Page 5 - Demo

Sunday 17th September - East Midlands airport - Faro - Tavira Warm & sunny. Gail kindly packed us sandwiches for dinner, as we were flying %u2018Squeezyjet%u2019 from East Midlands airport. That was a great move, as the flight was delayed for an hour and a half. Before that announcement however, we said another emotional farewell to Paul and Gail, after what seemed a whirlwind visit. It was super to stay in their lovely new house. And we were so well looked after by the whole family we can%u2019t thank them enough. Again, a pity we live so far away from them all. The flight finally took off and made up for some time, but it was around 11.30pm when we arrived in Faro, Portugal. Picked up our hire car, to find that we had a free upgrade to a nice Renault. Everything was push button - no door key - just a credit card to open the car and start the motor! We sat in the airport car park (the airport was closed by this time) frantically trying to decipher the handbook (in Portuguese only!) to find out how to turn off the hand brake. Not the usual handle of course - just a series of buttons. It took twenty minutes, but we finally worked it out as we had at the last minute bought a good Portuguese phrase book at the East Midlands airport, and %u2018Voila%u2019 it actually had %u2018hand brake%u2019 in there! Finally drove off and promptly drove down the wrong exit to the freeway and headed west instead of East. Drove off the freeway and looped back onto it, this time the right direction, and got to our hotel, the Porta Nova, Rua Ant%u00f3nio Pinheiro,in Tavira without much trouble, including a night drive through the tiny cobbled streets along the riverfront. Because of the time, approaching 2am, there was little traffic, and the roads were very good. The hotel was 4 star, and very plush and modern, on the hill overlooking the old town. Straight to sleep in our welcoming beds in our room overlooking the big swimming pools.