Faro; Thursday, 16 February, 2012

In the end I must have slept through the first couple of dozen DLR’s as by the time I looked at the clock on my phone it was a minute before my alarm was due to go off. Normally for a 9:30 flight I would have aimed to have been sitting in the departures lounge by 7:45, rather than still lying in bed watching Breakfast news, but as my flight was from London City I thought I could probably risk it.

After a leisurely shower I repacked, checked out of the hotel and walked the short distance to the terminal building, straight to the bag drop desk with no queue, up the escalator and just 15 minutes after closing my hotel room door I was ordering a coffee in the Caffé Nero’s in the departures lounge.

I had barely sat down to start my coffee when the flight was called so in the end I finished my breakfast in the gate room. After a minor delay due to a last minute delay to some of the crew (the pilot had come in from Stockholm, the First Officer from Madrid) we made the dramatic take-off from City Airport and headed towards the Algarve.

After a pleasant, if slightly bumpy flight, we landed at Faro and once again I had a smooth journey through the airport, barely stopping from leaving the plane to reaching the taxi rank at the front of the airport with my bags.

Having checked in at the hotel and dropped my stuff off I wandered down to the bus stop and caught a bus into town, which in the end proved to not be that long a journey.

I had a long wander around the old walled town, taking in the sights from the top of the tower of the Cathedral as well as the museum and the Cathedral itself.

By about 5 I was starting to get a bit peckish so, after picking up some postcards and some stamps, I stopped for a bite to eat in a little café overlooking the harbour and had some very late lunch.

I had a bit more of a wander around before stopping by the station to check on times of trains for the weekend and then, with the sun rapidly starting to head for the horizon, and not 100% certain of the walk back to the hotel, I headed back.

After freshening up I wandered down to the hotel restaurant for a very light dinner and a drink before heading back to my room for an early night.