after breakfast, we jumped in the car and dad out East to Vilamoura with the plan to get an hour or two in the beach, before lunch in the Marina over looking the beautiful boats. However, there were some fairly significant traffic issues just after Albufeira so we only got to Vilamoura just before lunchtime. 

It WAS BAKING hot as well, so once we found the car park that we used a couple of years back, we wandered around the beautiful Marina ogling the fabulous machinery sat in the water and found a lovely spot for lunch called Old Navy.

The boys remembered a toy shop so we went in search of it while we waited for lunch 🙂 they found some LEGO and so they were happy to forgo the beach in return for the new LEGO…

The Costa Coffee shop that was due to open just after our last visit has already closed so we guess ther are just not enough Costa loving Brits in Vilamoura after all 🙁

We have subsequently enjoyed a lovely relaxing afternoon in the garden of the apartment and mummy cooked us all a fantastic pasta with tomato sauce for dinner.

A rather nice red wine is almost gone as we write this and Greg has brought yet another Sloe Gin round – he has been on a mission with regards to the drinking this week 🙂

Tomorrow promises to be a pool day for the boys – Grandma and Granddad bought them snorkels and masks today so pretty sure they are high on th priority list for tomorrow 🙂

Yesterday was our first full day so job #1 (after breakfast in the cafe) was off t’shops to sort provisions for a few days. There is a new nearby supermarket since we were last here so thought we would give it a go first – was OK but cost a little more than the budget place so we stocked up on the beer etc, filled the car and head to the usual place to get final bits and pieces. We found a cheeky bottle of red called Bastardo for €5 – it was actually a pretty good red as we tested it last night with our BBQ. We also bought a €30 BBQ as the one that we rented for €20 was only really big enough to cook 4 burgers 🙁

Daddy managed to lock the rear offside door (of the car) so that it won’t open at all any more 🙁 All he was doing was disabling the child safety locks, or so he though…

It was actually a miserable morning weather wise with a little rain and lots of dark grey clouds, so we were amazed to be graced with beautiful blue skies after lunch with the boys scoring 3 hours of pool time between 2 and 5pm 🙂 

26 degrees was a perfect introductory heat for us all as it is scheduled to raise to 32 in the coming few days 🙂

The day was finished off with the majority of a bottle of Sloe Gin, a fe shots of a Portuguese Sambuca (v nice), the Bastardo and a few Sagres – boom (and no headache this morning incredibly)

Think the beach down in Carvoeiro is calling for us today 🙂

We managed to find the car rental guy pretty easily and within 40 mins were sorted with our Silver Peugeot 5008 7 seater and on our way to the Rocha Brava complex up on the cliffs above Carvoeiro – about 45 miles from the airport at Faro.

Arriving at the complex at about 12:45, we were greeted by a super friendly guy who sorted us out with room keys and we got cracking with the unpacking. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the poolside bar and finished it off with an ice cream from the boys favourite ice cream bar in the cafe 🙂

The boys were desperate to go swimming so we took them to the main pool for an hour beforE getting back to the room for a quick bath for the bits before heading over to the restaurant just across the road (Rocha Mar). Don’t think we will be going back there this holiday as the service was VERY slow and the food super below average sadly.We have established that daddy’s phone does not have free internet access after all so will be on the search for free wireless access points as we did last time we were here and will be downloading music from those as we find them 🙂

Today is about two things:

• Shopping for food etc
• Swimming in the pool and relaxing

The boys are pretty keen for the first option believe it or not as the have some money from Grandma Cuckoo that is burning a hole in their pockets 🙂

We all arrived at the airport in Liverpool with hours to spare so make a couple of duty free purchases – sun glasses, LEGO and aftershave / perfumes – only to find a delay was placed on our flight. There was a fishy smell given that we were told there was an engineering issue on the plane yet when looking outside there was nobody working on said plane 🙁 

We waited around an hour and a half before we were advise we would be sleeping in a nearby hotel and flying the next morning 🙁

So, we waited to collect our bags and made our way over to the hotel across the street. We enjoyed a drink and pizza before heading to bed as we needed to be up early for the 8am flight the following morning. We also calle the car rental company and hotel to let them know of the delay in the hope that they would keep our car and rooms in situ for us as that would have further tested the start to our vacation 🙁

This morning was relatively uneventful as we got over to the airport in good time (a small issue over seating but it was solved after about 15 minutes) and had breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s.

The plane set off about 20 minutes late and was pretty comfortable, arriving roughly on time 🙂

Just to collect our bags and car….