Today was a much more leisurely start to the day, possibly connected to the frivolities from the night before.
Breakfast seemed to take place in shifts outside at the dining table. I had my usual porridge with some toast. The weather was already glorious.
At 10.15am two taxis arrived to take us all to the pre booked winery tour at Quinta da Tor which was about a 25-minute drive away. Karen and I were in the first taxi and amusingly the taxi driver didn’t know where he was going but found it eventually.
The winery was relatively small making about 125000 bottles annually and we had about a 30-minute tour of the brewing process. Then we went to a table set up on the most beautiful terrace for the tasting of 4 of their wines. The servings were quite generous.
Most people including Karen & I preferred the Rose and so we bought a box of 6 to take back to the Villa. It worked out at 7 Euros per bottle. With the wine they also served some of their own baked bread with their own Olive Oil, both of which were delicious and so we ordered about double the amount again along with some charcuterie and cheese plates to share for lunch.
It was beautiful sitting under the shade of an ancient Olive Tree overlooking an infinity pool in front of which we all had our photos taken.
We hadn’t expected too much from the winery as the entrance fee was only 10 Euros each, but it was very good value and good fun. After about an hour the first of our return taxis arrived and so we sent the girls ahead in the first whilst the boys waited for the second.
Back at the villa, some people went in the pool, whilst others played tennis whilst others lazed around reading. It was all very peaceful and relaxing. At some point there was another run to the Supermarket made to get provisions for tonight’s meal which was going to be made in the Villa again.
It was early evening when everyone started chipping into helping with the 5-course feast. As we were waiting very generous G&Ts were being consumed all round. We also had a quick Facetime call with Barry & Ellie back in a very rainy Norwich.
The first course was Sardines cooked on the BBQ followed by Prawns also cooked on the BBQ. These were cooked separately from each other as Alex has a bad allergy to Shellfish but not normal fish. He was banned from going anywhere near the prawns just in case.
Then our mains of a Pasta Ragu with Chicken were served. The ‘cooks’ had kindly prepared my pasta with cheese instead of Ragu because of my pathetic faddy ways.
After a while we all then had some posh ice cream each followed by some chocolate served with hot drinks. It was a great success. During the various courses there were multiple bottles of wine were consumed. In fact, there always seemed to be a constant stream of people opening fresh bottles all of the time.
There were lots of deep and meaningful conversations had around the table interspersed with some total frivolous fun and nonsense.
It had been another very enjoyable day with some lovely company and shared experiences. However, by 10.30pm everyone was sufficiently tired that the Big Brother house was shut up for the night as there was to be an early start for golf the next day.
