Where Has Our Sun Gone!!!

Another day of high winds and a cloud filled sky, perfect for drying laundry, which was the first thing on my agenda this morning. I had it out on the line by 8h30.

We weren’t entirely certain what the day would hold for us but we finally, after a bit of discussion, decided on Loulé for the Saturday farmers market. As well, I had an errand to take care of there and I wanted to get that out of the way. We always say, “Oh we’ve got lots of time”, and then suddenly it’s a few days before we are going home and we have a bunch of running around to do. Not this year!

Everywhere in town we saw signs of Carnaval, which is coming soon and is a big deal for this particular town as they host the largest celebration in the Algarve. We’ve been many times. and have loved it, but we prefer the small town celebrations closer to home. I’m pretty certain this year we will be in Moncarapacho.

Many changes in the market this time compared with other years, both inside and out. Outside, instead of having two facing rows of vendors they now have only one row however they have closed off the main street to traffic and have a row of vendors down each side of that. Probably in fact a few more vendors than in the past but spread over a much larger space. Inside we noticed that not as many fish vendors were there and in the central area they have installed cafés, which they were working on the last time we were here. It’s still all very vibrant, lively, loud, and fun to visit and from todays impressions, still well attended.

We wandered around taking it all in, wound our way to the pottery shop I needed (I have your plate Laurie), then walked the length of the pedestrian mall popping in and out of stores and people watching. I think there might have been another purchase by a certain someone in our group!

Walking leads to hunger and hunger leads to a restaurant and as it was Loulé, we decided to go to our favourite old haunt. Never disappointing.

Great meal (no photos today), a few laughs, a nice hot bica and then we hit the road for the car. As we were about a block away from the parking we started to feel tiny rains drops were falling on our head (I dare you to not start singing), which of course motivated us to scoot just a little bit faster. All’s well that ends well and even though it’s only mid afternoon, we are in for the day, the pellet stove is warding off the dampness, and I’m making fish cakes for dinner. Life as these three Canadians know it is just sublime.