Algarve Letters

The Meditarranean Garden Annual Fair

The weather has not been as kind this autumn as it has been for the past three years or so. Usually summer lasts till the end of october, but this year it packed up two weeks early, and it has been a bit chilly and wet, and the leaves have begun to turn. In fact, I am now sitting here with a pullover on, shock horror! Outside the rain is falling steadily and thunderstorms are threatened.

Those of you living in the UK will naturally shrug and say, 'so what?'

However, this bulletin has been hit with another snag. I was hoping to show a movie of the Aljezur sweet potato festival. I went one year but for the past three years have been flummoxed by the Portuguese habit of not advertising events, or changing the dates. Last year I turned up on the date stated on one of the websites only to find the village deserted. Later I discovered that the festival was held a month later. Exactly the same thing has happened this year, so I will try again in a month's time.

The next event that I was going to video was the annual jamboree of the Mediterranean Garden Society. This year it's being held in a newly renovated palace at Estoi, and I was looking forward to going, but the forecast is for thunderstorms……..

At the last minute, I decided to brave the weather and go anyway. At least on our side of the Algarve the weather was dreary, with occasional showers, however, once we got past Faro, we moved into seriously bad weather. This part of the Algarve does seem to suffer from worse weather than most other parts. Several times we have been around Sao Bras in the pouring rain and low cloud when the rest of the Algarve has been a lot kinder.

The garden fair was held at the Estoi Palace. The last time I was here it was simply a ruin, now it has been turned into a five star parador, so I was expecting great things. Unfortunately, the place is a bit of a mess. I cant recommend it in any way. There is a new wing which completely dwarfs the old palace. It is faced in cloud-grey stone which is depressing enough, but also out of place. Could they not have used some ocre coloured stone to go with the landscape?



The palace itself is not what I would regard as a proper palace. For starters, it's a bit small. The drawing rooms, although there are three of them, are no bigger than my own, in fact, they are marginally smaller as they are quite narrow. The ceilings are prettily decorated, but the whole effect is totally wrecked by the decor and furniture, which is very much in the style of Ikea, with plastic arm-chairs, and industrial chairs and tables.

One other complaint is that the front door is not automatic. That's a big no-no for people bringing in luggage.

The grounds are a mess. As it was raining, one was seeing the place at its worst, but surely someone noticed that the bottom of all the steps sloped the wrong way, and that meant descending into a massive puddle at the bottom of every staircase.

All the walkways were of sandy earth, which meant they were a quagmire. There were dead trees everywhere, and the whole garden area looked a right mess.

Alleys held garden stalls tended by long suffering people probably soaked to the skin. This meet only happens once a year so it was a great shame the weather was so bad.



Those stall-holders inside were better off. There was a book stall with garden books in several languages. There were spices and various foodstuffs for sale, and one stall was selling home produce and some home cooked food.



I'd like to end on an upbeat, but the following day my neighbour's market was cancelled due to more thunderstorms. Hey ho!