Another glorious day, more fun to be had.  A lazy start with breakfast and the production line we have going – first one up squeezes the fresh orange and then a communal breakfast minus Caz and Jack who are the late sleepers.

Off back to experience the lake we went to yesterday, Nick wants to try stand-up paddle boarding, we think that the pedalo will be great fun for Jack and Sam may be interested in sailing.  So off we go.

We have been trying to book a boat cruise for a few days and been talking about it and today was the day.  But when we booked they didn’t have availability.  Daph decided to stay at home in the cool and read her book, Pat unbeknownst to us thought we were going on a boat cruise so came along.  Imagine her surprise when we presented her with a pedalo in the shape of Noddy’s car!  Yes we made her laugh today.

We hired one with a trampoline ring thing on the back, so you are effectively dragging your own paddling pool off the back – this enabled all 8 of us to go on the pedalo.  We hired 2 x stand up paddle boards which Nick and Rich started on (down wind mind you!) and off we go.  Cax and Shaz at the helm of the “river boat cruise”, Patty and Jack in the other seats and John and Sam in the swimming pool at the back.

We had all sorts of antics, mishaps, giggles

Absolutely exhausted and tired from the days activities – back home and out to explore a country town (recommended by TripAdvisor) called Estoi.  Estoi is about a 30 to 40 min drive and had 4 – 5 restaurants reviewed on TA.  When we got there it was like there was a plague and we were the only ones that didn’t know about it.  Sometimes we saw a person, they popped out their house and straight back in – absolutely deserted and not a restaurant in sight.  By this time is is 7:30 and everyone is getting hungry and fed up.  So off back to Almancil to find a restaurant to seat 9 at 8pm at night.  Yeah right!

Some photos from a deserted Estoi.

We followed Caz to find a restaurant after a few failed attempts, they had seen a few on the way to Quinta do lago, so off we go in convoy.  She spotted a restaurant out of the corner of her eye, yanked the steering wheel to head up the steep drive.  What a find this restaurant was…  Three of us ordered a rump steak, they offered us an all you can eat rump steak for 2 more euros – we declined.  When our steak arrived I have 4 pieces of rump steak on my plate.  Food was great, John loved his chocolate crepe.  Then the charm started when the chef came out to talk to us and offered us a port from his family’s vineyard in Porto.  Naturally we accepted, it would be rude not to!  It was delicious, we asked him where we could buy it and to our surprise he said here, and without taxes because it is not official.  €12 a bottle.  Then he gave us a 30 year old port to try, how could we refuse?  This was smoother and glided down the throat like a silk sheet on a bare body.  Nick and I bought a bottle of the 30 year old and Pat bought the 25 year old.  Needless to say I had a headache the next morning….

Did we make Pat laugh?  She was not happy about trapping about Estoi with no sign of food coming. But she loved the charm of the chef and his tales of life in Porto.

Categories: Portugal

Shaz Thompson

Mad about golf, enthusiastic about life, totally in love with my husband and just having fun.