Brits Abroad!

Yes, we rolled our trousers up and we paddled! It wasn't very warm, it was blowing a gale and there were only a very few other folk on the beach, but one felt one should make an effort!

It was a big adventure for us as we went by train to Lagos for the day. The station was unmanned and we didn't know which platform or direction to head for but we were chatting with the car hire girl, who thought she knew. Suddenly the train arrived on the other side and she shouted at us to run across the tracks to the far platform!! The train was going very slowly and at other stations we saw lots of folk doing it, but it was a bit of a scary thing to do!

Mike put his learning of the BBC Getting By In Portuguese CD/book to good use by asking for the tickets in Portuguese - it's been really useful, especially out in the rural area where we are staying. Very interesting travelling by train, seeing an incredibly different side of the Algarve to the over developed tourist areas along the coast. The shanty settlements along the tracks were very basic indeed, easy to see that Portugal is the poorest country in Europe. The contrast was very striking in no distance at all.

We got a taxi back from the station to the guest house and there was our hire car waiting for us, so that's tomorrow's big adventure, driving on the right hand side of the road!!