Mike and Megan's Honeymoon: Day 2 - Beach Day In Albufeira

June 29, 2010

BEACH DAY!!!

Made it to the beach!!!

But first, Megan had to write the details of our wedding and travels in her diary looking over the Atlantic Ocean from our balcony.

On the way to buy an ugly beach towel with dolphins and probably lead lined sandals from "China Bizarre," I found this hat. Does anyone know what "Chicago Red Bowl Lineman" means?

Sand sculpture by a guy that helped up with directions earlier in the day.

He sculpted my lady!

Me as a large woman

Finally, the beach!

Take off the zoom...

Better...

Putting the third or fourth layer of suntan lotion on at the pier, which proved to be completely useless. You'll see...

Hey! That's a topless woman in my picture! We found this going through these a minute ago.

a screensaver shot

a picture featuring Megan's elbow...

Crazy plant life!

This was taken when the sun was at it's peak. It was like the light of God was upon us and burned us to our souls. Neither of us have ever experienced sun like this before. After this day, we would hide under trees or rocks at this time of the day.

Megan's favorite flower tree of Portugal on our way back to town to prepare for the Portugal vs. Spain World Cup match

I call it "cloud pine."

Our place is at the top, Hotel Boa Vista. This is taken from Rua Sir Cliff Richard.

You'll see more about this later. But, many buildings have or are covered with tile in Portugal.

This is restaurant, possibly owned by a Dutch guy, at Largo Eng. Duarte Pacheco and Rua da Liberdade. I forget the name of it, but the food was great and we could watch the first half of the World Cup-Portugal/Spain. This is when I started to realize that ALL meals in Portugal come with french fries. I was truly where I belonged...

Where we watched the second half of the World Cup-Portugal/Spain. Portugal lost (if you haven't been paying attention my American friends). But, all eyes were on the game in Europe.

AFTER DINNER FUN! What a great idea. Paddle boats with a slide!

Look at how red my knees are. It's a sign of things to come!

A view of the main square of Albufeira from a road to the north.

Looking at Rua 5 de Outubro from the road above the beach tunnel.

Creepy cemetery, right? Wait until you hear how I almost died here the next morning!!! How is that for a teaser?

Thanks again to everyone for helping with the wedding, coming to the wedding, congratulations for the wedding, and all else. It's been a wonderful experience

Mike and Megan's Honeymoon: Day 1 - Albufeira Arrival

First off. Megan and I would like to thank everyone for such a great wedding! From beginning to end, everything was awesome. A huge thanks to everyone who travelled great distances and for those nearby for all their assistance. We don't have our wedding photos yet, but if you'd like to see some, many of our friends posted the pics they took on Facebook and it's visible on our pages. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We hope you all had as much fun at the wedding as we did!!!

As for the honeymoon, I decided to post the pics in bite sizes since we took nearly a thousand photos and I don't want to spend 4 straight days posting something that would take 3 straight days to view. So, enjoy!

June 28, 2010

Right off the plane we barely made. In Lisbon (Lisboa), we had a little under an hour to get off the plane, go through customs, find our luggage, change terminals by taxi because the bus didn't have a driver (sorry taxi driver for such a low fare. I hope the tip made up for it) (Thanks Ronan for the $20 Euros "just in case" because we used it immediately!), got boarding passes, ran, went back through security, and caught a bus to our plane. How we made it is still a mystery to me. The plane left for Faro and our taxi to Albufeira was very swift. Also of note, notice the stick in my hand to the camera. It's a gift my WIFE got me for my birthday for this occasion. It impressed many Europeans and we fully expect everyone to have one the next time we go back...

This was the perfect way to relax after all the wedding stuff...

The tunnel that leads to from the city to the beach!

Megan is waaaaaaaay off in the distance. I wanted to know was the temperature of the Atlantic was like. It was pretty cool, but very refreshing since the sun melted our very northern skin.

Rock formation at the main beach

Elevator and stairs between the beach and our hotel, which we never took...

My hot wife!

Climbing some rocky areas in my new shades. The pair I had broke on the dance floor at the wedding. That's how good my moves were... So, Megan and I played "bad cop, worse cop" with a guy selling shades on the beach and now I have knock-off Armani shades.

so overdressed and don't even know it yet...

on the east side of the main beach near the beach plaza

Megan on the pier

A view of the town from the pier

We didn't know it yet, but Megan and I would spend quite a bit of time hiding from the sun in the afternoon drinking sangria. We learned quickly from the local winos...

tourist shops and cafes

Ahhhh... The view from our balcony at Hotel Boa Vista. It was a very nice hotel with the perfect location. We had a great view of the Atlantic Ocean, beach, and city. The breakfast was included. The walk to town and the beach was 5-10 minutes. How can we complain?

A view of Rua 5 de Outubro from above the beach tunnel

Jet lag appears to be setting in. So, a little prep time at the Vertigo Bar seemed necessary

We believe these were called "tall drinks." Seems fitting. The tourists and kids loved them. We saw tons of variations of these including one that seems to have a Roman Candle firework shooting from it.

Places around the square

Sometimes I wish I could be a Botanist. I've never seen plant life like we saw in Portugal.

A chef watching Brazil vs. Chile in the World Cup at Fisherman's Tavern on Av. 25 de Abril just west of the beach plaza

And look at what the chef prepared for us! In that copper hamburger looking thing to the left is an assortment of clams, shrimp, and all other kinds of sea life. It was really good. I hate seafood and I thought it was good. My chicken was great too. They must have marinated it for years because it was so flavorful. I haven't had food this good since I was in Germany in 1997. So good...

And the Church of the Electric Jesus. Really, it's a chapel turned museum for Ermida Sao Sabastiao.

Again, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for being a part of our wedding. Please check out our friends pictures on our Facebook pages if you want to see those photos. We've seen a few of our "official" wedding pics and they look great. More of that to come! Thanks again!!!