In Lagos we were split into three groups and sent off with locals who showed us to our rented apartment accommodation. Elena was our host, a warm and welcoming older woman with a useful amount of English, and we trundled after her through the quaint Portuguese streets. Our apartment consisted of five homely units and a garden with swimming pool! It was an easy walk downhill to the shops, restaurants and beach. (More difficult was finding your way back through streets which all looked the same!)

On our first night Dale and I located the local supermarket and bought a picnic dinner to eat poolside - bread, cheese, grapes, tomatoes, salami and chorizo. Dale was in charge of finding some beer and I went in search of wine. There was a large selection of Portuguese wines. Since I recognised none of the grape varieties I followed my usual rules of:
1. Bad red wine is easier to drink than bad white wine; and
2. Never buy the cheapest.

I splashed out on a 3 euro bottle of red (extravagant, given there were numerous bottles selling for as little as 1.30 euro) and met up with Dale who was holding three beer bottles. What Dale didn't realise, until we were sitting in the sun by the pool ready to crack open a cold beer, was that he had managed to select three varieties of alcohol-free beer - fail! Two tasted of watery beer and one had a twist of lemon so tasted like beery lift. Putting aside the undrinkable beer we turned our attention to the wine which was very drinkable!

We met up later with the rest of the group at a bar serving pint sized cocktails. There was also a competition you could enter called 9 deadly sins (apparently there are a couple of new sins I wasn't aware of). For 30 euro you buy yourself 9 different shots which you then down as quickly as possible, while the bar staff time you on a stop watch. At the end you are presented with a t-shirt and the right to add your name to the wall of fame. One guy in our group took up the challenge (no, it wasn't Dale) and completed the 9 shots in 13 seconds. The record so far this year is around 7 seconds. Last year the fastest time was 6 seconds, by Emma from England!

After our tour guide had done some table dancing to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" we moved to the next bar, Joe's Garage. We walked in, and all eyes turned to us. The bar was full of blokes and our group is predominantly female. It was as if a herd of gazelles had just danced into a cave of carnivores. At this second bar cocktails came in buckets. Things got messy quickly. By the time Dale and I left, most of the guys in the bar were dancing shirtless, girls were shaking their booty on the pool table turned stage, and drinks were being knocked over and glasses smashed. Dale and I made it to a third bar which was less busy, probably due to the terrible DJ and absence of oversized cocktails, and then we called it a night.

Dale got up early the following day and went on a surf trip. He joined 9 Austrians learning to surf at some of Portugal's most beautiful beaches. (Luckily their English was better than Dale's German!) They were provided with full body wet suits as protection against the Atlantic chill and spent around 5 hours in the water being instructed on the basics of surfing. By the end of the day he was tired, sore, hoarse, but could stand on a surfboard.

I, on the other hand, did not get up early and did nothing more arduous than a walk along the waterfront. I slept in, read my book, went to the beach, had coffee, tried a Portuguese custard tart (amazing!), walked, window-shopped, lunched, and sat by the pool. Sounds horrible I know.

Something that really is horrible is the town's history. Lagos was an important port town during the days of slavery. Thousands and thousands of Africans were transported through here on their way to the Americas. I visited the old slave market, or what's left of it - it is now a large open square with a Disneyland-esque fountain. It was difficult to imagine the extent of human misery that once existed in this place where people could be bought as easily as British tourists now buy tacky souvenirs (Portugal is a hugely popular travel destination for Poms).

For our last night in Lagos our group met at a traditional Portuguese restaurant for dinner. Still-warm bread rolls preceded servings of steak, roast chicken, and Atlantic salmon. Dale and I were both craving red meat so chose the steak option. Dale tried a local beer called Super Bock (with alcohol this time), and I shared a bottle of local wine with some of the girls. We ordered something called 'green wine' which is a little like a cross between a fruity white wine and bubbly. It was refreshing and would make a good lunchtime wine in this climate. The meal finished with a tipple of port -another specialty here.

Tomorrow we cross back into Spain. I have loved my taste of Portugal and will certainly be planning a lengthier visit in the future.