Vilamoura Day 6
July 9, 2018

It being Sunday, we decided to try out the English service at the International Evangelical Church of the Algarve (https://www.iec-algarve.com/en/).  My parents had visited the Church last year when they were here in Portugal and had commended it to us.  They were about to commence 3 weeks of summer camps and so they had a team of young people at the Church involved in that and they had a visiting preacher from Ireland (from Milltown Church, Belfast). They had mixed English and Portuguese in some of the songs (well-known English songs with a Portuguese verse). It was a great reminder that you can have fellowship with Christians from a totally different country and we all found it encouraging to be there.  We will definitely go back again in the future.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing – sleeping, lounging around the pool, reading etc.  Stephen and I have been playing a strategy board game (called Twilight Struggle) over the last few days.  It is a game you don’t have to finish in one sitting and so have been playing over 3-4 days.  Yesterday afternoon we finished it and when it came down to the final analysis of points, it ended in a tie.  We have played it numerous times previously and never tied the game so this was quite unusual. Felt a bit like a test match ending in a draw after 5 days.  Will need a rematch at some point.

We had chicken schnitzel for dinner (Stephen had Turkey because he wanted to try them out) and then after dinner the family went for a walk on the beach again. The club at the beach was “pumping” (and thumping). The beach is usually is very quite after dinner but not yesterday. They even had fireworks shot off from the roof. It seems Sunday night is party night in Vilamoura.  We walked down the beach about 1.3km and then turned around and walked back.  The sea was much warmer and Stephen even had a quick swim. I guess the 30 degree C weather is helping warm everything up. On the way back to the car I managed to walk into a hole in the sand and sunk almost up to my waist.  It was not noticeable until I was in the hole and Michael (while laughing at me) managed to also sink one of his legs into the hole. It was so deep that Stephen had to give me a hand to pull me out. Beside the sand all over my pants (inside and out), the damage was fortunately limited to my ego. It did give me a sense of what it would be like to fall into quicksand though (not something I would like to do) and how dangerous it could have been for a little child (they could have been in up to their heads).

It was a lovely evening – not a breath of wind and still around 25 degrees – and so when we got back Stephen and I both had a quick dip in the pool (me to get the sand out of my pants mainly!).

Until tomorrow

P, H, S (for helping me out), C, M, O & K (now taking abuse from K too … seems she has warmed up or been led astray by the rest of them)

Leave your comments...