Corrs Abroad: Portugal

Jean and Harry (aka Lala and Grandaddy) arrived in Crowthorne on August 17th. We sat inside all day Thursday while it poured down rain. Friday we had a nice pub lunch in Marlow and spent the rest of the day preparing for our trip to Portugal. We left for Heathrow airport Saturday afternoon. After a little over 2 hours in the air our flight arrived in Lisbon around 9 pm. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity at the rental car counters we got our cars and drove to our rental house. I had a brief scare when I got separated from Christopher and thought I was headed to downtown Lisbon by myself with the 2 Harrys and Joseph but after some lucky turns we rendevouzed with Christopher's car and drove the hour and a half to Prai D'El Ray. Our house was lovely and had a pool right outside the back door which the kids loved. Unfortunately the warm weather I was hoping for was not to be found. Instead the highs were in the low 70's with a stiff breeze. This didn't seem to bother the children at all and they swam and swam even though they were blue after about 10 minutes in the water. Andy and Sherry arrived on Sunday and spent the week with us as well. All in all it was a very relaxing 9 days. We played tennis some, ate some great food and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We visited the medieval town of Obidos where there was an abundance of pottery. We went to Peniche one day where we were told the beaches were much calmer and better for swimming. I have to say that we did not do much swimming since the water was a chilly 60 degrees! Sunday morning we drove to Lisbon and spent the day touring the city. It really is a lovely city and I would like to have spent some more time there but we only had the day as our flight left at 7:40 Monday morning. It was a great trip and of course it flew by as all vacations do. We got back Monday afternoon and said goodbye to Christopher as he headed to Dublin for 2 days. Jean and Harry will be with us until Saturday and then we will say goodbye as they head back to Gloucester. Fortunately for them they missed a hurricane and an earthquake while they were gone. That's good planning!