Portugal - Lagos

Apologies for the break in transmission there. We're back now.....

So, our first visit to the Iberian peninsula was very enjoyable. We visited the Algarve in Portugal with Nanna & Pop. We stayed in Lagos which is a lovely town and the weather was absolutely fantastic. We also managed to get about in the hire car and saw lots of great places along the Algarve coast. The beaches were beautiful, the shopping was fun, the food was fresh and the wine was an absolute steal. Jo has decided this is her favourite holiday spot and is ready to go back next week (assuming we win the lotto, which is highly likely).

We've got lots of photos to share, so we won't try and post them all in one go. So to start with we hope you enjoy some of our pics in and around Lagos.


Lucy smiling on Praia Meia - "praia" is Portugese for "beach"
but you probably already guessed that!


Busy Caiti on Praia Meia. That's Lagos in the distance.


Postcard from Praia Meia


Praia Meia from above


Girls cruising the streets of Lagos... white paint is a big seller in Portugal it seems


This is the famous Lagos local, Henry the Navigator... he sat in the passenger seat


Checking the menus in Lagos... the restaurants were all quite nice and surprisingly inexpensive. Grilled sardines are not for everyone though!


Still looking for the best place to eat


Why do girls smile so much when they are shopping?


Town walls.... and a relatively dangerously placed station of the cross by the road there


This photo was also taken in Lagos - purely for reference purposes

The Lake District - Sun

So, as we were saying... the sun finally popped out on our last day in the Lake District - on the morning we were heading off east. But it was such a lovely day, we took some time to get a few snaps before we left.


Mum & girls


Dad & girls


Lake Windermere


Lake Windermere (with gulls)
The snowy hills in the background are the very same Langdale Pikes that we couldn't see the day before, even though we stopped at the pub right beneath them.


Funny little house over the funny little bridge in Ambleside - with funny little Caiti in foreground





A few pics for the mantlepiece... just need to get a mantlepiece now.


But despite the lovely day, we had to be on our way from the Lakes and get on to our next destination, York. And after about half an hour of driving Lucy did her usual "I'm feeling car sick" routine. We've learnt (the hard way) that you shouldn't ignore her when she says this, so we stopped at the first town we saw, which, luckily for us, was the chocolate-box-pretty Kirkby Lonsdale. No, we'd never heard of it either (Keezee thought Kirkby Lonsdale was a heavy-weight boxer) but we were so glad we happened to stop off, as it was a lovely place. Nice shops, nice town square, nice church, nice river, nice bridge, nice views.... nice all round. The town bakery was a real find - it looked as if it hadn't changed much since 1850 (including the prices) with old beams and an open fire - very nice.


That's the Devil's Bridge thorugh the trees. Apparently a national monument or some such thing. No devil to be seen fortunately.


The High Street has a number of pubs, two of which can be seen here.


View over the River Lune. We're told the famous English artist Turner painted this view back in the 1800's (possibly - no, probably - stopping off at the bakery for a sausage roll shortly afterwards.


The local church... very nicely kept grounds we must say.

The Lake District - Snow

You probably realise by now, that if there's any sign of snow, we break out the camera. Well luckily for us, the snow fell on our second day in the Lakes... not great weather for sight-seeing, but it beats the rain at least.

Let's start with a bit of snowy scenery






That's a pub through the trees, called the Alfred Wainwright. He's actually quite famous in these parts and there's documentaries about him on the BBC all the time - Google him!



More cold sheep


This is the pub where we had lunch. It was nestled under a group of fells called the Langdale Pikes, which are apparently quite spectacular (when you can actually see them). The pub was nice... open fire, food, beer, pool table.... all the essentials.


This was the pub next door, where we didn't go for lunch, but looks more photogenic.


And here we are at Tarn Hows, which is another lake (there's a lot of them round here actually). The cool thing was it was frozen.




Caiti took this one... we're impressed.


Boat on Lake Windermere... we were testing out the superzoom on the camera when we took this one.


No snow in this one, it's true, but this is where Beatrix Potter lived. The cottage is called Hilltop - quite possibly because it's located on top of a hill


This is the view of the village from her place. Lovely.

The Lake District - Rain

Righto.... let's see how we go posting a few of the pics we took when we were in the Lake District during the February half-term break this year.

We stayed in Windermere which is nice (as are most of the towns round these parts) and cruised about checking out the sights. We didn't have much luck with the weather though.... the sun always seemed to come out just as we were leaving. We did get some snow however (not that snow was particularly unusual last winter!) so this made up for the lack of sun a little. Unfortunately however, the rain and snow meant we didn't get the chance to climb a hill, which is basically a must-do activity in these parts. Next time....

So to start, here some of the rainy photos:


Happy in the Lakes (between showers)


There's lots of stone walls to stand in front of and smile


Curious sheep (and a bit of rain on the camera lens)


This is the pub at Kirkstone Pass, Elevation: forgot (but high enough for snow when it was raining down below).


The pub was closed so we just hung out and took photos


The World Snooker Champs are on at the moment, but Keezee is more of a billiards fan it would seem.


Pub and scenery


Stone bridge and mountains.... typical scenery in these parts


More kids and scenery... we did take a lot of photos


Here we are in the lovely town of Keswick. There's a lot of good pubs here (trust us on that) as well as a chocolate shop that was completely out of control - both in terms of the number of shoppers and the deliciousness of the chocolate. They gave us a flyer to announce they're on the internet now.


Now here we have one of those amazing places we just seem to stumble upon from time to time. This is Castlerigg Stone Circle, which is a prehistoric monument just sitting there unassumedly beside a quiet road just outside Keswick.


Playing on the stones... kids have been playing on these stones for nearly 5000 years - before that, you don't want to know what went on.


By comparison the stone wall behind is only about 300 years old - youngun


Caiti checking out the relative alignment of the mid-winter and equinox stones - so she says!


Church at Hawkshead. This is a nice little village, home of several nice looking pubs and the Beatrix Potter Gallery.


The aforementioned Beatrix Potter Gallery and (one of the) pubs.


This is the boat that takes you over Lake Windermere, to save you driving all the way round.


View from the boat that takes you over Lake Windermere, to save you driving all the way round. A bit cloudy, actually.


We took this one so that we would remember that we went to Grasmere. Wordsworth lived here for a time, we're told. Grasmere is nice too, by the way.... actually, it's lovely.


Church at Grasmere... (we know this is Grasmere because we were reminded in the previous shot). Lovely!