Which has been a bit of a shock to be honest. Neither of us were ready to return to the UK as we were enjoying our time in Portugal far too much. Travelling around the country makes one realise how elements of the UK are becoming far too much like the USA nowadays, rather then the continent we’re far more akin to and share a long history with. Europe.

Fortunately, Donald Trump left as we arrived, so we missed all the performative nonsense about his state visit. Our flight back from Faro to Leeds/Bradford went without any hitches and we breezed through passport control and baggage which allowed us to get home by taxi an hour after landing. Another positive was that the far-right flag-shaggers and roundabout painters efforts hardly registered en-route, apart from a few home-made flags of St George (that patron saint who was actually a Turkish mercenary who never once set foot on these islands) in one patch around Leeds.

Now the reality of being back is sinking in. Especially the weather! Today we’ve had wall to wall rain. It’s never stopped it’s just altered in levels. So, for the first day in a very long time my step count is well below par. Instead, I’ve been busy trying to make a dent in picture editing and preparing for getting back to work next week. Sorting out all the Portuguese pictures will take some time, but you’ll be able to find them in the following galleries. One’s devoted to the rail images, and whilst this one’s the travel shots.

I did manage to venture out a couple of times later in the day. Dawn wanted to cook a curry tonight, which involved driving to our local supermarket to pick up some shopping. Whilst she was busy being the hostess with the mostest I took advantage of a gap in the rain to walk up to our local pub for a swift(ish) pint of bitter – so welcome after two weeks of lager drinking – and a catch-up with friends before walking home again. Only this time the weather was expecting me, as you can see from this video of my sodden walk back down the cobbled hill from the Big 6 to home. When the rain’s heavy, the street doubles as a stream.

Tomorrow’s weather promises better things. Sunshine even! The pair of us plan to get out for a little while – there might even be a reservoir blog because of it! Then it’ll be time to prepare for a busy week which will see me travelling to South Wales for a rather interesting rail event. Watch this space…

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