AWOL For 10 Days

I've just got a Jaguar XE .... and it was a nightmare at first, everything electronic it took a lot of getting used to.
Sometimes I wonder just who is driving whom.

I honestly  don't understand the need for all these menu driven controls on a touch screen. I would much prefer old fashioned knobe and buttons - you soon get used to their location and don't need to take your eyes off the road to select them.

This BMW is bad enough but I recently hired a Citroen in Gran Canaria and it was a total nightmare. Wherever possible I avoid anything French but on this occasion had no choice.

My wife asked a passer-by to take a picture of us both. We were wandering round the Old Town Albufiera for her to take photos.

god alan you struck lucky - looks like she's made of silver - cash her in immediately!

A nice feature of Portugal is that if you fall on hard times and have to leave a building unoccupied for a while – someone will feel sorry for you and paint it free of charge - presumably to stop it deteriorating.

There are a lot of such buildings in Alhao – this is one I was able to park near to get a photograph.

Have you been to Lagos Alan--we went by train from Alberfure

We rented a villa on the outskirts of Lagos last year.

Portugal has become one of our favourite holiday destinations. We rent a car and travel to somewhere new each day.

Having seen so many towns here they all blend into one and I can't remember anything outstanding about Lagos.

We visited Albufeira yesterday but it was a ghost town with hardly any visitors. The storms of last week seem to have effected the drains because there was a slight pong in the old town. I call it Au de Colon.  The escalators down the cliff to the old town stopped working and we had to walk back up which was a bit of a bugger.

We were stuck for somewhere to go that day so decided to go by train --as you say Lagos not much to talk about had the worst food there during our stay,

have you seen cliff at all?

I've jumped off one Davo, either attached to a rubber band or into deep water.

. . ..
During my travels I have seen Stork nests before - but never so close up with the birds visible.

These are nesting on a church in Olhao. Storks have been nesting there for longer than the locals can remember
..
.
..

I've got to show my grandson these photos next time he's here, he'll love them... as do I.  :;smile: When he was about 4 years old I bought him one of those I-Spy bird books for when we used to go in the park. This started off an interest in birds and now during school holidays we get on the train and go for a day out bird watching. Great fun.

We didn't take many photos on this trip. We have holidayed in The Algarve so many times that not much jumps out and shouts "photograph me"

In addition I only took my Lumix compact camera this time - my "proper" SLR is a bit bulky and I decided to travel light. The high contrast lighting at this time of the year makes it difficult with a simple point and shoot camera to get decent pictures

My wife caught me having s snooze one afternoon