Had a great night out for New Years Eve. We had a meal at the new Bistro where we went on Christmas Eve. It was packed full and we had an excellent meal, although the steak was a slimmer cut. Afterwards we walked up to join our Dutch friends, Mario and Denis at their viewing location for the fireworks but I think I preferred it the year we saw them from the beach. (The fireworks, not Mario and Denis, they're always great.) We then walked down to the Fisherman's Beach and listened to the band for a while. They were pretty good but the others didn't want to stay. It was being filmed for national television and I offered my services for interview when I saw a cameraman. Unfortunately he turned down my offer of the interview with an English tourist. I can't think why, it would have made an interesting angle. Oh well, each to their own.
This morning we said our good byes at Parc de Palmeira. A group of French had ganged together and refused to pay for their stay because of the intermittent electric supply which seemed a lot for the caretaker/managers, Charlie and Antonio to cope with.
On our way out of Albufeira we visited the self service jet wash to give the van the once over as the outside hasn't been cleaned for a year. There was another van there and he was filling his freshwater tank using the rinse cycle which I thought was an ingenious idea. The blast was too powerful to fill from the water inlet and would have wrecked the seals and so he had removed the lid at the top of the tank, located under the dinette seat. As they didn't drink the water from their fresh tank this seemed a quick and efficient way to get the job done.
We arrived at the car park at Armacao de Pera and paid for two nights. It was a gorgeous sunny day and so Mike set out the chairs for coffee. Soon afterwards an English lady came over and warned him that we had paid for parking only. They had been fined €120 by the police a few days previously for camping in a car park. This has put us off and although we are in a stunning location, right in front of the beach, we'll head off tomorrow. We later learned that this is for parking only because there are two campsites open all year in the town, seems fair enough.
We have now moved on to the Aire at Silves, where we spent some time last year. We're sitting outside in the sunshine having coffee.
I have posted two photos, one of the traditional fishing boats on the beach this morning and the other of you know who.