Albufeira

We spent an afternoon exploring Albufeira--what a fun city! There is an old part of the city with traditional Portuguese architecture and charming, narrow streets and alleys. There is also a newer part with funky, colorful buildings and statues. The worms statue really cracked me up--the main part of the sculpture was on a rotary, but their little worm tails popped out of the medians further down the road. The beach in Albufeira is very nice and had some impressive sandstone formations which I felt compelled to photograph.

We ate lunch at a restaurant on the water and I believe it might have been the best meal I have ever had! Most restaurants in the area immediately bring out a tray of olives, sardine pate, bread and a local sheep's milk cheese--so yummy! I ordered a pitcher of sangria for us to share, plus grilled mixed fish and vegetable skewers. Kevin ordered grilled red mullet (I think solely because he finds the word "mullet" so amusing). There was a big grill outside on the patio where we were sitting, so we could watch our meal being prepared. Oh my, it was so good, I think I might have actually moaned aloud. Even though I was stuffed, I ordered a piece of fig and almond tart for dessert and we both got glasses of almond liqueur, another specialty of the area. Again, so good!

After "The Best Meal Ever," we waddled around the beach and explored the town more. We drove back to Vilamoura later that evening and strolled around the marina looking for a good place to eat dinner. Every couple of feet, there were random men trying to convince us to eat at their establishments. As soon as they heard us speaking English, they would plead with us to try their restaurants. We heard all about the amazing food we would feast on, and all the discounts they would give us if we followed them inside. Finally, in frustration, we started speaking Norwegian to each other, in the hopes that if we pretended not to speak English, we would be left alone. The main problem with our brilliant plan is that I only speak a little Norwegian and Kevin speaks a lot less than I do, so we basically just wandered around saying "nei", "tusen takk", "ja" and gasping. Yup, we're morons, but it did make the rest of the evening more peaceful. We ended up at an Italian restaurant but I literally could not eat a bite, I was still so stuffed from "The Best Meal Ever". I felt bad for the waiter--he seemed so concerned that I wasn't eating. I had to reassure him that my food was fine, I had just gorged myself silly a few hours ago and didn't have the good sense to go back to the hotel and sleep it off! We really had a fantastic vacation, but thank goodness it only lasted a couple of days. If we had stayed for a week, I'm not sure I would have fit into the airplane seat on the trip home!