On the road again
Goin’ places that I’ve never been
Seein’ things that I may never see again
And I can’t wait to get on the road again

Perhaps the best part about this new journey is that we have wi-fi again! Woo hoo! While we love our new place, and even more the generosity and kindness of our attorney in letting us use it, it’s sure amazing how quickly our lives have become dependent on good internet access. Of course that also means it’s once again a lot easier to post pictures on the blog (you can take that as a “Reader Warning! Lots of pictures below again!”) We used my iPhone as a hotspot for a while, but not only is that slow and intermittent, we went through our minutes faster than Trump goes through hairspray. Plus I can’t use my computer to do it, which puts a serious bummer on my blogging, dude.

And so, without further ado, here are two batches of pix, one from a trip to Nazaré, and the other to Albufeira in the Algarve, which is where we are right now.

Nazaré is world-renown for surfing waves that are totally righteous. In fact, world record-setting. In November 2011, Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a wave that was 78 feet from trough to crest. There have been a couple of surfed waves that may even be bigger than that since then. So we set out on a hour-and-a-half drive to see if we could rock a tube. Or at least see a big wave or something.

If you don’t believe how big those waves can get at this spot, just click here for a radical video. And yeah, that’s right where we were. We just have to come back in November or so to catch that surf. And we will, by God. That’s something we really want to see.

Next up– a trip to Algarve! Algarve is a big tourist destination in the summer, especially for the Brits. Even in the off-season, as we wandered around town we heard more British accents than the time we were in London. Well, maybe not, but after hearing nothing but Portuguese, it was noticeable. I did get a kick out of a musician singing Neil Diamond and other American and British pop songs in a restaurant. Why do people want tastes of home when they’re traveling in another country? We’re glad we didn’t consider moving to Algarve permanently.

You know you’re retired when your idea of fun is to try on different sunglasses and laugh at each other and take pictures. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is what retirement is like.

As a final flush– er, close to the blog, I just have this one question. What in the world is this bidet-thing used for? I mean, I’ve used a bidet. In Japan, they have sophisticated toilet seats with controls that rival an airplane cockpit. They make you want to sit there for hours, just luxuriating in the, well, we can leave the rest to your imagination.

I was going to joke about all the bidets here in Portugal by asking what we’re supposed to do with these feet washers. Now I wonder if that’s really what they are. The faucets only point down, so if they’re supposed to wash your nether regions, well, let’s just say no one could ever unsee what they saw if someone were actually washing their nethers with that faucet.

Since we’re pretty sure no one has ever used it, we’re using it as an ice bucket. Cheers!