Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February 2017 blog 4 — Our first visitors


Rory arrived home — here — last Tuesday morning, and we haven’t really stopped since. I picked him up at Lisbon airport, we stopped in Tomar to pick up the doggies and most of our things at Camping Redondo, and continued north to Fiais — our new home. 


Last walks with Hugo and Harvey around Tomar

We settled in nicely to our one room chalet. Hugo and Harvey have a new cozy big boy bed which goes perfectly with the theme. Wednesday morning, we caught up with bed and breakfast hosts we stayed with weeks ago when we first came to explore properties for sale in the Serra de Estrela. Small world up here, they take Portuguese lessons with our neighbor/owner of the chalet. In the meantime, Hugo and Harvey got to know Neva — the doggy they’ll be sharing the garden with. 
Cozied up in their new bed in our cozy chalet

Hugo, Harvey and Neva
Our meeting to sign the purchase and sale agreement on Wednesday afternoon went really well except one critical thing. The architect had not delivered the topographic survey, which needed to be included in the contract. Although it was slightly disappointing to not have signed, the rest of the paperwork was great and over the weekend we received the survey which looks perfect. So we rescheduled the meeting for Wednesday March 1st, and enjoyed the rest of our time settling in Fiais before the weekend. 
The survey😀
Thursday we spent hiking near the mimosa property, and that night explored one of the nearby wineries, which also has a restaurant — Quinta do Cabriz. They welcome all of their guests with complementary sparkling rosé, and finish the experience with a gorgeous display of desserts to choose from on a rolling cart. Both of our dinner choices were delicious, although the serving sizes were slightly overwhelming. And the 3 euro bottle of red wine was equally delicious! 
More risotto than I could ever eat
😍🍷
We spent the weekend with our first Portugal visitors — Katelynn and Mike — which was a blast! We picked them up from Lisbon Friday afternoon, and stayed in Tomar for the night since we had the Camping Redondo through March 1st and had an extra bedroom there. Tomar was great for one night, but we were excited to check into an airbnb in Bairro Alto for the rest of the weekend. While in Lisbon we ate Piri Piri chicken, pork sandwiches in the market, and the best seafood I’ve ever had — and drank lots of vinho verde in the bars of Bairro Alto, and even checked out the club scene of Lisboa. All in all they set the bar high for visitors!





This week is as busy as last. Fingers and toes are crossed that we sign the contract tomorrow. It will mean that we pay a deposit, and the seller promises the property to us once the discovery is complete. Then, on Thursday morning I head to Boston for a quick 12 hours, and Ecuador on Friday morning… Read more about the medical volunteer trip here https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=824685 and please donate if you can …. HUGE thank you again to everyone who has already donated!!

Sunday, February 19, 2017

February 2017 blog 3 — Puppies, trailers, and a new chalet

This week began Sunday evening at the small music venue which hosts small concerts costing only 5 euros to attend one Sunday a month. The venue has a cozy fireplace but it’s so big that it doesn’t really warm up, so it feels colder inside than out sometimes! Plus Sunday was cold and rainy so we had to bring Hugo and Harvey’s car blankets in to keep warm.

Emma and I


Sunday selfies
This time, blues performer Jeff Espinoza sang and played both guitar and harmonica. He was really awesome, and as a bonus it turned into a bit of an open mic after his sets. There were a few other talented musicians in the crowd, including Lady Miss Emma and the owner of the venue Vincent McCallum who both got up to perform and were amazing.

Jeff Espinoza and Vincent McCallum

The next morning I had the pleasure of tagging along with Emma to go look at a puppy she’s adopting who’s named Bella and such a cutie. She’s a mix between a poodle and an Estrela Mountain dog. While I played with puppies, Rory picked up a building trailer down near the Algarve he scored an awesome deal on. We were equally excited about our endeavors.
Dougle sniffing out his new puppy sister

Bella!

The trailer

Since things are looking more and more promising for us buying the Mimosa property, we’ve decided it’s time to find a place to stay up there. Rental homes were scarce in that area when we browsed online, so we decided to take a trip up there for the night to ask around. We found a perfect little one room wooden chalet that’s only 5 minutes from the property, and right in the nearest village to it. It’s cozy and has everything we could possibly need! 
The Chalet
Inside the Chalet
Little kitchenette

Of course being up there a couple of days we also spent some time at the property. All was great until Harvey found some manure to roll in just as we were about to get into the car. So instead, we needed to give him a bath in the river with my travel shampoo. He was as unimpressed with the river bath as we were with him being covered in poop. Thankfully though Harvey’s back to smelling like a dog, and he and Rory are friends again. 



King of the terrace

The ruin
All in all we’re feeling really lucky to have come across the wooden bungalow we’ll be calling home for a while. We’re moving up there this week to settle in before we have visitors next weekend, and shortly after I’ll be leaving for Ecuador.

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who has donated toward this medical volunteer trip I’m going on! Check out my page for the details of the trip, and to read more about what we’ll be doing there: https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=824685…. I really really appreciate any donations towards it! I’m so close to my fundraising goal just 2 weeks from when I leave. Thank you, Thank you!!

Other than that, I was happy to get a Starbucks fix from Lisbon airport when dropping Rory there Friday morning off to Ireland/Scotland. In the meantime me and the doggies are packing and getting organized for our move this coming week, not that we have all that much to pack! 

Not the most helpful of packers



We’re looking forward to the coming week. We have a meeting to hopefully sign a purchase and sale agreement and pay a deposit on the Mimosa property. One more step to it being ours… Stay tuned, and thanks for reading :). 

Sunday, February 12, 2017

February 2017 blog 2 — Dancing and Discovering more of Tomar

Well I’d love to say we’re more fluent in Portuguese than since I last wrote, but unfortunately our Portuguese course this week was postponed because the teacher she had to go back to the UK due to a family member being ill. The first of the three day course was really good though, so we’re looking forward to her being back and rescheduling.
Portuguese school with Pats coffee mug for the champs🏈🎉
We had a few meetings this week to move things along with the mimosa property. With those, we’re hoping to sign a purchase and sale agreement as well as pay a deposit within the next 2 weeks. Driving 2 hours up to the area of the property, and 2 hours back is starting to get old. So we've decided that for March 1st we'll try to find a place to rent closer to the property, seeing as things are moving forward with it.

We’ve discovered two new restaurants around Tomar that are now our favorites. Last weekend we joined Antony, Emma, Linda and Heiss to watch the Six Nations Rugby Championship. The place is owned by an Irish guy who worked in the UK for years perfecting his chef skills in an Indian Restaurant. The Indian food he makes is unbelievably good. But when it was pouring rain out Thursday night and went in we were so happy he had a beef casserole with mashed potatoes, peas, broccoli and gravy. Best comfort food meal I’ve had while in Portugal! Not very Indian, or traditional Portuguese but it’s nice to get a break from the meat, rice and fries plates that are typical to here.
Wine by the Cozy fireplace before mashed potatoes and beef casserole dinner!
The other place we discovered this week is a Portuguese restaurant called In Portugal. It’s menu is mainly traditional Portuguese with things like Wild Boar Croquets, Pork Cheeks, and Stuffed goat. But it’s all delicious, and only 30 Euro which included dinner for 2, a bottle of wine and dessert!

In Portugal...

We also heard about a bar which every Thursday night hosts live music. We went this Thursday to check it out, and had a really fun night out. The bar was packed of Portuguese people from 17 to 70 years old enjoying each other's company. The band was kind of hilarious, playing mostly hits of the 80s with a “piano player” who we realized was air playing probably about 50% of the time. Either way it was a great night out and we got some dancing in💃!


The 80s band
Some serious twirling😂
Bailando Salsa



Sunday, February 5, 2017

February 2017 blog 1 — We took Berlin

blog delay -- Berlin and being sick😷 …

Waking up to the honks of the bread man delivering us fresh bread and natas has become an 8am alarm system here at our camping Redondo lodge. We’ve settled into a morning routine of learning some Portuguese over coffee and breakfast. The days that we’re mostly at home, I’ve kept busy learning about how to create a website for the project and drafting business plans, while Rory’s been drafting all sorts of drawings and ideas for building the property. Yoga/exercise has also found a place in our day to day. I’ve even transformed the spare bedroom into a little yoga studio.

Trail walks next to Camping Redondo...
Yes, Rory has his axe on our walk😂
We spent last Wednesday at the mimosa property to do some more exploring of the the 7 acres. Marko met us there, who is a reforestation permaculture consultant originally from Austria. He and Rory spent some time discussing ideas for the land and how best to cultivate native trees there. Marko had great insight based on his own project as well as his research. While the two of them chatted away, Hugo, Harvey and I found a sunny spot to chill out and listen to the river. Once again, we all loved the property even more after that day.
River frontage needs some clearing but still beautiful
The owner, an architect and the estate agent got the borders and articles of the land worked out last week, and arranged a meeting for us this past Tuesday (the 31st) to discuss the next steps in the process. It went really well and we’re excited to report that it’s moving forward. But we’ll have to be patient, it’s at a Portuguese pace. So to be continued…

We’ve also started Portuguese lessons with a woman well known among expats for her courses. Although our morning online course we bought has been helpful, we think her courses will move our learning along much quicker. We have a couple of lessons per week with just the 2 of us and her, and next week we’re in a 3 day intensive course with a group. Hugo and Harvey aren’t quite ready for Portuguese school BUT they enjoyed their first Portuguese grooming session last Tuesday, and are looking handsome as ever.

All groomed
The whole Camping Redondo crew - all the dogs of course
We’ve had plenty of company around camping Redondo these days. When we first moved in it was just us, Anthony and Carlos around. Now, Lady Miss Emma (the Scottish musician, see week 2 blog) has parked her caravan up to stick around the area for a bit. Her dog, Dougle, is a great 5th doggy addition to the campsite. The owners of the campsite (Linda and Heiss) are back from their stay in England, and they’re really sweet and welcoming. We had a campsite get together in honor of the Scottish holiday known as “Burns day”, the 7 of us had a celebration with a Haggis dinner in the followed by a Scottish sing song by Lady Miss Emma. 

Finding the lyrics for the next song
Last week flew, and next thing it was the weekend. Thanks to a Ryan-air sale months ago, we had really cheap flights booked to Berlin! Hugo and Harvey were disappointed that their EU passports haven't been processed yet, but fortunately they had plenty of company to take great care of them at the campsite.

Hugo and Harvey hanging out at Anthony's while we were in Berlin
Berlin was really cool in every sense of the word. Thankfully, even though it was chilly, the sun stayed out most of the weekend. We strolled around to see the sites and the parks, drank german beer, ate haagen daz, and enjoyed some mulled wine as we explored the markets.
Haagen Daz desserts😍
Berlin Art Market
Last Kremlin Flag at Checkpoint Charlie











Inside the German Reichstag
By our last day we figured out the train
Happy to find a Starbucks on our Berlin adventure
Mulled wine in the market


We checked out checkpoint Charlie — the US checkpoint along the Berlin wall that divided East and West Germany during the Cold War, The Reichstag — their Parliament building, and The topography of terror — which was definitely the most interesting of sites, but also the most disturbing. It’s a museum which sits right where Hitler’s Gestapo worked. Our guide for the special photography exhibition was extremely passionate about his work, and made a comment at the start of the tour that as of last year he guided the tours as a historian. However, since last year he finds chilling parallels to today’s world with the changes in the world’s politics, shifts of power, and characteristics of the elected leaders around the world. Our guide reminded us that Hitler was elected in a democratic way in Germany. He warned about the subtleties of discrimination, racism, and dehumanization of any group of human beings. We learned more about the propaganda against the jews during the time, and coincidentally that was that same day President Trump ordered the refugee ban. The passionate way he explained how it all panned out, and the slight parallels he made to today’s world resonated with us for the rest of our trip. We definitely needed a few German beers after that tour.
German beer by the fire

Along what's left of the Berlin Wall


Snow arrived in Berlin on Monday evening as we boarded our flight back to Porto. We ended up sitting on the plane for 4 hours while they cleared snow, closed the runway, reopened the runway, and de-iced the plane twice. So a 3 hour flight turned into a 7 hour flight. We were so happy to get back to Hugo and Harvey, and they were excited to see us when we finally arrived home at 5am on Tuesday!

Unfortunately we’ve both come down with a bad cold this week. It’s been a stormy wet week anyway. Which made for some really huge waves in Nazaré we all went to check out on Thursday. And that's about all for now!