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Portugal’s Atlantic coastal highways are lined with numerous restaurants that specialize in serving fresh seafood. And they are very popular. Like all restaurants, there are good ones and not so good ones. Inexpensive and over the top. There’s so many that it’s hard to find the good ones from the bad.
We are back in Europe and recently made a visit to Portugal, a place we keep coming back to and hope to move to in a few months on a more permanent level. We start in Lisbon, but enjoying exploring the areas around the capital.
Continue reading “Ericeira, Portugal”(If you’ve ever had to deal with bureaucratic red tape, you’ll love the short clip above)
We became residents of Portugal in 2017. Initially we purchased a small apartment in the Alfama area, the old town district of Lisbon, and then began the process of establishing everything else that comes with residency – bank accounts, home services, tax accountants, and deciding whether to buy a car/motorcycle or not, or both. We decided on both. And that’s where the fun began.
I’ve posted what the views are like when walking the cliffs of the Carvoeiro coastline a few times, but after dealing with a paddle board that badly needed patching, winds and strong swells, I finally got the opportunity to explore the coast by water.
Continue reading “Exploring the caves of the Algarve Cliffs”
Every now and then we like to do a trip on the spur of the moment, especially in the fall when the weather can be iffy. We choose a few places in different parts of Europe, and then as we get close to the time to leave, we go with the one where the weather looks best. This year the Lakes District of Northern Italy won out. So we loaded up the car with paddle boards and put our bikes on the bike rack, and hit the road.
Continue reading “Exploring Lake Como & Portofino”
We drove down from Nice to Frejus last week and rented a small runabout to cruise westward towards Cannes, while visiting the incredible L’Esteral coastline along the way. This massive volcanic red rock mountain-line juts out of the coastline between Frejust and Cannes, creating numerous small coves to explore by boat. L’Esteral is a national park, well protected with numerous hiking trails on land.
Continue reading “Cruising the Esterel Coastline”
In mid’ June we returned to Croatia for another sailing trip. This would be our fourth; two before out of Dubrovnik exploring the islands to the north of the wall town, and one exploring the islands south of Split. We really enjoy Croatia for sailing, one of the best areas in the Med in our opinion, for number of reasons. Great weather, warm-enough waters, friendly people, short distances between really interesting places, the price, and the variety of ports and boats and companies to choose from.
Continue reading “Sailing the Istrian Peninsula”
We spent a week in Venice in 2011 and, other than the crowds, we really enjoyed exploring its streets and waterways. It is an amazing city like no other, based primarily on water transportation for all services, and it does it all, it seems, so well. And it is so photogenic, with never-ending opportunities for photo ops.
Continue reading “Return to Venice”
I’ve covered many biking and boarding opps along the coast of Cote d’Azur that are most worth going to and reachable from Nice. But there’s a lot more happening up in the hills behind Nice, but to get to them I need transportation. This past weekend a friend lent me her car, and as Flo was out of town, I could use the bike rack and put the paddle board in the back of the car and head out and do some exploring.
Continue reading “Biking & Boarding on the Cote d’Azur”
This is the third day of a long weekend of biking and boarding along the Cote d’Azur. The other day activities are mentioned here. I knew at the beginning of this trip that I was perhaps taking on more than I could manage, but rationalized it by saying I’d start low and slow and work my way up, I knew that if it became too much of a climb, I could just turn around and glide back to where I started.
Continue reading “Bike Trip to Valberg”