{"id":25324,"date":"2016-12-22T18:32:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T18:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=25324"},"modified":"2021-06-14T17:47:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T16:47:37","slug":"christmas-alvor-portugals-algarve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/christmas-alvor-portugals-algarve\/","title":{"rendered":"In for Christmas, Alvor, Portugal’s Algarve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome’s settled in for Christmas, parked on the haphazard sand-mud aire on the outskirts of Alvor, on the western edge of Portugal’s sun-hugged\u00a0Algarve (N37.124914, W8.594254<\/a>). It’s \u20ac4.50 a night stay here, plus \u20ac2.50 if you want the wanton decadence of electrical hook-up!<\/p>\n

The aire’s a short walk from the town, its small but active fishing port, a rather spiffing beach and about 1000 bars and restaurants. We’re settled in alongside Jules and Phil for a few days, are booked in for an evening meal at a restaurant outside town on Christmas day and, I have to say, I’m feeling pretty good about the world. This will be our 3rd Xmas on the road, the first being beneath pines on a campsite north of Lisbon<\/a> (much beers drunk), and the second on an aire with a smokin’ Mount Etna<\/a> in the background (much wines drunk). Both were wonderful, while both were made a little sad by the distance between us and our families.<\/p>\n

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Weirdly, for a man with no job and not much to do with the 40 hours freed up as a result, I’m in a hurry! We’re off out on a Chicken Piri Piri hunt, and I’ve only got 50 minutes to write this post, and have already used half of that sorting through photos. I’d better get a move on. Thinking about it, I’m wasting time just writing this stuff about not having much time, argghhhhh!!!<\/p>\n

We nipped across the south of Portugal in a day to get here, squeezing through villages and bouncing along some of the country’s neglected roads in an effort to avoid the tolls. I read some while ago roads down here are a wee bit unsafe due to the partially sober tourists arriving at the airport to pick up a LHD car and drive it badly on the wrong side of the road. Not much evidence of that at the moment, although one local fella pulling out of a junction to my left and using the hard shoulder\/mud as a sliproad did put the monkeys up me. That incident, which was punctuated with a bit of horn blowing and arm-waving, reminded me we’re in Portugal now. Akin with Italy, my feeling is the laws of the road are seen more as guidelines, and I need to adjust my driving as a result. All good practice for Morocco!<\/p>\n

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\u20ac1 for a bag, or \u20ac5 for 3 bags?<\/p><\/div>\n