Portugal, Day 6: On the bus to Algarve

I was too tired to pack everything last night, so I did all that this morning, not leaving me a lot of time for breakfast, or so I thought.  I stuffed some fruit and pastry in my face and when they said the bus was coming rushed out to wait in the lobby for another ten minutes.  But, whatever, we got on the bus and stayed there for three hours.  We went to a rest stop for lunch, and it was pretty bad.  There was not enough food for a bus load of people, and what they had was overpriced.  What we wound up getting tasted okay, but it took way longer for everyone to get their food an eat than expected.  We were supposed to be on the bus for less than half an hour and make a stop in Santarem for a tour, but there was a building collapse and flooding over the last couple days and getting around town was still a bit hairy according to the guides, and just to be on the safe side, we were going to skip it and go straight to the hotel in Algarve.  This meant three more hours on the bus without a significant break (minus a rest stop with the lousiest bathrooms I've ever used, and I've gone in the woods before).  The one cool thing about it is that a whooping crane couple made a nest on top of one of the light poles there.

We got to the hotel and had time to use the pool and hot tub before supper.  The hotel had a buffet dinner and had just about every kind of regular food animal you could think of, which I sampled, and it was all good.  They had a ton of salads and veggies and some fruit as well.  They also had a ton of different cakes and mousse and ice cream for dessert, which of course I tried, and they were delicious.  After supper, we jumped around on the hotel's back patio for a bit before just going back to the hotel room to chill.  Tomorrow we've got a cool-sounding tour of sand sculptures scheduled.  I hope it doesn't rain (it was rainy on the way here but mix of sun and clouds once we got here).

1-Whooping crane nest.
2-Hole in the floor masquerading as a toilet-good thing I have a strong squat!
3-Panoramic of the countryside on the way here-cork trees as far as the eye can see.