A Bloggy Birthday and a Lush Holiday

Things have been hectic recently and with my poor befuddled brain on overload, I completely missed my one year Bloggy Birthday last week!  There were no party poppers or bunting for my saucy birthday as I was busy revising for an exam.  I did that classic thing of trying to revise a whole year in two days because we had just been away on our hols for half term and it is near impossible to revise when you are on a family holiday.

 I tried to read Othello on the beach and listen to the Duchess of Malfi on my iPod as the waves crashed against the golden sands of a beautiful deserted beach in the Algarve but, to be quite truthful, it was easy to get distracted. Yeh, I know, no sympathy!!! 

Curly Girly celebrated her 7th birthday whilst we were away, so I needed to be super organised and make sure I bought and packed her presents, cards and candles for a cake as well as all the other holiday gubbins. 

Some curious locals amidst the cork trees!

This was our first visit as a family to Portugal and we were blown away by the glorious countryside and gorgeous beaches of the Algarve.  We stayed on the west coast near the small town of Aljezur, right slap-bang in the middle of a national park area.  Every single beach we visited was stunning, clean and by going at the end of May, just before the season kicks off proper, we pretty much had the beaches to ourselves.   The beaches really reminded me of some in Cornwall but without the tourists; the waves are very strong (and the water pretty cold!) so we had to keep a very very close eye on CG and her big sis when they were in the water.  There is a lovely relaxed, laid back vibe around these beaches and they are not surprisingly popular with surfers.

Holiday Highlights
Vinho Verde - young, so called 'green wine' and so cheap!  Drunk by the bucket load and such fun (Miranda wine, geddit?!)  A lush holiday in more ways than one.

Pastel de Nata - yummy, scrummy Portuguese Custard Tarts.  I'll be making some of these little wobbly lovelies very soon - so easy, yet so delicious with my morning coffee (also very good)

Birthday Horse and Carriage Ride - We spent CG's birthday having a carriage ride around some beautiful Portuguese countryside, followed by a farmhouse lunch provided by the owners, who also run a cookery school.   We ate with the English family who run the Horse Riding-come-Cookery School along with some other guests; we had a lovely relaxed lunch with some fab local produce.  They also kindly made a birthday cake for CG; thank you http://www.horsesinthesun.com/

Local Market - A daily market in the little town of Aljezur providing fresh fruit and veg and fish.   The fruit was unbelievably good and the lady who produced it gave us lots of free tasters and suggested we visit...
 ...O Paulo Restaurant - We all agreed that this was our favourite restaurant by far that we visited.  Specialising in fresh fish and seafood with a fabulous location and the best pasta dish I have ever eaten (clams and prawns).  CG and her sister enjoyed the pasta with pesto and although the restaurant was pricey, the food was divine and completely worth it

Chocolate Milk - This is what we got when we asked for a hot chocolate at a couple of beach bars; they warm up the choc milk in the bottle and mmmmm, liquid Cadbury's Dairy Milk!

Stunning Beaches - Did I mention these at all?!

So I am a lucky and grateful Gal to have had such a fab holiday.  I promise to be more regular with my posts and to get busy with some regular crafting and baking posts, which have been sadly lacking of recent weeks; cross-my-heart-and-hope-for-pie.

TTFN. Galx


PS I am linking up with the #AllAboutYou linky - go read some other great blogs :)