Well today was our first daytime experience in Alvor and after a nice lie in (missing breakfast in the process) we headed off for the beach. I had bought a little beach chair the night before so I relaxed and started reading "The Afghan" by Frederick Forsyth. Jill lay down on her towel and soaked as much sun in to her as she could!

It was quite windy today and Jill was covered in sand that was blown at her by the gusts. After a while we decided that the wind was just too strong and that it might be better by the pool. En route we stopped in a snack bar on the beach front and got some food and a drink. We then marched on to the pool where we were delighted to find a couple of free loungers! I continued to read my book and Jill enjoyed not being whipped by the sand!

This evening we decided that we'd play a game of tennis, so at 6.30 we headed down to the tennis club and booked one of the hard courts for an hour. It was 10 euro for the court and 7 euro for the rackets, which I thought, well, was a bit of a racket! That said we paid up and had an enjoyable game in the nice evening sun. We only managed one set with Jill winning it 7-6!

After tennis we returned to our room, showered up and got dressed and headed into town. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a sucker for oriental food. Indian, Chinese, Thai, whatever, I love it all! Luckily, Jill also enjoys this type of cuisine! So tonight we decided to push the boat out and visit, a, yep you guessed it, a Chinese restaurant! The food was good, the wine and beer was good but the best part was the price. We got:

• Prawn crackers
• Spring roll
• Hot and sour soup
• Chicken satay
• Szechuan Beef
• Chicken with Stir fry veg
• 2 x Fried Rice
• Orange Sorbet
• Bottle of wine (75cl)
• Bottle of water (1l)
• Large beer (50cl)
• Espresso

for a grand total of €38.10! And like all Chinese restaurants across the world, their servings were very big! After dinner we decided to get some drinks at the off licence and retreat to our balcony, as we were tired after the sun and tennis! We managed to pick up a makeshift cooler bag which works for about an hour on our travels too, so our drinks were reasonably chilled when we got back.

After luckily taking off on time, we arrived in Faro airport earlier than expected, and our luck continued as both our bags came out very quickly. We stepped outside the airport into the blazing sunshine and stood outside as we waited for our bus to begin its journey. We expected to be on the bus for at least an hour, but we were at our hotel in 50 minutes which was good!

First impressions of the hotel were very good. The reception area is nice and big, well air conditioned and decorated. The reception staff were reasonably helpful, but not all that friendly. We were given our keys and proceeded to our sea view room. The room is big and spacious, if a little dated, with a modernly renovated bathroom and a large balcony with a spectacular view. Our only gripe with the room was that it had no fridge or minibar, which would have been useful for keeping drinks cool. In fact, we later discovered that to get drinking water you had to purchase it from one of the hotel bars, which was very expensive compared to the 5 litre 80 cent bottles you could find in town!~

We arrived at about 5.30 so we decided to wander around the hotel and find the beach, which is only a short 2 minute walk away. We walked along the beach for a short time and then went into one of the beachfront snack bars for a drink and bowl of chips (french fries). After this we returned to the hotel room and got ready to head into the main Alvor town. There was an abundance of taxis waiting outside the hotel and it cost us 4.70 for the 2 minute journey. Every taxi since has charged 3.25 during the day and 3.80 at night, which is reasonable. If you walk instead it takes about 15 minutes by the road, but there is very little space for pedestrians to be honest, so it's not ideal in the dark!

After a quick wander around the main part of the town we ventured down to the marina area, where there were many seafood restaurants which cooked their fresh produce on coal barbeques at the front of the restaurant. The fish smelled good but Jill isn't fond of seafood and their meat dishes sounded a bit simple so we chose to dine in a place called "Captain's Table". I had vol au vent stuffed with mushroom which was truly delicious. We were waiting quite a long time for our main course, but the waiter was extremely apologetic and I never mind delays so long as they are followed by a sincere apology! He deboned my seabass in front of us and it was well worth the wait.

We were tired after our travels so decided to return to the hotel for a drink before heading back to the room. The hotel bar was very quiet and we soon found out why when we were charged just under 10 euro for a beer and a glass of wine. I expect to pay this price at home in Ireland, but earlier we got the same for 4.80 euro by the beach! We stayed for one drink and headed up to bed, as we wanted to make the most of the sun the following day!