Carvoeiro was the destination but we had not selected the restaurant. Once we arrived via the free shuttle Olly went into meltdown as he wanted to eat NOW. The downside being that it was merely 5:30pm and many of the restaurants had not yet opened for business. We finally settled in a Mediterranean place called Medici that incidentally was next door to the restaurant that we had eaten in some nights earlier during the week.

The food was without question the best of the holiday and the wine was also pretty good :-). Once we had begun to get some food into the boys they also became better in their mood :-). The only slight dampener on the evening was when Oliver decided to bite a piece out of the glass that he was drinking from. How he didn’t cause himself damage is anyone’s guess but thankfully he did not cause damage.

A nice ice-cream by the ocean front ended the evening before getting a taxi back to the resort with the kids getting tucked into bed by 9pm.

…. but sadly for the last time 🙁

I think we take for granted the fact that people do not smoke in restaurants, bars or open spaces in the UK (typically). As a result we are looking forward to getting home and being away from all the smoke.

On different subject, the boys have decreed that they want to play in the apartment this afternoon and stay out of the sunshine. So we have just nipped down to the coffee shop for a nice americano and latte before heading back to relax 🙂

A truly fantastic place – we arrived shortly after 11am following sleeping in this morning :-). Anyway, we walked around the marina first and found Luis Figo’s 7 bar and enjoyed lunch there overlooking the multi-million dollar yachts etc. we are also amazed at the sheer number of British cars that are to be found on the roads and in car parks around the Algarve. Vicky saw a gent in ‘her car’ while we had lunch – a lovely silver Bentley Continental GT convertible – unsurprising it was from England 🙂

We think that we have seen at least one British registration in every car park we have seen over the last couple of weeks. Quite a few interestingly enough have also been left hand drive models.

Anyway, back to Vilamoura – like we said yesterday it feels like Los Gatos in terms of the architecture and building styles and even the streets are somewhat like those in LG. After lunch we finished the walk around the marina and then walked back to the car, stopping only once to enjoy a somewhat terrific Hagen-Daaz ice-cream and daddy was overjoyed to find that they had a similar caramel sauce setup to the one he found a few years ago in Disneyland, California – so one of those bad boys was promptly ordered and subsequently devoured :-). We also noticed that a Costa coffee store will shortly be opening in the marina area – for the discerning British customer we assume.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach right outside the marina where the sand was without shells although still of a rough texture. The boys had a few hours of fun in the sea and on the edge of the beach. Elliot tried his hand at fishing with a spade and then a bucket and spade when he found the spade inadequate on its own 🙂

Vilamoura beach has now been considered as the second best beach we have encountered as the tide was very smooth and not at all dangerous for the boys but the sand quality was just not quite as good as Carvoeiro beach.

We have now returned the rental car with far too much fuel in it sadly so we feel a little raped given we could have put €15 less fuel in :-(. Having had the car really opened up the holiday for us and enabled us to see much more of the Algarve that we ever could have done from the apartment complex alone although was a slightly pricey gig – however well worth the expense 🙂

We enjoyed dinner tonight back in Albufiero in amidst all the bars and clubs just as the beach goers were heading home to change for the night and as some of those revellers were heading out for a heavy night on the sauce – Olly (of course) was entertaining four young German girls in the restaurant and had them giggling and laughing at him – he was in his element. He is without question going to be a little bugger with the girls as he gets older :-S

Tomorrow we are back to a pool day and more time in and around the apartment – the boys are looking forward to getting back into messing around in the pool – mummy and daddy are hoping that the wind keeps down as it can be very cold sat at the side of the pool watching over them despite 32+ degrees and direct sunshine.