Monday, June 30, 2014

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Courtyard

Tyya hiding behind chairs at the courtyard

View from the tower at the castle

Tyya in the courtyard at the castle in Palmela, Portugal

The Moors not the Moops!! What a view from our castle room!

Today we drove about 250 kms from the southern Algarve north to the small town of Palmela to stay at the Castelo de Palmela (Castle of Palmela) at the Pousada de Palmela.
We are here for 2 nights, and our room is what they call the king and queen room. It is about 1200 sq ft and has 3 different rooms.  The views are to the west south and east and include the town of Palmela, the other section of the castle and an orchard or farm.

The castle was built back in the 8th century by the Moors not to be confused by the Moops!!!  Lololol

Tyya keeps saying "she loves the castle!!", but then again she keeps mentioning the beach and the ocean. 

Here is our view from one of the windows.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Smarty Pants

When we got back from the beach Tyya didn't want to take a nap because she got so addicted to the beach, playing in the sand and the water that she ran and was hiding on our balcony behind the towels hanging to dry! Lol

Another good day at the beach

Another day, another great beach

Tyya chillin under the umbrella

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Praia da Sao Rafael

Postcard...from Tyya with love

Praia da Sao Rafael

Today we drove about 30 mins away to another spectacular beach called Praia da Sao Rafael.  Tyya referred to it as wujku beach since it sounds like Rafal.  Wujku is Uncle in Polish, and since the beach sounds like Rafal who is her uncle, she thought it was his beach.  Lol.

After the beach we headed to the town of Albuferia and walked all the old cobbled streets to do some shopping.  Found a really nice ceramic piece but the majority of stuff is junk. Worse shopping ever!!!

Even was able to catch a little of the World Cup game, Argentina vs Nigeria.  Saw the first 2 goals!!

Praia da Sao Rafael

Today we drove about 30 mins away to another spectacular beach called Praia da Sao Rafael.  Tyya referred to it as wujku beach since it sounds like Rafal.  Wujku is Uncle in Polish, and since the beach sounds like Rafal who is her uncle, she thought it was his beach.  Lol.

After the beach we headed to the town of Albuferia and walked all the old cobbled streets to do some shopping.  Found a really nice ceramic piece but the majority of stuff is junk. Worse shopping ever!!!

Even was able to catch a little of the World Cup game, Argentina vs Nigeria.  Saw the first 2 goals!!

Praia da Marinha

One of the most beautiful beaches in Portugal!!

Relaxing in the town of Lagos

Today we drove about 1 hour away to the town of Lagos and hung out at the beach.
We then made are way to Sagres so I could go surfing...with my bad luck the sea level as flat!!  Next time. :(

Monday, June 23, 2014

Flash flood roads and a thunderstorm in the Algarve!!!!

Today we found a smaller beach to try to visit, but we had to drive about 5 minutes down a dirt road to access the beach between 2 sand cliffs. As we were driving a heavy thunderstorm hit the coast and dumped a lot of rain in a short period of time. The dirt road had a flash flood while we drove down and had fast flash flood rivers created the flowed down the road to the beach. We quickly went down to check it out and decided to come back up before the road got completely washed out.  Aneta took a pretty cool video of me driving up the dirt road with the flash flood rivers coming down hard.

While it was bad weather for the next 2 hours we went to the small fishing town of Olhos D'Agua to visit the waterfront cafes and shops. Ended up having a beer and hanging out.

We ended up going back to that beach later. Its official name is Praia das Belharucas. 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Riu Palace Algarve kids play area

Short Hike

We went on a short hike to the top of one of the cliffs to get a great view of the beach near our hotel.

On a side note the Portugal vs USA World Cup game is one at 11 pm Algarve time. The hotel has a huge conference room set up with a large TV where you can watch every game.  Should be a good atmosphere.

Here is a photo from the cliff!!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Riu Palace Algarve, Portugal

Just checked in to our first stop on our Portugal adventure at the Riu Palace Algarve.  It took us just over 2 hours to drive from the Lisbon airport to the southern Algarve. It was about 300 kms away.

Our room overlooks the sea and cliffs off the beach.  There is a small fishing village just below the cliffs.

We got to the resort late today so we just went into town to the supermarcado to get Tyya some milk and fruit.  We just got back from dinner and Tyya is already asleep.

Here is Tyya enjoying her own private balcony overlooking g the sea and the kids playground with a slide. (Her fav)

This is Tyya's 4th trip and her 4th country.  She is well on her way to visiting as many countries and continents as possible.   She's already addiction to it!!!

I will shoot out another blog tomorrow as well.