Monday 13th May – We took a trip out to our American families cabin on the edge of Lake Loon in Wisconsin.

What an absolutely beautiful place to just chill and reflect… I could easily be converted to an off grid existance after spend just a couple of hours here.

On our reluctant return to minneapolis, famished after all the fresh air of the lake. we went for a meal at the local ‘ Bennetts Chop & Railhouse’ Restaurant. This is another establishment that I can fully recommend. Really welcoming, friendly staff that can’t do enough for you, great food at very reasonable prices, and if you are in the mood for it, even a comprehensive cocktail menu… This is definitely a place that sucks you in..

Arrived yesterday after a pretty trouble free flight from London Heathrow. MSP imigration was slow at nearly 2 hours, but apart from that, a good trip.

Today being day 1 of this visit we started off with a great typical American breakfast in a fantastic diner called the ‘Fireside Lounge Bar & Restaurant‘. This is a very popular diner for very good reasons. The food and service is excellent so well worth booking ahead. (Follow the link in red to review their website.

After breakfast, we went on a 90 minute ‘Mississippi’ cruise. At only $21 per adult this was an fantastic way to chill out for a couple of hours. The historic commentary covering the way the Mississippi forged all areas of the USA, I found well presented and interesting.

The trip takes you past an early railway swing bridge (not in use any more) which has an interesting story that when it was first built, when it swung, part of it went over a landovers property. The railway tried to pay for access for the swing, but the land owner would not allow them access for any price as he was a paddle steamer operator and the introduction of the railway was putting him out of business, so the railway had to cut off the overhang and replace it with a concrete counter weight. Great historical story of poor initial planning.

To follow on from my last post about the Hotel Do Cerro in  Albufeira, I thought I would show a few pictures I took whilst here.

February and March is a great time to come to the Algarve as the weather is pretty good. This weekend it has been 20+ in the afternoons, plenty enough to top up your tan or even get burnt if you are not careful. I can highly recommend this as a winter sun break.

Albufeira Old Town has plenty to entertain any demands from quiet Cafe’s and Bars to wild nights of abandonment hiding in  the central square and back streets. Enjoy.

We are just taking a short break to Albufeira in Portugal staying in the Hotel Do Cerro.

We arrived last Thursday (14/3/24) via a very pleasant Jet2 flight from Birmingham. It is now Sunday morning 11.43am and I am writing this whilst sat by the hotel pool in the sunshine.

The hotel is located a mere 850 meters from Albufeira old town, although this is some 60 meters elevation so as you can imagine, it is a much easier walk into town than back. Thank the lord that there is a bar at just about every junction on the way back up the hill. Google maps shows it as a 14 minute walk. It might be if you are Sherpa Tenzing, but we took a much more leisurely hour to do it. Day 2 we took a taxi. LOL

The hotel itself is quite quirky in layout, and spreads across a street with a connecting tunnel. The reception and cocktail bar situated at street level, but this is floor -1. The pool and pool bar/ breakfast room are on floor 1 and to get to our room (302) we had to go through the tunnel to a lift to floor 2, along another corridor to a set of stairs and up one floor. Strange but easy enough. All the staff at the hotel are magic and cant do enough for you, making it a brilliant stay. One word of warning for the fussy travelers, there is no coffee or tea making kit in the rooms, although you can hire a kettle. This still did not spoil it for us.

The picture below is the view from our room

In this post, I will be moving away from the beaches to show some of the old town and other streets it is well worth a walk round.

For a change this year, we decided on main land Spain and chose Benidorm for a location, staying at the Costa Blanca Innside by Melia Hotel right on the front of Llavant Beach.

We have been here now for 5 days, 5 more to go and have found both the hotel and location brilliant.

The hotel is adults only, but that does not mean you wont see any big kids running around being prats, cause this is party city and all sorts goes on.

See my following posts for more detail on this location

Minneapolis is a major city in Minnesota that forms “Twin Cities” with the neighboring state capital of St. Paul. Bisected by the Mississippi River, it’s known for its parks and lakes. Minneapolis is also home to many cultural landmarks like the Walker Art Center, a contemporary art museum, and the adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, famed for Claes Oldenburg’s “Spoonbridge and Cherry” sculpture.

St Paul is like the commercial centre of the twin cities, but even saying that is well worth a visit.

There are plenty of places to see, the food is great and as you would expect plentiful, and the welcome you recieve is extremely friendly and genuine.

My wife and I stayed at the INTERCONTINENTAL SAINT PAUL RIVERFRONT hotel, which we found to be modern, spacious if a bit tired, but this was just after opening up after the Covid19 lockdowns. More importantly though was the friendlyness of the staff. They just couldnt do enough for you. Only complaint we had was the price of the valet parking. 35 dollars a day is excessive in my opinion.

Overall though the hotel helped to make our stay a memorable one. Thank you.

Just a few images of the area to browse below.

Ibiza, Santa Eulalia Del Rio.

Its great to be back to our favourite place in the world. The world may have gone slightly twisted over the last couple of years, but this is just the place to chill out and unwind.

Just a few pictures below of this beautiful town.

Well it’s been a couple of days since my last update. Lets face it who wants to spend all day on the net when you are in such a lovely relaxing place as this.

We started yester day morning with  a walk along the high street in Santa Eulalia in the direction of Ibiza Town to the bridge then along the river to what used to be Mariners Bar. (closed and boarded up now, not sure if it will ever re-open) then along the front and back into town. Not a long walk at all, but it was already 27.5 degrees with a 65% humidity, so ended up darting between shaded areas.

The footbridge over the river pictured below used to have engraved padlocks the tourists left as memories, all across it. Sadly they seem to have all been cleared now.

Then last night we decided to have a meal in the restaurant street. (Carrer De Sant Vincent) as shown in the below map.

You will always find a good choice of places to eat and chill along this street. Point to note, as this is in the centre of town and does not really enjoy the coastal breeze, it is generally always warmer then you would expect along the front. We went early in the evening, only 7.30 pm so the street was relatively quiet. It does soon fill though.

The restaurant of choice for our meal tonight was Restaurante Rincon de Pepe which is predominately a tapas restaurant, but still has a pretty comprehensive menu for a mixed choice of food group.

We chose from the tapas menu, and the food was very well present fast, hot and tasted just as good. Well recommended. On top of this a meal for the 3 of us plus a large glass of wine came in at under 50 Euros. Can’t complain about that.

4 days into a truly relaxing holiday on this wonderful island. We have not done a lot really, just chilled out around the Santa Eulalia area with a quick excursion yesterday to the NE of the island through pretty unspoilt villages and towns of Sant Charles de Peralta, Cala de Sant Vincent and Sant Joan de Labritja.

The roads through the hills are an added fantastic driving experience, giving the frequent view that you would love to stop and photograph, its a shame but this is really unsafe to do with a car as the roads are too narrow and windy. If this is what your heart really desires, I would suggest hiring a bike or scooter.

Lovely little bar in the village of Sant Charles

The view down into Cala de Sant Vincent from the op of the hill coming from the direction of Sant Charles and a gem of a beach cafe.