f is for foodie: Spain Day 8 - The Big Drive to Portugal!

I woke up around 5:30am to a very large swollen eye! Good thing I was today's designated driver! We left under the cover of night and it was a bit tough to navigate out of Rota in complete darkness but after second guessing ourselves a few times we finally we on our way!

Even with the odd route of having to head north to Sevilla before heading west to the Spain/Portugal border we made good time. Not quite sure what I expecting (machine gun touting border patrol perhaps?) but the actual crossing over to Portugal was pretty anti-climatic.

We set our watches back an hour and found our way to Praia de la Rocha. I dropped the ball a bit and neglected to print our directions to the hotel - oops! Good thing we bough the map in Spain and ironically, the one hotel we did not have directions for was the easiest to find!

The Vila Lido was absolutely adorable! It was at the very end of a street filled with high rise hotels and across the street from the beach. And Frank, our delightful host, couldn't be friendlier. We checked in and decided to explore the Ponta de Piedade (Point of Piety) in Lagos.

Before we hit the point, we stopped for some lunch in town. After our usual debate, we wound up at the Bar Milenium. There a mother and son waited on us and RRR and I decided to share a shrimp omlette and some pork piri piri. The pork was a thinly sliced grilled chop and was decent but most importantly hit the

spot!

After lunch, it took a bit of work to find the Ponta de Piedade, but it was well worth it! You simply could not drink in enough of the natural beauty of Lagos! The natural caves and deep blue water of the grottos was breathtaking! We snapped at least thirty photos each!

And since this wasn't enough, we headed back to the hotel and hit the beach across the street. The beach was wide and there were sections of chairs and umbrella rental stands along the beach with some small snack bars as well. We walked down the many stairs, forked over a few Euro for

some chairs and checked out the water.

It was a bit windy but Mitch and I sucked it up and went in the water. The ocean wasn't as warm as it was in Spain but it had less rocks and the waves were a bit calmer. We all did our own thing: RRR and Mike hit the snack bar, Sharpie read, Mitch swam and I went for a walk. I stayed on the beach a bit longer than the gang to soak in the natural beauty and peaceful atmosphere of the beach until the jarring tantrum of a British child disrupted my moment of tranquility. Thanks kid - you little wanker!

But I digress... we showered and went to the Dockside for dinner, a restaurant recommended to us by our congenial host, Frank. It was a short walk through a fort located at the end of road and past the exclusive Nikki Beach club. First impressions of the Dockside was that Frank sent us to a tourist trap, but it wound up being one of the best meals of the trip! NOTE: Looks can be deceiving!

We ate like champs! We had two bottles of a delightfully big bottles of wine, a 2004 Casa de Santar Reserva from Dao. After a few visits from our waiter we finally decided on our meal. For a starter, I had delicia de Mexilhoes ('delight of mussels') and Sharpie and I split the arroz de Tamoril (monkfish rice) as our main course.

The mussels were excellent! Large, plump, juicy and drowned in a creamy seafood broth reminiscent of a seafood bisque with a teeny tiny dice of carrots and onions. The rice arrived tableside in a large ceramic pot with two large prawns to put it over the top. We asked for an extra bowl since it was much more than two people could handle. The rice had more broth than this paella-eating girl expected and you could totally taste the sea in every bite! I basically had to stop myself from cleaning the pot since we needed to save some room for our evening ice cream.