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Besides the carnaval festivities which we celibrated last weekend, each year during the month of February, the Algarve welcomes hundreds of sportsloving fans who come and witness the “Volta ao Algarve”, the Tour of the Algarve for professional cycle racers. This year, the 36th edition took place between 17th of February and today, 21st February. More than 200 cyclists and 23 national and international teams challenged each other to win this race. This race is the only race in the world of “class 2.1″ which succeeds in inviting the majority of the “Pro Tour” racing teams.

Two times winner of the Tour de France, winner of the Tour of Spain and Giro d’Italia, Spanish rider Alberto Contador, who won this race last year, insisted on participating in this year’s edition as well. As a matter of fact, I believe it was his first race after more than 206 days without competition. Last Wednesday, during the first stage in between Faro and Albufeira, in his first day of competion, Contador was attacking constantly. Last Friday, during the third stage in between Castro Marim and Malhao, he won his first race of 2010, and today, he became second in the time trial between Lagoa and Portimao as well. He didn’t win today’s stage only because UCI had made some problems regarding his team’s special time trial bikes. Alberto Contador has won this 36st edition of the Tour of Algarve for the second year in a row, which proofs he is currently the best professional cycle racer of the world. I am already looking forward to this year’s Tour de France where he will meet with 7 times winner Lance Armstrong.

This years overall results:

1) Alberto Contador.

2) Luis Sanchez.

3) Tiago Machado.

4) Levi Leipheimer.

5) Samuel Gonzalez.

Having been a cycle race fan all my life, it was pretty normal for me that I was following this year’s event pretty closely. Obviously, I also took some pictures.

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While the first long weekend of 2010 has just gone by, I am wondering who will stop the rain… I’ve been living in this country since September 2003, so this is the seventh winter season I am experiencing in this Southern European country. By far, it is the coldest and wettest winter I have known. Even when I speak with old Portuguese people, they all have to admit that they can’t recall a colder and longer winter than this one…

Anyway, yesterday it was the last day of the carnaval period. The Algarvian city with the most famous parade is Loulé. Apparently, it is the parade which resembles most to the Brazilian parades. At least, that’s what I have been told, although BB (remember, the Brazilian Beauty that turned into a Brazilian Bitch far too rapidly) didn’t agree with this. As I had nothing else to do yesterday afternoon, I went to see this parade, and took some pictures. I wonder how many of these girls will have catched a cold by now?

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It’s February. This means carnaval time. Having lived in this country together with BB - a Brazilian Beauty that turned into a Brazilian Bitch far too rapidly - for four years, I soon discovered that this “fiesta” is being celibrated in all parts of this country. All over the place, there are colourful parades with music, dressed up people dancing and having fun and children playing in the streets and squares. It seems that everybody wants to come out of their houses, and want to see or be seen… People are spending many weeks and months making their costumes very patiently with a lot of creativity. A lot of colours, a lot of confetti, a lot of fun.

Somehow, I have always watched this kind of “fiesta” from a distance and never took an active part in it. I guess I am not catholic enough to fully appreciate this party. The tradition of it goes back many centuries, to ancient catholic Italy when a huge dressed-up party took place at the eve of Ash Wednesday, forty days before Eastern. The popularity of this event grew all over the catholic world, and everybody nowadays knows that the carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is the most famous on the globe.

There are many theories about the word “carnaval”. Most probably, it comes from the Italian “carne levare” or from the Latin “carne vale”, the “removal of meat” or “goodbye to meat”. In the catholic world, during the forty days before Eastern, people should not eat or drink much, and especially not eat meat. Except on Sundays…

Yesterday, on a cold and rainy day in the Algarve, I went to take a walk in Tavira, and witnessed this year’s carnaval parade…

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I have written this before, and I fear that I will have to repeat myself in the future on various occasions, but living and working in this sunny country remains an unbelievable challenge. Was it Alexandre Dumas, the famous French writer, who once said that Africa starts at the Pyrenées? Spain has changed, that’s for sure, but I am not certain that this is the case for Portugal. European economists fear that the crises that started in Greece a couple of weeks ago, will now come to the Iberian peninsula, and especially to Portugal. With the mentality of the Portuguese people, and especially, the Portuguese politicians than run the government, this does not come as a surprise to me at all!

What happened? A couple of months ago, I discovered a new product, a sort of dietary supplement that contains Resveratrol, Açai, Pomegranate, Green Tea, Grapeseed and Aloe Vera. According to what I heard and read about this product, it would be wonderful. I started taking it sometime in November of last year, and I couldn’t believe the results I was feeling after having been on this product for only ten days or so… Yes, I love it, it tastes fine and it makes me feel absolutely incredibly amazingly unbelievably fabulous !!!

So, early January, I ordered two boxes online, directly from the manufacturor in the USA. The total value was only US $ 40,00 and they charged me US $ 47,52 for shipping and handling. The order was sent by FedEx to Portugal, but to my big surprise, the manufacturor in the USA called me a couple of weeks later, telling me that FedEx had returned the order because they had problems with my address, phone number and e-mail address. I immediately contacted FedEx in order to find out what had happened. Apparently, that company does not phone any mobile numbers (because too expensive???), but decided to try to contact me on my fax number. No, they never sent a fax, the phoned the number, and were pretty surprised that there was no answer. Then they sent an e-mail to a non-existing e-mail address (only God knows how they got to that address), and then they returned the products back to the USA.

The American company then sent the products through DHL. And earlier this morning, DHL contacted me, to notify that I have to pay an extra € 79 and some eurocents for VAT and import taxes!!! Believe it or not, the total value of the products I have ordered was US $ 40,00 (which is more or less € 25,00), and on this small amount, I have to pay an extra € 79,00 for taxes!

DHL told me they are going to deliver the package, maybe tomorrow, maybe on Monday, maybe on Wednesday. I asked the DHL lady to give me a call about one hour in advance on my cellphone, so I could be at home by the time they come to deliver the goods. The lady told me that was not possible. If there is nobody at home, they will leave a note, to notify me they will have been here and that nobody was there to accept the package. Then they will wait until I contact them, and then they will come back!

This same thing happened a couple of months ago as well. I remember that I could not find any sign of a contact telephone number on that note they left behind at that time. A simple phone call to my cellphone number could avoid a lot of hassle. But apparently, these large companies can’t communicate in a normal way anymore.

In those big companies, the art of communication was left behind somewhere in the past century.

But I am anxious to receive my new pack of products. Next time, I am not going to order the products online anymore. I am going to jump on a plane, fly to Florida, and get a full years supply of products directly from the manufacturor. And I might have a couple of drinks in Orlando’s Church Street Station. I come to think of it, I haven’t been there in quite a while. And above all, this will be cheaper than relying on incapable transportation companies that have to charge far too much money in taxes by an incapable government.

And I must admit, I won’t care if in this case, Portugal looses some (an insane lot of) money in taxes. This can only happen in Africa. So yes, Portugal must be the most northern African country!

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A lot of things have happened over the past couple of months. I have been very, very busy with running my company which remains a very challenging activity in this country, I travelled a couple of times to the low countries, I was in Canada for a couple of days, I was al over Portugal visiting prospects and customers, my dad has been in hospital and is now recovering from a pretty nasty operation, the daughter of my ex-girlfriend has been elected Miss Belgium - congratulations Cilou, what a nice and wonderful surprise! -, 2009 changed into 2010 in a very rapid way, my car has been vandalised by unknown assholes, Portuguese police is behaving in a ridiculous way, in short… I was far too busy to keep an eye on this website. As a matter of fact, I’ve been neglecting it for far too long.

One of the main reasons why I started this blog at the end of 2008 was that I was looking for a solution to keep track on some of my favourite pictures. But… shame on me, the last time I published some of the many pictures I take was at the end of July of last year. I will take care of it that I will publish more pictures this year.

Last weekend, I was walking in the area of the Guadiana River. This river, with a length of 742 kilometers (460 miles), is one of the major rivers of Spain and Portugal. It forms part of the border between the two countries, separating Extramadura and Andalucia in Spain from Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal.

There is controversy about the exact source of the river in the Spanish province of Castilla-La Mancha. The river flows east to west through Spain, then it flows south through Portugal. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean in between Vila Réal de Santo Antonio in Portugal, where I live, and Ayamonte in Spain.

Last Saturday, on a beautiful and sunny day, and last Sunday, a pretty grey day - winter is still going on over here in Southern Europe, I was walking through the beautiful nature around the Guadiana River, still on Portuguese soil. Thousands, if not millions of almond trees were in full blossom, and obviously, I took a couple of pictures which I really enjoy, so here we go… I hope you will enjoy them as well as I do.

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I have been living in Portugal since September 1, 2003. In all these years, a lot of things have happened to me in this amazing country, some wonderful things, some good things, and some pretty bad things as well. I can live with a whole lot, based on the experience of a journey through life for almost fifty years right now. Earlier today, I paid a € 250,00 fine. It is the first time in many, many years that I have received a fine, and it certainly is the very first one since I have been living in Portugal. I feel that I hadn’t done anything wrong, but having talked to two lawyers around this case, I felt there was nothing I could do but paying this ridiculous sum of money. However, I sent a registered letter to the local police station, expressing my feelings around this case. I couldn’t help but publishing the letter on this website. I wonder - and seriously doubt  it - if Portuguese police will even have the decency to respond to this letter. I will keep you posted on it… Enjoy.

GUARDA NATIONAL REBUBLICANA

Comando Territorial Faro

Destacamento Territorial Tavira

Posto Territorial Castro Marim

Rua S. Sebastiao, n° 53

8950-121 CASTRO MARIM

29th of January of 2010

Your Reference: 27/SC/10

Your letter of 13^th of January of 2010

Dear Sirs,

First of all, I want to apologise for writing this letter in English, but my Portuguese is unfortunately not good enough to express my feelings regarding the above mentioned case.

Earlier today, I have paid the sum of € 250,00 for a fine which your officers gave me regarding an infraction of my company van on 15^th of December of 2009. I have serious doubts about the legality of having received this fine.

Let me explain what has happened.

On the morning of the 10^th of December of 2009, I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to take the van to the inspection. My mistake, but I guess nobody is perfect. As I would NEVER drive a car that has not been to inspection, I kept the van on the public parking where I had parked it the day before, and I immediately called a towing service to take the van to the inspection as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the towing service could only come on the 15^th of December, some time in the afternoon. As I have another car within the company, I didn’t see any problem, and drove the other car during those days.

However, on the morning of 15^th of December 2009, while walking along the street, I noticed that somebody had ran into my van, damaging it severely at the back left side of it. As this had already happened a couple of times before, and as I did not see any notification from the person who had bumped into it, I took the wrong decision of calling the GNR. In a normal civilised country, one expects that the police is there to protect and to help hard working decent people. What a mistake this was!

About 15 minutes later, the GNR arrived into my street, and started taking notes. Your people asked me to present my documents, and the papers of the car, and to my very big surprise, your people gave me a fine of € 250,00 because the van had not passed the inspection.

The van was NOT taking part in the traffic, it was parked legally alongside the road, waiting to be towed away to the inspection. I would have easily accepted this fine if I had been driving the van, but this was not the case. Therefore, I have some real doubts about the legality of this fine!

By writing this letter, I want to express my disappointment in the actions of the GNR. I have been living in this beautiful country since the 1^st of September of 2003, and during these six years and five months, quite some things have happened to me. One evening a couple of years ago, I was attacked by some crazy young Brazilian in my house. I didn’t bother to call the GNR, as this young guy had already ran away. On two earlier occasions, some unknown person had bumped into my van, seriously damaging the car. I did not bother to call the GNR, as I didn’t know who had done this. Only a couple of weeks ago, my other car was seriously damaged by some unknown vandals. Believe me, finding a car with two tires flat (because somebody used a knife to cut the tires to peaces), with the wipers missing, and the back door seriously damaged as well, does not give a good feeling. However, I did not bother to call the GNR. But on the morning of 15^th of December, I did. And today, I seriously regret having done so.

All of my life, I have been driving an average of 50000 kilometres per year. Having come to live over here since 2003, that has not changed. This means that I have already driven a whole lot of kilometres with several cars over here as well. As you can undoubtedly check, I have never received any kind of fine at all. I also want to mention the fact that, while driving the van, I get stopped AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK by GNR throughout the Algarve. One day a couple of years ago, I was stopped THREE times, on one morning, in between Vila Nova de Cacela and Faro, a short distance of about 50 kilometres. THREE times, I had to show all the papers, THREE times, I had to explain to your people that I wasn’t carrying anything in my van, and THREE times, I was asked to open up the van and show your people that I was telling the truth. Isn’t this a little bit over the normal way of doing things over here in this country?

Let’s do some mathematics: 2 times being stopped by GNR per week, times 50 weeks per year, times 6 years, makes a total of more than 600 times passing a check-point. And yet, on not a single occasion, GNR could find anything that was wrong with my papers or my cars…

Never in my life, in not any country in which I have lived, worked or travelled, have I been stopped that many times by local police. This only happens in Portugal.

And now, while I did NOT drive the car because of the fact that the inspection had not been done, you gave me this fine. This also can only happen in Portugal.

In an era where crime is rising very rapidly throughout the Algarve, where a lot of people who live over here are being mugged and robbed on a daily basis, where the level of violence against middle aged and elderly couples living in isolated areas has reached unprecedented levels, writing out these kind of stupid fines is not a good sign.

In the foreign community that is living in the Algarve, already a long time, word is being spread that the only goal of Portuguese police is to collect as many fines as possible. I could never believe this, but today, after what has happened to me earlier last month, I have some serious doubts.

With regards, from a very disappointed Belgian who still loves your country…

Gino Van de Walle

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I have written it here before, and I must write it here again. Portugal must be the most Northern country of Africa. This can’t be Europe. With their mentality, the Portuguese will soon become the proud owner of the poorest country in the European Union.

This morning I am having an appointment to see my doctor. The appointment was made about three months ago, as I see her every three months. After every visit, I immediately book a new appointment. Which makes things easy. I was scheduled to see my doctor at 09.30am. I arrived around 09.00am and cued up for about half an hour until it was my turn.

Apparently, a new good looking long legged bitch is now running the administration at the local health center. I told her my name, and told her that I had an appointment at 09.30am. To my big surprise, the bitch told me that she didn’t care at all about pre-booked appointments, and that since she has become in charge of the whole thing, people are being treated the old fashioned way on a “first come, first serve” basis. I also found out that there were about nine people who had come in earlier than I did, and I immediately realised I would be losing at least two to three hours of this beautiful and sunny Monday morning. So I wanted to book a new appointment. The bitch told me that this was not going to be possible, as she didn’t have an agenda. So I accepted the fact that I would be losing the biggest part of this Monday morning, I went to have breakfast on a local terrace in the village, and came home where I am now writing these words. Once this article is published, I will be doing some administration for my company and will go back and see my doctor, which will be around noon.

I realise it is hard to believe, but this is Portugal at the end of July of 2009. A country in which it is still possible that a local health center is run by a customer unfriendly but good looking bitch, who uses medieval tools and a “kiss-my-beautiful-ass-mentality”. As a matter of fact, I just come to think of it. I am glad that I am living alone. Imagine me living together with a woman like her. I think I would go into politics, and become Minister of Foreign Affairs, in order to be able to travel away as much as possible and as far as possible!

But fortunately, the sun is shining today. As it is shining about 330 days a year. And I will enjoy the rest of my day, once I will have seen my doctor. And I will enjoy the rest of my week, while the bitch will still be harassing her customers who need to see their doctor…

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The day before yesterday, I decided to combine business and pleasure. Having said that, I realise that most of my life is a combination of business and pleasure. I honestly believe that we must live in the NOW. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow will come. Eventually. But we have to live right now, and enjoy each and every second of each and every day. After all, the only certainty we have in this life is that we can’t survive it. And once the time has gone by, it doesn’t come back. I have decided already a very long time ago that I will not let my past ruin my present. Unfortunately, far too many people are not living right now, but are still stuck somewhere in their past. Ok, so be it.

As I had a couple of new clients where I had to deliver new safes, and as they were all situated in Alentejo, one of the most beautiful regions of Europe, I decided to carry out these deliveries myself. Normally I hire a transportation company who does this kind of job, but I wanted to keep some contact with my new customers as well. So I loaded my van on Tuesday, and left home early on Wednesday morning.

All deliveries went very well, all the customers were very satisfied, and if they are satisfied, I am even more satisfied. Having finished the deliveries, I decided to take some very small roads on my way back to the Algarve. I had my camera next to me. I stopped on various places, walked through little villages, saw some old ruins, and fully enjoyed each and every second of that day! As a matter of fact, it was just a perfect day. Only too bad I didn’t spend it with you.

Anyway, the pictures below give a nice idea of the region.

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Earlier today, I was going through some random pictures I’ve taken over the past three months, say during the spring of this year. I selected a couple of them which I like to call some of my “random favourites”. Some have already been published over here in earlier posts, others have never been published before. But even the ones that have been published in this blog before do deserve their place over here.

I hope you’ll like them as much as I do.

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It’s been a while since I last put some pictures in this blog. A couple of days ago, on one of the many official Portuguese holidays (incredible how many official holidays do exist in this country, they have them for oh so many reasons, and I am pretty sure that the Portuguese would even invent reasons for having public holidays), I was walking around the aria where I live and couldn’t resist taking some pictures which I like to share with you. They were all taken within the range of 15 minutes walking from my house. Sometimes, when the sun is shining (and I must admit, on average that happens some three hundred and thirty [330] days a year), it’s really enjoyable to live here in Southern Europe.

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