Tag: adventure

Portugal & Southern Spain – Sunday 11th May – Exploring Luz

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We were awoken by the sound of the bird chorus…….there is a nest full of Swallows right outside our front door, on top of the security camera…hopefully we’ll be able to share a picture with you over the forthcoming days. On opening the electric shutters the bright blue sunny sky showed a promise of a wonderfully warm day. Feeling ready for breakfast we googled the nearest supermarket and off we went in our spacious chariot. It wasn’t difficult to find and now we understand the basic oneway system we are getting around easily.
We found the Baptista Supermarket with its spacious carpark. For the then and now we bought a couple of croissants and a couple of sausage rolls. We also got yogurts, fruit, bread, butter and marmite for future breakfasts and Portuguese rolls, cheese, ham and salami for lunches, water, Coke Zero and a few yum, yums to snack on…all of which came to €52 …. Our much cheaper. preference to eating out for breakfast and lunch and also the reason we get an apartment rather than always having a hotel room…it’s nice to mix and match a bit…

We took our breakfast down to the beach front and sat eating it overlooking a beach volleyball game and a great sea view backdrop.

With breakfast out of the way we took a leisurely stroll along the promenade. We are surprised how quiet it is. There are a few, mostly British holidaymakers around but pleasantly quiet and uncrowded. We stopped at a bar and had a couple of Coke zeros whilst watching the world go by…..there are no chairs for hire on the beach and quite a few people had their own deck chairs…a short term investment we may need to make. Some brave soles were venturing into what was obviously a very chilly sea. A british cycling club embarrassingly came past ringing their bells and telling walkers to “stand aside”……. How rude…..a few dog walkers met up and a few kids were rock pooling…altogether a wonderful way to spend a morning – people watching…

We returned to the apartment and dropped the food off before driving down the hill to the apartments pool area and taking up residency on sunloungers for an hour or two. A late lunch of ham and cheese rolls was had on our balcony overlooking the village and the sea. WhatsApp calls home brought us up to date with family news before a much needed siesta…… we must have been tired as we woke in-time to go for supper!!! I had researched another restaurant on the sea front. But when we got there it was shut…may be because it was a Sunday or because the season is only just beginning. So we wandered back to A Concha. We were greeted like long lost friends and sat, on our request, inside as the evenings we find a little chilly. The kind owner suggested a fish Cataplana – stew, which was absolutely delicious and huge….we followed it with a mousse and gateau.

We are now quite used to the short drive back up the steep winding, narrow road and retired back to our apartment. We watched some Prime TV and had a few camels of “ Five Crowns” before retiring to bed. A great first full day In Luz, Portugal.

September 2024 update

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Just a little update so our faithful followers don’t think that we’ve forgotten them….

John and I tend not to travel very much over the British summer months..Why? You may well ask…Well! It’s when everyone else travels and we tend to have visitors at that time of year…..it is also our holiday planning time as well as our book writing time…..some of you may know that John has had 26 books published by Amberley Publishing Company. We have had our first jointly written book published and we are working on another for which we are contracted to deliver at the beginning of 2025. John, as usual, has more contracts spread out over the next few years. So the British Summertime tends to be a busy time for us.

What’s on the cards for 2J’s World of Adventure…..

We are about to spend a week in The New Forest with my 92 year old Dad. We hire a house in Lymington for a week…. I will blog some of the week so it can give ideas of what to do and where to go in that area of ‘Our green and pleasant land’. We use a company called New Forest Cottages to rent a suitable house. We have used them for several years and can thoroughly recommend them as a highly reputable company.



In November we will be off cruising in the Caribbean for 21 days in celebration of our 10th Wedding Anniversary…an area of the world we both love. We will again blog our daily activities, although I suspect much will be sea and sand !!!

The planning for 2025 has started. We had been looking to Safari in Namibia as well as South Africa. However, Namibia seems to have become increasingly expensive and trying to book accommodation within Etosha National Park has proved a frustrating and unenjoyable experience. So, I have ditched it for next year and we will instead stay in a South Africa, spending a month in Pilanesberg and Kruger National Park.

We are also investigating and planing two other adventures….. A trip around Spain, Portugal and Morocco and also a trip to Uzbekistan-the silk route. We are looking to do both of these with tour companies. ……more on this soon as I am trying to secure good prices for both of these trips so that if you decide you fancy one or the other of them you should be-able to get a really good deal. One of the companies starts the tours in the country of the tour, which means our readers across the world will be able to access the same price regardless of their country of origin …you would then be able to book your own flights, direct or indirect depending on what you want to add on, do and of course your budget.

Well that’s all for now….watch out for our New Forest blog and of course the occasional ‘Been there got the t-shirt’ blog.

Many thanks to those of you who have purchased our framed prints. We have been delighted with your highly complimentary responses and we are so pleased that they have all arrived safely and you are enjoying them on the walls of your homes….

Thanks again for your continued following and interest in our travel adventures.

Day 6- Wednesday 15th May 2024-Par to Newquay- Cornish Staycation.

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John went to the station at 7.30 this morning, although we can see the trains from the front room and bedroom of the house, he wanted to take some photo’s on the station platform. So Dad and I had a slow start, made the picnic and picked him up at 11.00am. We headed off and through St Austell then turning right across what we call the downs, stopping briefly at Quintrell Downs station for a photo….

……before carrying on to Newquay. Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall. The town is known for Sandy beaches at both Fistral and Watergate Bay. The waves from the Atlantic Ocean create strong surf. The town is bordered by several miles of Sandy beaches which make it one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations.


The Fistral Bay is perhaps the best known surfing beach in the UK. As a consequence of this, in the summer it’s probably the most crowded! In fact at the height of the holiday season you might have to share a wave with another 300 people, but it’s worth it because Fistral can provide some class waves and holds swells up to 8ft. We didn’t stop at Fistral Bay today because we couldn’t find a car park where we could sit in the car and enjoy watching the surfers. It was very windy again today and there were some quite heavy downpours.


We eventually found a nice car park overlooking Watergate Bay…we counted 25 surfers along the bay. A leisurely picnic lunch was taken in the warm car, whilst watching the surfers ride the peaks, drop off, snake and carve, twist and turn. I always love watching them, knowing the excitement and adrenaline rush they will be having….it’s a long time since I had that feeling during my windsurfing years, but it’s one you never forget and you feel it in your gut every-time you watch others succeeding….I could watch surfers all day.

After lunch we drove further up the coast in the direction of Padstow. We went through some lovely seaside villages/towns.

We stopped for a view of the Bedruthan Steps. It is a National Trust car park with a Cafe, shop and toilets. We had decided not to do the walk to see the steps as Dad had previously done it with my sister, but it is a nice view point and we did need to use the toilet. We were told we would still have to pay for parking…John headed off to get a ticket..£2.50 for 1 hour, £5 for 2 hours and £9 for the day…..Johns reaction was ‘How Much!!’. The Lady said “IT IS National Trust’ !!!! ….No wonder there was plenty of room in the car park. To appease John I bought him a tub of rum & raisin ice cream……When the lady told me the price I just managed to refrain from saying I only wanted a couple of scoops not the whole container….and they were certainly quite small scoops…..talk about rip-off Britain…75p for a wee!!!! End of Rant !!

We continued up the coast a little further before heading back across the Cornish peninsula. After zigzagging through the Cornish lanes, with John saying the mirror at his side was brushing the bank of wildflowers, then he looked and saw it was the same on my side!!!….

……we made it back to Par. A quick stop at the St Blazey CO-OP to replenish the milk and fresh fruit supplies was required before we shut the rainy grey sky out for the night….. would you credit it no sooner had we got back the sun came out…Sod’s law !!!
We are eating in tonight, Fish pie, asparagus, spinach and ginger cake with custard….

Tomorrow we hope for a better day weather wise so that we can go to Looe on the train…we love the quaint fishing village and the fish market will provide us with a nice supper…..but it’s all dependant on the weather because it’s quite a long walk from the station to the main town centre.