.  No small feat for Johanne, given the wheelchair was parked, and crutches became her transport.

here are some of the sites along the way.

The restuarant was very highly rated on Trip Advisor.  It was fantastic.  Tasquiinha D'OLiverira is small only 12 seats Papa serves and Mama cooks.  We had a Quejo Palmela (soft local cheese) to start.  Porco Preta ( black Pig Cheeks) andPorco with Clams as our mains.  The former is unique to the Alentejo region the latter is a typical portuguese offering.  We had a great bottle of wine from this region callled Herdade de St-Migiel.  Almond desert.  Two hours later we were suitably stuffed.  The owner provided us with a free pastis from the area.  A mint and herb digestive.  Very tasty indeed.

E

Canada wins!!! what a game.  The girls should win the come back of the year award for hockey.  The Curler's rock and now we are on the edge of a repeat from 2010.  We were all huddled inside and out of the Canadian Bar.  Our host and owner Patrictk has the Big screens going, nachos and chili dogs at the ready.  We won.  Canadians from all over joined together on the Algarve started singing Oh Canada. In the Bar and on the street.  It felt like Vancouver 2010.  Great night.  We are all set for the gold medal game which starts at noon on Sunday for us.  Too bad for you in Canada as it will be early in the morning for you.  Get up and cheer our boys on.

The last few days have been a blast.  The most of the group was gone for 3 days.  Johanne was finally able to relax from being Tour Leader and I got to play some amazing golf.  Remember the name San Lorenzo.  This might be the best course I have ever played.  Absolutely breathtaking views.  I have a few pictures for you to view.  They do not do it justice.    After a nice round of golf I had the pleasure of dining with the GM and Director of Golf, Antonio.  After a great lunchand great wine, he introduced me to a little piece of the Algarve known as Medhrona.  Fire water distilled in the hills around the Algarve.  I little digestive he called it.  Wow is all I have to say.  We would call it pantie remover back home.  I am glad I wasn't wearing mine,

Anyway I had one small taste and said my good bye's to Antonio.  A tremendous host who I hope to see again

I also played Oceano Victoria, the home of the Portuguese Masters.  It was a great track, very similar to North American style courses.  Designed by the King, Arnold Palmer.

Johanne and I took the wheel chair to the beach.  There are some spectacular beaches here.  We stopped at a nice little village about 10 minutes drive from our place.  10 minutes might as well be a lifetime as each village has it's own history and personality.  Olhos de Agua is primarily a fishing village.  You can see the small boats lining the shore waiting for tomorrow's catch of the day.  From there we went further down the coast to Falasia  The cliff's combined with the beautiful beach's are a site to behold.

We headed to Vilamoura after the beach to enjoy a walk around the marina.  Overall  a great few days to be sure.

Our time n Portugal is coming to an end.  We will be off to Spain shortly  Johanne is leading a tour for the group to Evora.  A UNESCO heritage site, then on to Lisbon were we will bid them good bye.

Cheers to all.  Be well

First of all, thanks to all that have sent comments back. I have no clue how to respond to you individually so a collective thank you for the encouragement.  Since yesterday a few things of interest have happened.  Golf sucked, correction I sucked...  13 great holes 5 bad ones.  Every birdie was backed up a double.  I hate golf!!!  Can't wait to play tomorrow.    This is what you are faced with if you play Vila Sol.  A typical parkland style Portuguese layout.  The dam umbrella trees.   Look beautiful don't they.  Get on the wrong side of the fairway and they just look like trees.  In other words, in the way.  I hit 4 of them on this hole(below) par 5, made a great up and down from 153 yards out for Bogey.  The fun part about golf in the the Algarve is your playing partners.  We had one from Sweden, two from England, one from Scotland, two from Kelowna, one from Ottawa, our host from Hull, St.Albert AB and me.  Lots of accents.  The host is richer as he one the 5 euro stappleford  for the day.  Bye the way he has two handicaps.  One from NA and one from the EU.  One is higher then the other.  He claims the NA one is the one he used.  All I know is he has the money.  So it is back to the Canadian Bar to drink some of his new found winnings.  Playing the Vila Sol again tomorrow.  Revenge will be sweet.

On the non-golf side.  We shared some friendly ribbing with our Swedish friend regarding the Olympics.  It seems he thinks that Sweden will win the gold.  Go Figure.

Everyone knows who is holds the crown when it comes to curling and Hockey!

Last night we had the pleasure of being invited to a famous restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant is called Teodosio Rei Dos Frangos.  Try saying that 3 times fast.  They serve only one thing.  Frango otherwise known as chicken.  Not your everyday chicken.  These are small but meaty little morsels.  Roasted just right and served with PriPri sauce.  The meal started with a fresh cheese in what looks like a yogurt container.  Don't let that fool you.  Our hosts for the night, Domitilia and Luis, showed us how to prepare is delicate starter.  He pierced the top and ran his knife around the covering.  Slowly he slid the fresh cheese out of the container onto a plate.  Salt and Pepper were applied with equal proportions.  The cheese was then cut into small slivers and served on it''s own.  One bite wonders.  It tasted like a goat cheese but milder, smooth with just a hint of salt and pepper.

30 seconds later a platter of chicken, tomato and onion salad and french fries arrived.  Followed by the Piri Piri sauce.  The sauce is HOT.  Super spicy.  It was delicious.  The desert was amazing.  It is called Dom Rodrgos.  It comes in a wrapper that looks a little like tinfoil.  The taste was out of this world.  Tiny strings of sugered eggs, with cinnamon and Almonds piled on a sugery egg yoke.  A picture is below.  The best desert I have ever had.

Great night for sure.  The wine was amazing too.  Marques de Borba from the Alentejo region of Portugal.

HI All.  Sunday night here in the Algarve.  Just back from the pub.  Enjoyed another stellar performance from our boys in red.  Full credit to the Finn's, they played well.  The pub, full of Canadians, has become hockey house for everyone here.
Yesterday was market day in the Algarve.  The Best place to go for everything market is Loule.  They have a Gypsy market and a Farmer's market.  I took 20 of my closest friends, leading them to the negotiating table.  Unfortunately, Johanne the lead negotiator, had to stay behind.  The FOOT didn't want to go.

Loule is a small village about 20 minutes from Albufeira.  The market draws farmers and buyers from all over the algarve.  I have included some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  The market was a flurry of activity.  The usual fair, fruit, veg, meats and fish.  This time we had a bonus of the Chocolate festival.

While this was all interesting, the thing that got my attention was the crowd gathered at the entrance to the market.  Men.  Lots of them.   Dressed in brown.  Brown Tweed hat, Brown Tweed jacket, Brownish shirt, Tie, scarf, belt, pants and shoes.  Who knew that you could have so many different shades of brown.  Each man was dressed in the UPS colours ie. Brown, but somehow they all looked slightly different.  There was a clear pattern to their cadence.  It wasn't a circle but the crowd did have a regular route.  That is everywhere.  No purchases made just a healthy conversation.  Not a woman in site.  I enter the market.  Now I see the women.  They are working.  Market stands are crowded but functional.  The men on the other hand are just standing around smoking like chimneys.

Saturday night we took 34 guests to a restaurant and a Fado show.  Fado is a traditional Portuguese presentation of folk songs. The group enjoyed themselves.

Golfing with buddies tomorrow.  Vila Sol a great parkland track.  Looking forward to it.

Cheers.  Be Well

Happy Valentine's Day.

Weather continues to be wet!  However, it does not stop us from exploring.  Johanne and I loaded up the chair and headed to the eastern part of the Algarve on Wed.  Stops in Faro, Olhao and Tavira.  The latter being close to the Spanish border.  A very cool town built around the river Gilao.  It is old, the Romans were here in the 8th century. You can tell because they left some stuff.  Like the 7 arch bridge and remains of buildings.  You would think they would have cleaned up after themselves.  The bridge is no good  The structure is only strong enough for pedestrians.  Go figure!  Just kidding it was intended for pedestrians to get from the residential area to the main square.

Pictures above are of the main square, the aforementioned bridge and some river townhouses..  Overall a really interesting town with very little tourism focus.

Olhao, a small fishing village.  I won't bore you with the details other than to say they have a great market, and the village restaurant's provide lunch (3 courses) for 5 Euros.  Cheap and delicious.  Picture of the market below.

Faro is the capital of Alburfeira.  Biggest city in the area.  with lots of hidden streets and steps.  It is an excellent place to launch someone out of their wheoelchair if you are not paying attention.  I tried it and it worked.  Johanne was not impressed.  No damage done. Why don't these chairs have seat belts?

Thursday night hockey.  Johanne introduced me to Patrick during our last visit here.  He hails from St. Albert, Alberta and owns a bar on the strip.  BJ Canadian Pub, is the perfect back drop for game one of Team Canada's pursuit of the Gold.  The place is small, we are not.  25+ Canadians arrive and sardined ourselves into a room built for 20.  There were others there as well.  TVs were set up on the patio area to take the overflow.  Did I mention it was raining!  No matter we are Canadian and we will support our boys.  It was a blast .  $2 pints, chili dogs, nachos felt just like home.  Canada wins!  Great way to take in the Olympic spirit.  Reminds me of 2010 in Vancouver

Feb 10.   I know, I know....what kind of blog is this.  Invite everyone except the Pope and Santa Claus to share the adventure and then provide no adventure.  I read somewhere that you need to build curiosity to a massive crescendo in order to gain the reader's interest.  I guess not writing anything didn't work so I will try to be more diligent.

So here are the facts.  We got nicely positioned on the flight to Heathrow, with a bulkhead seat.  Soon to be followed by a very large bag of headphones, presumably meant for the economy plus travelers to watch/listen to movies etc.  Too bad, Johanne's broken foot needed support.

The flight was uneventful.  Watched two movies, The second was Rush. Liked it .. Drank as much free booze as I could get.  Johanne slept the whole way. I  passed out for a few hours and awoke ready to conquer the day.  ie. drag Johanne and 33 guests from terminal 5 to terminal 3.   It all worked out very well.

6 hours later and a few more drinks in the Heathrow priority lounge we left for Lisbon.

Lisbon was wet.  I did the city tour with the group.  Johanne rested the FOOT.  The tour included visits to a monument celebrating the 1974 emancipation of Portugal from a dictatorship, the King's Palace in Belem, as well as a Moorish tower used to protect the port from unwanted guests back in the day.  Pretty sure it was before Jesus was out of diapers.  But I can't say for sure.

I needed some sunglasses, and as luck would have it, there were extra street vendors around, otherwise known as Gypsies.   By extra, I mean there was at least three street vendors for each of us.  I felt like a ticket scalper at a Justin Beiber concert surrounded by hungry young girls anxious for a chance to get the prize.  Sure enough one of them would figure out a way to whisper that his glasses were the only ones that were real fakes.  The rest were cheap copies of the fakes, and for 5 Euros I could have which ever pair I liked.  Pretty good considering this is the same guy that wanted 25 Euros, 5 minutes earlier.  In the end, I didn't buy any as Johanne wasn't there to tell me if they looked good.  I did however, enjoy the vigorous tongue lashing that my entrepreneurial friend got for driving down the market price.

One very cool thing was the tile surrounding the Monument of  the Discoveries. While the ground was completely flat, the manner in which the traditional tiling was laid gave the impression that you were walking on waves.  It was impressive.  The monument was equally impressive, carving of the early sailors with the Queen of Portugal in the background.  Likely one of the few times in history where  a member of the Royal family would be anywhere but up front.  Check out the pictures.

 The Queen is the one with the smallest moustache.

Enough of the history lesson, we are off to the Algarve.

Arrived in the Algarve on Feb 3rd.

 We have met the guests many times during Happy Hour from 5-7 every night.  Wine  is 1.25 Euros and they like to pour about half a bottle for each glass.   Romans's may have invented wine making, the French may have perfected it, but the Portuguese win hands down how to serve it in large and inexpensive quantities.

Our group has grown to 85 guests, which has kept us very busy planning and executing their excursions.   Johanne never ceases to amaze everyone with her Google like knowledge (for those over 40 that is kid speak for a encyclopedia brain regarding travel).  The Travel Porn Queen's legend grows. While Johanne does all the heavy lifting regarding travel plans for the guests. I too have been forced to play travel host and take people golfing.. It was a tough job.  However, being a good team player, I stepped up to help.... 54 holes later,  I think I have done my part!

I played three different courses.  The Algarve is a golf mecca.  There are two basic styles of golf here. Hilly target golf and umbrella treelined parkland style.  The winds are strong and make club selection tricky.  The European Senior Tour Q school just finished up last week.  We played the same courses that were used for the final two rounds. Shot 81 and 77 in very wet, windy conditions.  I stopped counting the playing partners scores when the hit north of 110. Still an enjoyable three days.  More golf to come with a friend I met during our last visit to Portugal.

The tour leader job is slowing down now, as most of the group is organized.  Johanne and I are taking her wheel chair for a ride today.  Going to find some big hills to roll down.  whoha can you hear the screaming.

Cheers, be well!

it's been a busy few days.  Back from the desert just in time to take Johanne to the hospital.  Prognosis broken foot.  After visiting with the kids.  All you can eat sushi on Denman and a Pancake house for breakfast I was surprised they didn't charge us extra for excess weight, and I don't mean luggage.  Anyway, we successfully got the 33 guests and ourselves checked in and wheelchair under the tour leader's butt we made our way through security to the gate.  Bye the way if you are in need of a quick way through security I strongly recommend the wheelchair route.  It's better then Nexus.  Of course the reason you get the wheelchair may not be worth it.  Although I didn't suffer much and I did get the benefit.  I will leave that choice up to you on your next trip.

Sitting in the priority lounge awaiting flight BA 84 on route to Lisbon via Heathrow.  The start of our European Odessa.

My last post I mentioned we were working the Humana PGA golf tournament.  Well it went off without a hitch.  We worked the Shotlink technology on the 2nd hole of the Palmer Private.  Our role was to measure the tee shots of the pro's using GPS Laser's and relay that to the trailer for website updates and broadcast background.

Everything was going according to plan.  We had our gear calibrated, measurements practised, radio check complete.  The first three groups came through and we soon realized that we are right in the landing area.  The trainer told us we need to be close to the action to get the correct measurement.  The forth pro hit me dead on.  No damage done just surprised me.  After that we positioned ourselves more strategically to avoid the incoming golf balls.  We hid behind a tree..

The week went great, perfect weather and a lot of fun.

Gotta go the flight is boarding more from Portugal in 20 hours.