Well, so far, so good. We are now settled into the Ibis near Heathrow Airport. Our day started at 6:30 when we got up and had breakfast. We sorted out and tidied up the apartment. The taxi arrived exactly on time and the roads weren’t busy so we got to Faro Airport in good time for the flight. When we came from Faro, the driver took the motorway, but today we went through all the interesting little towns between Albufeira and Faro. We checked in and went through to the departure lounge

We listened to announcements asking people to keep a safe social distance, but we were then herded like cattle on a bus that took us out to the plane. I was astonished to see that the plane was on about a quarter full. This was the first flight that we could get on after the weekend. I spoke to the flight attendant and she said that she had checked the flight last night and it was completely full. Where did all the other passengers go? It reminds me of a science fiction movie that I used to show to my grade nines. It is called, “The Langoliers” and it is about a flight that goes through a time warp on an overnight flight. When a few passengers wake up, they find that they are the only ones left on board. Everyone else, including the flight crew, has disappeared. On reflection, I think what happened was just like the toilet paper stockpiling. I suspect that people booked several flights out…just in case. I am sure that there are many people left in the Algarve who would have loved to fill the empty seats today.

The flight was very smooth and we landed early at Gatwick. Going through the airport was also like science fiction movie. We were the only plane to land at that time. The passport control hall which is usually a zoo was empty except for we few from the plane. Notwithstanding, there was a long line of immigration officers in their booths doing absolutely nothing while we all went through the automatic passport control. They let all nationalities through them.

We collected our luggage and made our way to the National Express bus. We were able to take an earlier bus to Heathrow. While we were waiting in the little waiting room. A man was berating a woman about spending three pounds on her credit card and demanding to know what she spent it on. She said that it was when she went on the underground and tapped her card for the fare. The man said he didn’t believe her and demanded that she tell him the names of the stations she passed. At that point we had to leave but I am sure that you won’t need three guesses to work out the culture that they belonged to!

The bus ride to Heathrow went smoothly, the motorways were not crowded and we arrived early at all the stops en route.

At the Ibis we checked in quickly and dropped our luggage in the room. We are now sitting in the bar and I am on my second half pint of London Pride beer and thoroughly enjoying it. The restaurant has a Covid 19 reduced menu but still not bad. Looking forward to a hearty breakfast tomorrow morning and our flight back to Calgary.

We woke to sunshine this morning after a day and night of rain.

We spent some time this morning doing most of our packing and we checked in with British Airways and paid for our baggage so we are pretty sure that we will at least get to Gatwick Airport and then on to Heathrow tomorrow. We should be able to check in on line with Air Canada when we get to the hotel at Heathrow.

We walked into town for a late lunch and noticed that there weren’t any restaurants open, but we were able to get a pizza in a bar. When we were there two days ago, they had all the chairs out and there were a few people in there. Today all the outside chairs and tables had been put away, but we ate inside with the door open and the customers were spaced within the area.

Jane, who looks after the apartment, came round earlier this evening to return our damage deposit. She has been trying to help other people get flights out of Portugal to get back to Canada and the UK. She told us that the Portuguese President declared a state of emergency this lunch time and the borders are closed to the rest of Europe.

While we have been at home in the evenings, we have been watching some excellent documentaries on BBC and we both remarked today about how much we have learned about British history in the past couple of weeks. We have also enjoyed a couple of episodes called Lost Sitcoms which have recreated some of the sitcoms of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. The producers managed to find actors who both looked and sounded like the actors in the original series. For those who may remember, we watched recreated episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour and All in the Family. They are still hilarious today!

We have a taxi booked for 8:30 tomorrow morning so I will write from the Ibis hotel near Heathrow Airport tomorrow evening.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. I am sure all Calgarians remember the blizzard we had in the late nineties when the schools were closed for the day.

We are staying close to home at the moment because the temperature has dropped and rain is in the forecast. Bars must close here at 9:00 pm, but I don’t remember anyone saying that the virus only came out late at night! Ah well, I am sure all these little restrictions make governments feel like they are taking action of some kind.

Another question for you plant lovers out there. We have come across a plant with blue flowers. It looks very pretty and a bit like salvia, but it smells as if someone or something has been run over by a skunk. Brian found this out to his cost when he picked one! Any ideas?

This is a bit of a ghost town at the moment. We went out for a late lunch and two of the popular restaurants which we frequent most often were closed without warning. Speaking to the waiter at the one where we ended up, he said that there would be a meeting later today to decide whether whether it stayed open or not. The tourist streets with all the shops was deserted. Seems quite eerie.

Earlier in the morning, we finalized the rest of the plans for our return. The only thing we can’t book yet is the taxi to the airport. Brian tried but was told to call back tomorrow. Our seats are booked on the BA flight to Gatwick and we aren’t sitting together as there were so few seats open. BA emailed us to say that at the moment the flight is in place but they cannot predict what will happen. We have registered with the Canadian Gov’t to let them know where we are if things really go bad, but we did this mainly for Justine and Nicola who are getting anxious. We weren’t able to change any of our flights so we had to rebook them all from scratch. A very expensive undertaking, but we hope to get something back from the airline. We are also expecting to get a refund on the walking tour. We will have to see how all this pans out.

On a brighter note, we noticed two very different Bird of Paradise plants on the grounds here. One is the usual orange and purple variety standing about two feet tall, but the other is literally a tree. The flowers are very muted colours.

We also saw a tree that we have seen in other places but have no idea what it is.

When we went shopping earlier this morning the supermarket has posted notices that it will be closing earlier than usual in the foreseeable future, but the shelves were full. We had our usual coffee and custard tart after we did the shopping. Some things are still quite normal around here, and we will enjoy what we can. I will keep up the blog until we get home.

After being made aware that Canada wants Canadians to return home while commercial flights are still available, we decided to re-schedule our flights home and leave in a timely manner. The first flight that we could get out of Faro was on Thursday so we booked that right away. We are flying to Gatwick and then getting a bus to Heathrow. We will fly out from Heathrow on Friday. We also had lots of hotels, buses and flights to and from Naples to cancel. Not much has been refundable so we are hoping that our insurance will help out with some of it. Brian took over four hours to cancel the things we have done so far. Still have the walking holiday to cancel, and we are surprised that they haven’t cancelled already.

We walked into the old town for a late lunch, and we were surprised to see how many shops and restaurants have closed in the last few days and how empty the streets have become.

I guess we won’t be completely out of the woods until we are home again. Lots can happen in the next few days.

Thank you all for staying in touch with us and keeping us up to date with the latest developments. We still have no idea how widespread the virus is here in Portugal or in Calgary. We still have a couple of days left here but all the tours have been cancelled. I will keep the blog going until we get home. It has been sad to notify so many people that we will not be able to see them as planned.

A bizarre start to the day. A couple of days ago we bought a half day tour to a market in a town more inland. We were up at 6:30 as we had to meet the coach at the Dolphin Roundabout at 08:20. We were there on time and a car pulled up. The man who got out was from the tour company and he had a plastic bag with our money in it for the tour. It appeared that all the markets have been quarantined for the next two weeks. He didn’t have our cell number so came personally to apologize and refund our money.

We decided to walk down to the square and had a second breakfast. We then walked down to a bar overlooking the sea and spent some time drinking fresh orange juice, coffees, and I had my first cocktail of the holiday, a coconut mojito. We stayed there until it was time to find a different place for lunch.

We chose a small restaurant in the main square and had fun listening to a group of women talking about what they cooked for their family. One woman said that the family only ate pizza. When asked about the family eating vegetables, she said that they never ate vegetables and even when she cut up a tomato to eat with the pizza, they never touched it. When another woman was asked about the vegetable her family ate, all she could think of was asking if baked beans were vegetables as that’s all her family would eat. Good for a giggle to listen to this. Jamie Oliver, you are fighting a losing battle.

We are now home and may go out later for dinner although we both ate a good lunch, without vegetables unless you count the mushy peas that Brian got with his fish and chips!

We are waiting to hear about whether or not the walking holiday is a go for next Saturday. If it isn’t, we will have to rethink the rest of the holiday.

Today we decided to explore The Strip. We did the grocery shopping first and brought it home and then walked downtown and caught the little train again.

We got off at one end of the strip and walked along one side and back on the other side. It is one long series of bars and restaurants frequented by marauding groups of men and women here for a weekend of boozing and enjoying the last weekend before getting married.

We stopped at an Italian restaurant run by South Asians. The waiter apologized for wearing gloves. This has been in place at many restaurants in the last 24 hours. We wanted to share one medium pizza, but that wasn’t so easy as you had to buy one and automatically get one free. The waiter wouldn’t hear of us only buying one so we had to have two. Couldn’t eat both of them, of course, so what a sad waste of food. While we were eating we saw the strange sight of a man walking along the street wearing only the tiniest of thongs. He passed us by before I could get my camera out. At least he was slim with good muscle definition. Many of the men sitting outside on terraces were overweight and inclined to sit drinking their beers topless. I didn’t take photos as I didn’t want you all throwing up over your shoes! Not a pretty sight.

On to pleasanter things… We picked up the train again and went back to the civilized part of town.

Many of the buildings in the Algarve have these minarets on the roofs. They are a throw back to the time of the Moors. They were originally chimneys but now they serve only as decorations.

Saw this lovely tree and it reminded me of our trip some years ago to San Francisco and Union Square which was full of these trees. No idea what they are called.

After a couple of slow days while Brian got over his cold, we took a full day tour yesterday called, “Historical Algarve”. It cost 38 Euros each and we left at 9:00 and returned at 7:00.

We met the coach at a roundabout near where we are staying. We were there a few minutes early and were able to enjoy seagulls taking a bath,

We set for our first stop which was Silves. The Western Algarve is a citrus growing area. The local oranges are not even close to the ones in Canada. Here they are very sweet and juicy. We also passed lots of fig trees and avocados, but they were all just coming into leaf.

Silves

Sives was once the capital of the area when the Moors were here. They were ousted with the help of armies sent by a British king and Portugal is Britain’s oldest ally. While we were here we visited the remains of the Moors’ fortress. Much of it was destroyed in an earthquake in the 18th century. The cathedral next to it was formerly a mosque.

As we walked into the town we discovered that this whole area is a haven for storks and most don’t even fly south for the summer. They and their nests are protected, and in one small area there are reputed to be 12 000 of them. At this time of the year they are hatching their eggs or feeding their chicks. The nests are balanced very carefully and they return to the same nests each year and add to them.

We walked through the local market which had lots of fresh produce and cakes made from dried figs and almonds, but very few customers.

From Silves we drove to Monchique, the highest point in the Algarve at 905 metres. Lower than we live in Calgary but a great view on a sunny day. It was a bit misty when we were there. There is a convent lower down which was funded by a ship’s captain because he used the green hill to help him navigate to safety in a bad storm.

We had a pre-arranged lunch at a nearby restaurant. We had bread and ham which was followed by a choice of three main dishes, a small dessert, and coffee. There were two bottles of wine and a jug of orange juice on each table for four. All this for the princely sum of fourteen euros per person.

From Monchique we drove to the end of the world, literally. This was where the world was thought to end before the conquistadors set off and returned. It is the farthest western part of the Algarve. It was chilly here.

On the way to Monchique, we passed may cork trees. Portugal has a thriving cork industry. We may not see many corks in wine bottle anymore, but they are still used here. The cork is now a tourist commodity as well. In the shops you can find just about anything made of cork, including hats, purses, and even postcards. The cork from the trees cannot be harvested for the first 25 years after they are planted. After that it can be harvested every nine years. Once the cork has been removed from the trees, the last number of the year is painted on the trees so it is clear when they can next be harvested. The cork trees are, of course, protected.

Our next stop after the end of the world was Lagos. This is a resort area with a large marina and people with plenty of cash. We visited the Church of Saint Anthony but no photos were allowed. There is a huge floor to ceiling altar covered with gold leaf. We spent some time walking down some narrow streets and back to the bus. We got back to Albufeira and had dinner. There weren’t many people around and the restaurant which had diners on two floors when we first came only had us and two other couples in it last night. We suspect that people are leaving at the end of their holidays and nobody else is coming here.

Had a quiet day today at the apartment because Brian caught my cold and needed to lie down for most of the day.

Yesterday we did venture into town for a late lunch. Brian had the traditional rabbit stew and I had my second meal of grilled sardines. It seems to be getting warmer by one degree a day, but it is still cooler in the evenings and we are still needing the heater in the bedroom.

Flowers continue to greet the spring and it is lovely to see the increase in blooms almost on a daily basis.

When we arrived at the apartment, a man was busy cleaning the pool water and throwing in some chemicals. The only things that we have seen enjoying the pool are gulls, some of them look as big as geese and have a red spot on both sides of the lower beak. These are nothing like the gulls that circle the municipal dump back home. Actually there are two pools here but we can only see one from our apartment.

We have been watching the British news channels and know that British airways has cancelled all flights to Italy until at least the end of the month so it looks as though we will not be going to Naples. Britain is still taking containment measures, but many large gatherings have been postponed for the time being and Transport London is sanitizing handrails and automated tellers for buying tickets. The number of people using the underground is down. The silliest thing is the stockpiling going on in the supermarkets. Here in Portugal everything is calm and all the shelves are full.

We put our tours on hold as Brian wasn’t feeling too well, but we will book something for Thursday. More anon.

Woke to another beautiful day this morning. We walked down to the beach and walked along the waterline. Neither of us intended to paddle in the sea, but Brian forgot the golden rule, “Never turn your back on the waves.” He got wet feet. The sand is very soft and filled with different shells or parts of shells. There were more people on the beach today, and a couple of people were dashing in and out of the sea. They dashed out much faster than they dashed in, and Brian said that the water was extremely cold on his feet.

We went to an outside restaurant for lunch. We have been there before. We chatted to the couple whom we met last Sunday. Albufeira is full of Canadians. There are lots of different Europeans as well, but the common language is English.

Tomorrow we will investigate a number of historic sites in small towns outside Albufeira. There are half day tours offered to most of the places or we may make our own way by taxi.