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!!