Tuesday was a busy day. The 3 of them went running in the morning and then after breakfast headed off to Praia de São Rafael (beach for those of you who don’t know praia means beach). Lying on the beach in the sun is my worst nightmare (glimpse of what hell might be like) so I respectfully declined to join them and rather spent the morning working instead (cleared some of the 1000s of emails in my inbox).
After a late lunch, we headed off to Carvoeiro to visit the Dos Santos Craft Brewery (http://dossantoscraftbeer.com/). The family that started this went to the same school as my kids. The sons were ahead of our oldest at school but we also know the parents through the school. Our plan was just to do a beer tasting but when we arrived the mother (Anne) saw us and was gobsmacked. The surprise on her face was amazing and she kept saying “I can’t believe it’s you”. She was staggered. She then showed us around the whole setup which includes a brewery, tapas room, shop and vineyards. They haven’t harvested their first grapes yet (will do so this year). They plan to produce their own wine. The one son is the brew master (he learnt how to do brewing from a German brew master). (Picture at the top is Helen with 3 family members if you haven’t figured that out yet!)
We did eventually sit down and got beers and just one tapas to try (cod-fish fritters – which were incredibly good). They currently have 3 beers available – a lager, a pilsner and an amber ale. They did have a honey lager available but had just finished the last batch so that wasn’t available. Once we finished, we tried to pay but she simply refused and said it is on the house. The brothers had also come to say hi (one was in the vineyard earlier) and then the brewer showed us the brewery and explained all the equipment to us. It is great setup and is a really nice place to visit. If you are ever in the Algarve area I would suggest you go and visit them – you won’t be disappointed! It was about a 35 minute drive away from our house in Vilamoura.
Wednesday was B & S’s last full day with us. We basically did nothing but lounge around. Late morning we had to take B down to fetch a car (so they could drive back to Lisbon for their flight). Helen and I went to the Quarteira fish market as we wanted to get some sardines for dinner. It was the first time I had been inside and the quantity of available fish (and types) was incredible. Definitely the place to go in future for fresh fish. They had great looking calamari, prawns, clams, mussels and fish of every shape and size. Next time we are here I am going there for sure to get some fresh fish. We got 1 kg of sardines for Euro 7 (17 sardines in case you’re wondering).
That evening after B cleaned them (he is becoming an expert and I didn’t want to get in his way). I then put the sardines on the braai. They were really nice again – I am hooked on fresh sardines on the braai now! I will have to see if we can find some in Cape Town when we get back.
P, H, B (because he cleaned the sardines so well) & S