Serra da Estrella  aka Portugese Lake district

40:17.0N 7:30.0W

Well we packed our bags rented a car (Renault megane) did a few internet searches and headed for S d E. Billed as the Portuguese lake district. With all the news about the English lake district being blazed across CNN we thought it the safer bet. We booked a room in a town called Cohvila which is basically Ambleside with decent food. The journey took three hours  with numerous pit stops. The hotel a quaint rural retreat “Hotel Turismo” fortunately had a pool spa and tv so basically to get the kids to leave the hotel involved using a crow bar. However the area really is very beautiful and spectacular. It is very high we got to 1650 metres above sea level and went on some great walks. The Michaels well Lionel and Jonathan would love it here great views walks etc possibly a bit wasted on the Jacksons who sampled hot chocolates at pretty much every establishment that could mix chocolate and hot milk. Ric Michael called us at pretty much the most spectacular view to let us know Porto were going to be playing Chelsea and could we get a program, for all this travelling something’s never change. What i miss most about England is Tan and then the rest of you. Hope you are all well. Adam

Gabriel

 I went to see 2012 it was about the end of the world it was exciting and scary. There was a good bit with a car and the world was falling apart and coming out of the ground and the car was driving away.We went to aquadome place it was a huge massive swimming pool it was so so fun. Love to all my family and friends .

Dawn

It really is most bizarre to be sitting in a motorway service station, thousands of miles from home, and to see your home town emblazoned across the numerous large TV screens strategically placed around the restaurant. (Just as an aside we have not yet come across a restaurant or cafe without at least one TV screen buzzing away in the corner – nobody seems to watch them and they are invariably muted with a completely unconnected music soundtrack on the stereo system but they are visible and distracting – why?)

As I was saying seeing main street underwater and helicopters winching folks to safety over Jennings Brewery was quite surreal – luckily my folks were not endangered in anyway as we live on top of a hill, but they know plenty of people who are affected. There have been power cuts and phones have been down, also it is difficult to go anywhere as the roads are closed. Special thanks to all those who called to check on their well being.

I must admit to feeling a bit guilty yesterday when we were swimming in a luxury spa pool in brilliant sunshine surrounded by fabulous scenery – but only a little bit! Today has been hard too, I have had to wait ages for a perfect sunset to have my favourite cocktail with and today was the day.

Hannah

Serra da estrella

We did not sail there we drove there because we are waiting for a part of the auto pilot, so we went on a road trip for a couple of days. I did some observations on the way there. First off i saw the trees were tremendously different they looked like the trees in the jungle book (very tall and thin with very light green leaves) i also realised that the houses were made of bright colored tiles. What was really interesting is when i saw something i hadn’t seen before..Oranges. i think people are poorer here though because they seem to make a lot more food just in their back garden. They have big vegetable patches and also chickens. Portugal is a lot more hilly than i expected its got them all over the place. What i also realised on the ride which i thought was really funny is that two rivers were next to each other one called  voooger and the other called booger. I cant believe that the man out there was called Mr vooger booger.

At last we finally got there, the hotel was amazing it had a swimming pool plus a Jacuzzi and an included buffet in the morning, now  thats what i call a hotel.W e had a look round the town and went for dinner it was a really nice restaurant and they did the most amazing chicken.

In the hotel the first thing we did was go for a swim it was really nice but we had to wear a swimming hat so we all looked like complete weirdos but we had a good time.

The next day was really fun we were going skiing. It took us nearly the whole day to find it but it wasn’t too bad because the place we were driving was beautiful it was all up in the mountains and the trees were changing colour they were red, yellow and brown. When we finally got there it was pouring down but i still had a good time on the slopes, it wasn’t real snow though it was like a mat and made you skid more.

The next day was really good we went for a walk round a lake up in the mountains, it was a fun walk you had to climb rocks and jump over rivers on the walk i found a tree that was growing a leave with hair on it and it was unlike any other plant and if you touch it with your finger you can hear a rattle. We had the best lunch you can think off lemonade crackers, chocolate cake and Doritos. At the end of the day we all went to the cinema to see a movie called 2012 it was really good. It was about the end of the world, and this family trying to save themselves.

The funnest day of all was the last day when we went to the aqua dome, its this big swimming pool thing it has a rock pool Jacuzzis saunas steam rooms and outside pools. It was really good but the funnest thing is when me and dawn did a lesson we had to dance in the water and listen to Michael Jackson. It was really fun. At lunch time we went to a cafe there it had the best onion soup. Also the lockers were really cool we had to have blue wrist straps that opened the lockers

It was really weird coming back to the marina because we had done so much stuff that it felt we had been away a long time.