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!