We arrived in Albufeira on Tuesday afternoon. It's a coastal town in the Algarve (South Portugal). It's really nice but very touristy, as it's a favourite holiday destination for the poms. We're getting sick of all the spruikers outside restaurants and bars trying to tell us that they've got the best food and cheapest drinks in town! There are some lovely beaches around though, and we spent today at the beach and wandering through the city ce...

As I write this, we're on a bus bound for Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. We've just spent two days in Porto, which is in Northern Portugal, and is the second largest city in the country. It's been great to finally be in continental Europe, as everything is so different to the UK & Ireland, which seem similar to back home in many ways. Porto is on the North bank of the Douro river, with it's world-heriatage listed old town centre, while the s...

Ok well the weather in Ireland has been all that we expected and more! The past couple of days have been filled with snow, sleet and hail, luckily we have the hire car so that we could crank up the heaters and stay warm! We spent St Pats Day in Cork, arrived the day before and managed to find a B&B. The parade was pretty cool, filled with giant worms, scorpians and the obligatory community groups and brass bands. We then found a pub, the rugby was on (Irela...

Hello there.I just wanted to thank everybody for all the lovely birthday wishes they sent! I had a lovely day, started off with a bit of a sleep in, then onto the supermarket for some flavoured milk and croissants which we took to the gardens in Chester for breakfast. Then it was transit time, we took the train to Liverpool, the bus in Liverpool to the airport, the the plane to Dublin and the bus into Dublin city, so I did get a little grumpy while all this was h...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I've found my spiritual home - Hendersons Public House (Pub) in Kilkenney. Had to stop in and enjoy a pint of Guinness. It tasted almost as good as the free pint that we got after doing the Guinness Storehouse tour this morning in Dublin. Heading to Cork tomorrow for St. Patricks day. Should be a right good craic :-) Paul.