On Saturday we had an early start as we were picking up a tour bus at 8.30am. This was to take us to the town of Loule. Thankfully this journey wasn't as bad as the day before with fewer pick ups and a shorter journey. Alas, the weather was not co-operating! On arrival in Loule, we were dropped off near the famous gypsy market and told we had three hours to make the most of this lovely town. Of course, everyone hopped off the bus and hot footed it to the gypsy market. Now this was just like our Saturday markets in the UK, and not as big as I was expecting. But it was still fun to look around, lots of bags, scarves, tablecloths and the such like. Unfortunately, it was while we were here that the heavens chose to open and it poured. Serious monsoon type rain!! We took shelter under one of the tarpaulins, and thankfully managed to stay dry. We bought a few things and then decided to head off into town to explore.
We had hoped to visit the Castle, but can you believe we couldn't find it!! Sign posts took us so far, and then nothing! After wandering around for a bit I was concerned we were going to get lost and it was at that point it started drizzling again. So when we saw the big indoor market this seemed like a perfect option. We were actually really glad we went in, the place was big and bustling with activity. There was so much to look at, all kinds of food products as well as souvenirs etc. It was a lot of fun looking around and we both agreed, we liked it better than the gypsy market. The time flew by, and though we had enough time to look around the markets I would have liked the time to explore more, find the castle and maybe stop for lunch. We soon back on the coach heading back to Albufeira.
In the afternoon we headed down to the Strip, we didn't want to stray too far as the weather was unpredictable. At times when the sun came out it felt really warm though. It was much busier on the strip with the bars being full of what looked like stag parties. Noisy men drinking beer, watching football and shouting obscenities when their team missed a goal. Certainly a different experience from when we visited earlier in the week. I am glad we were staying a 10-15 minute walk away in a quiet area!! Thought there are many nice restaurants on the strip, it is not somewhere I would really want to go for a meal. In the evening we tried a Portuguese restaurant for dinner. Nice place and friendly staff, but I wasn't totally in love with the food. I had a carbonara which had mushrooms in it - mon dieu!!! An abomination!! But at least we had a very short walk back to the hotel.
On Saturday we had an early start as we were picking up a tour bus at 8.30am. This was to take us to the town of Loule. Thankfully this journey wasn't as bad as the day before with fewer pick ups and a shorter journey. Alas, the weather was not co-operating! On arrival in Loule, we were dropped off near the famous gypsy market and told we had three hours to make the most of this lovely town. Of course, everyone hopped off the bus and hot footed it to the gypsy market. Now this was just like our Saturday markets in the UK, and not as big as I was expecting. But it was still fun to look around, lots of bags, scarves, tablecloths and the such like. Unfortunately, it was while we were here that the heavens chose to open and it poured. Serious monsoon type rain!! We took shelter under one of the tarpaulins, and thankfully managed to stay dry. We bought a few things and then decided to head off into town to explore.
We had hoped to visit the Castle, but can you believe we couldn't find it!! Sign posts took us so far, and then nothing! After wandering around for a bit I was concerned we were going to get lost and it was at that point it started drizzling again. So when we saw the big indoor market this seemed like a perfect option. We were actually really glad we went in, the place was big and bustling with activity. There was so much to look at, all kinds of food products as well as souvenirs etc. It was a lot of fun looking around and we both agreed, we liked it better than the gypsy market. The time flew by, and though we had enough time to look around the markets I would have liked the time to explore more, find the castle and maybe stop for lunch. We soon back on the coach heading back to Albufeira.
In the afternoon we headed down to the Strip, we didn't want to stray too far as the weather was unpredictable. At times when the sun came out it felt really warm though. It was much busier on the strip with the bars being full of what looked like stag parties. Noisy men drinking beer, watching football and shouting obscenities when their team missed a goal. Certainly a different experience from when we visited earlier in the week. I am glad we were staying a 10-15 minute walk away in a quiet area!! Thought there are many nice restaurants on the strip, it is not somewhere I would really want to go for a meal. In the evening we tried a Portuguese restaurant for dinner. Nice place and friendly staff, but I wasn't totally in love with the food. I had a carbonara which had mushrooms in it - mon dieu!!! An abomination!! But at least we had a very short walk back to the hotel. 
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