Nick and Daph leave today, we play the No 1 Golf course in Portugal, the other Thompsons are playing (you guessed it) crazy golf, Pat is reading her book on her shady couch and Bob and Gill arrive.

Rich takes Nick and Daph to the airport and they fly to Geneva.

John and I head off early to the Spanish border and a course called Monte del Rei, you seriously think you are lost as this course is in the middle of no where, but the minute you get there you know you have arrived!  A man greets you by name, they usher you into the pro shop where you register.  They unpack your car, park your car and your buggy is waiting for you downstairs.  We are giving a grand tour of the facilities, should we want to use them – then shown to our buggy where we are escorted to the driving range where you can putt, chip or hit unlimited Pro V1’s (for those that don’t know that is the No 1 golf ball).  When it is time we are escorted to the first tee, told all about the course, including speed of greens etc.  given an iced towel, water and the rest.  Pretty special, and we are feeling the love.

I played off the mens tees, I should have known when the Starter expressed his concern about a lady teeing off the mens, that this probably wasn’t the best idea.  But I am a game girl and up for a challenge.  This has got to be the hardest and longest course that I have played at over 6000m.  I am not sure how long Avondale is but boy sometimes I felt like the holes were never going to end!

When we finished we were given an included Tapas lunch and presented with an engraved bag tag, the whole experience was pretty special.  I was 10 or 12 over and I felt like I had played some of the best golf of my life…  The rating for the ladies from the ladies tee was 147 and we were playing off the championship tees rated 142 for men.  This one par 5 – I eventually had an 8, I was seriously dragging my feet, huffing and puffing by the time I got to the green, it was up hill all the way – bunkers in the middle of the fairway catching very well struck shot, bloody hell it was hard work but a great day out with hubby.

This is a Jack Nicklaus designed course which has used the natural landscape, which is hilly and has a river running through it – so lots of lakes and water carries.  All too long for a little old lady like me.

Some photos…

Then we dashed back home to meet Bob and Gill.  Gilly affectionately known as Gillybean aka my London mum, has had various health issues which have prevented her from flying, and now only long haul flights are not allowed.  Which means we don’t get to see them very often.  We were very excited to see them and catch up.  We met at the supermarket as the Villa is quite hard to find, and Gill and I had one of those movie moment reunions running towards each other and all the staff at the butcher and bakery counter were looking on and gave us a little applaud for the spectacular show of affection on our reunion.

Then it was dinner ala Pat and a lovely evening was spent drink Port, catching up and reminiscing about our wonderful friends in London and at St Saviours.

Did Patty have a belly laugh – yes, she mainly laughed at Gilly’s version of broccoli soup.

Categories: Portugal

Shaz Thompson

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