Holiday in the sun

We have just returned from a fantastic weeks holiday, somewhere that had blue sea and sky and warm temperatures, can you guess where we went?

As the plane was coming into land we flew over a number of islands and saw our accomodation from the window, my husband even managed to spot a  swallowtail butterfly on the airfield.

Our holiday destination was a short ferry ride from four beautiful car-free islands. The sand on these islands stretched for miles and it was lovely to see so many colourful plants and wildlife that enjoyed these conditions.

One of the main occupations apart from tourism is fishing,  we watched trawlers going out in the evening and bringing back fresh fish in the morning. It especially tasted so good cooked simply by the fishermen's family in a local cafe. It is always interesting to make comparisons, we discovered that just like here the younger generation aren't keen on taking up fishing as an occupation.

Salted white fish is used in a number of local dishes,this display we found in one of the supermarkets. Salting fish was originally carried out on the huge number of fish caught off the Great Bank off Newfoundland in previous centuries.  There was a triangular trade fishermen from Bridport would travel out in the Spring to Newfoundland, catch and salt the fish, and sell it along the East coast of America and then travel back to Europe where the fish was again sold. The boats would then be filled with salt that was bought back here ready for the following year's fishing season.

We visited this country nine years ago, and bought some local salt and vowed we would return before the salt ran out, as time went by we used the salt very sparingly and only had a few grains left!

It was wonderful to see oranges growing in the trees and have fresh squeezed fruit juice for breakfast.

At the farmers market the tables were piled high with fresh produce from plants that are just developing back at home.

 There are superb views to be had, whether they are over the rooftops or out of the window,

or from the balcony of our apartment....

Each evening a flock of flamingos would return to the salt pans. while on the church roof storks were looking after their young.

The cockerel is one of the symbols of this country, have you guessed where we have been?

The answer is Portugal , we stayed in Olhao which is in the Algarve region. Have you ever visited this country, if so what was your impression?

We have found it feels so cold since returning home. I could easily get used to swoping jeans for shorts and never wearing a coat!

It was so good to just have time to relax, do lots of reading and just chill out in the warmth! Life has been so busy again since returning home. I keep doing extra work in the evening instead of visiting blogs. I have wondered whether to stop blogging for a while, but I am suspect it won't be so easy to restart, so apologies if I am not  a frequent visitor to your blogs. Thanks for still taking the trouble to visit me! Hope you enjoyed the change of scene too.

Sarah