15th - 22nd October - holiday catch up.

We have been away in The Algarve for a week's holiday. The weather was gorgeous, hotel lush and the food just fab - so a nice & much needed break. I have tried to choose 7 different types of photos - to give a flavour of our trip.

15th October photo - We flew early in the morning so were treated to a spectacular sun rise from a rather unusual angle - unfortunately this first photo does not do it justice - but believe me it was worth being woken from my travel sickness tablet induced slumbers for!

16th October photo - We explored the area the next day - we have never been to the Algarve before and found this lovely sandy beach. We had to walk through the Sheraton Hotel complex to reach the sands and they had sunbeds to hire for 150 Euros a day - so we just sat on the sand like peasants!! We did find more reasonably priced sunbeds on our next visit.

17th October photo - The food in the hotel was great - the chef was particularly proud of his carving skills - so fruit & vegetables were carved each night into grand designs. The roses came from humble beetroot's!

18th October photo - This evening we actually stayed up after our evening meal and took some lovely night shots. This one was taken next to the pool.

19th October photo - never ever did I imagine when I started this project that one of my photos would be of a vulture - but is is today's photo!! There was quite a commotion around the pool and when we went to see what the fuss was about - we found that this vulture had landed in a tree in the grounds. He stayed there for a couple of hours - the staff said that they had never seen one before so they wondered if he had got lost on his migration route. It was an amazing sight anyway.

I will choose one of these 2 photos as my POTD.

20th October photo - I eventually managed to unwind and start to relax and get into the holiday spirit. Each day at 5 o'clock was happy hour at the pool bar so we treated ourselves to a cocktail each. Mine strictly non - alcoholic! So a typical holiday photo - book, cocktail, pool and palm trees.

21st October photo. Today we went to Vilamoura - a lovely town just a few kilometres away from our hotel. They had a very posh marina with lots of very expensive boats. We sat down and admired them - in the best way we knew - with a cake and orange juice & coffee from a waterside restaurant.

22nd October photo - a trip out to Alberufra today. Not as posh as yesterday's trip - but the geology along the coast was amazing - there were fantastic rock formations and high cliffs to explore. I just had to include this lovely photo of Steven taken as we walked along the coast marvelling at all the different rock patterns.

But it is in the wrong orientation for my album so I have chosen this one of a beautiful street sign which were dotted all over the old town.

Anyway back to reality now - the dark & deary weather of the UK - which in its own bizarre way is very comforting!