For the summer, we decided to escape the British weather for a few days and we headed to Portugal. After hearing so many good things from friends who had been to Portugal on holidays, we decided to go and take a look for ourselves and Albufeira was the chosen destination. Albufeira - nice village and picturesque, the people very friendly and the cost of living reasonable and food very good.
In the photo below on the left we are having dinner in a place where they played traditional Portuguese music. If your idea of a great night out is a guy playing Portuguese country and western style music with an accordion, you would loved the place. It wasn't our cup of tea (or Port in this case) but a god night was had by all. In the photo on the right we are by the pool in the B&B where we were staying; it was a nice villa in the countryside but not too far from the village.
All photos by Valeria Lo Iacono; Paul Symonds - 2009
Before we knew it, we were back in the UK and enjoying the British weather. In the photos below we were at the Brecon Jazz Festival (http://www.breconjazz.org/). Brecon is a small town in Wales, just north of Cardiff, located in the middle of a national park on the mountains. It is worth exploring if you like hiking and you like nature.
Brecon Jazz Festival is held every year and normally takes place alongside Brecon Fringe Festival, which involves free concerts of various music styles in the pubs around Brecon. During the Jazz Festival we went to see Courtney Pine and Greg Kofi Brown with the Afrobeat Band, who played in the cathedral. Seeing a jazz / African concert inside a cathedral was really peculiar and an interesting experience (see photo on the right).
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Another short trip we did in September was to Plymouth, Devon in England. On a lovely sunny day, Plymouth Hoe is a great place to be. In the pictures below you can see a tourist sightseeing bus (left) and Valeria in the park near the Hoe (right).
Below Plymouth Hoe and the lighthouse with a great view of the coast and the sea.
Still in Plymouth, Paul standing by the Mayflower steps in the Barbican (the historical quarter of Plymouth and the only area in the city that survived the Second World War bombings); while on the right one of the cafes that overlook the sea on Plymouth coast on the walk between the Hoe and the Barbican.
Last but not least, a still nature composition to end this monthly. You may wonder what is interesting in a tomato, apart from maybe its lively colour and nice geometrical shape. This was one of the first tomatoes from one of the plants that Paul grew from seeds last summer, for the first time ever in his life!
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