Vilamoura Day 4 & 5
July 8, 2018

I get chided if I don’t post everyday so apologies for packaging 2 days into one (but then again I am on holiday!).  Friday was a golf day for Michael and I.  We decided to play our favourite course in Vilamoura – Millennium (https://www.dompedrogolf.com/courses/millennium-golf-course.html). It is one of 6 courses in Vilamoura.  We have played 5 of the 6 courses so far.  The round started terribly for both us but ended up being so good that it resulted in my handicap being cut by 2 shots. Michael had a decent chance for an eagle on a Par 5 as well (he did get a birdie at least). The big difference between playing here and in Cape Town is how hard the fairways are.  The ball rolls a lot and so our drives were often in the 260-280 meter range (and that is big for those of you who don’t follow golf).  I hit one drive 310 meters (which would be up there with what the pros drive).  The rest of them went shopping again to the new mall as they hadn’t yet finished their shopping.  The rest of the afternoon was spent sunbathing, reading & watching World Cup soccer and/or Wimbledon tennis.

Saturday is the day for the market at Loule.  Loule is an inland town about 15-20 minutes NE of Vilamoura.  They operate the market every Saturday at which they sell spices (paprika is the main one to buy), alcohol (usually only port and wine but this year they were selling craft beers as well), fruit & vegetables, meat (both fresh and cured), handcrafts (table clothes etc) and fresh fish.  Half the market is the fish market. We specifically wanted to go to get some fresh fish.  We ended up buying prawns (giant ones) and sardines (never cooked them before but pretty sure google will tell us how). The sardines are pretty cheap costing only R80 per kilogram and the prawns were pretty much what we would pay in SA (though much nicer and much bigger).

Saturday afternoon was spent watching England make it into the semi-final (first time since 1990). We are heading to England but unfortunately only on Thursday after the semi-final has been played.  I am sure it would have been a great atmosphere watching the game in England.  We did the Australian thing and did the prawns on the ‘barbie’ (and they were pretty good that way). By the time we were finished the last quarter-final was heading into extra time and so we were able to finish watching that and the penalty shootout that took Croatia into the semi-final against England.

Until tomorrow ..

P, H, C, S, K, M & O

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