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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”
I’ve already posted a number of photos of the shoreline cliffs around Carvoeiro in the Algarve area of Portugal, but we’ve been out walking more of this coastline recently, and the area and views are just too breathtaking to not post more.
Continue reading “Back to the Algarve”
In the Algarve, our favorite area is around Carvoeiro, a bench of high land between the towns of Albufeira and Portomao, which offers rolling hills on a an elevated coastline, and an amazing oceanfront with spectacular cliffs, grottos, caves and picturesque beaches. In between the town of Carvoeiro and the beach of Marinha, there is a coastal path one could never tire from walking. We did it in stages, so that we could walk back to our car each time. The walk is posted as medium-difficult, stretches just under 12 km and to walk it all at once would take about six hours.
Continue reading “Carvoeiro Coastal Walk”
After a couple of visits to the Algarve this past fall, we began looking at real estate opportunities as we are considering a full-time move to Europe and the Algarve really has a lot to offer, at least for our lifestyle. It did not take us long to find a few properties we liked, two that were in the same development near Carvoeiro.
Continue reading “Real Estate in the Algarve”
In the early fall of this year we made two one-week trips down to southern Portugal, the “Algarve” as it is most commonly known, to become familiar with the region. We have close friends from Canada that are serious about buying down there and moving over for a few years, and so they wanted to find the area that was best suited for them, and then start house hunting. As those are two of our favorite past times, we joined in on the search. They did find a home, and we may just might have found one for ourselves as well, as we really enjoyed our time in the Algarve.
Continue reading “Exploring Southern Portugal”
Evora is a town which was once encircled by fortress walls, although little of it is visible now. In its place is a road, a “periferico”, around the town. It is not large, quite easily walkable throughout, through a maze of streets that can make it difficult to know exactly where you are at times. But small enough to quickly become easy to find your way around and back to the hotel.
Part IV of our Central Portugal Tour. (Part III is here)
Continue reading “Evora (Days 5-6 of Central Portugal Tour)”
We next drove back to the main freeway (A23) from Monsanto and headed south to try and find the town of Marvao. The drive from Monsanto to the freeway (N239) was beautiful as we wound our way through fields of colorful spring flowers scattered with ornamental-like cork trees. We weren’t very familiar with how cork actually was harvested (from the bark, which grows back on the trees every seven years), but found this article very explanatory.
Part III of our Central Portugal Trip (Part II here)
Continue reading “Marvao (Day 4 Central Portugal Tour)”
Once off the Serra da Estrala mountain range we followed a valley and the River Zezere northward to the town of Belmonte and the Convento del Belmonte. This is a beautifully restored convent just outside of town that overlooks the valley below, which is lined with fruit orchards, primarily peaches and cherries. Beautifully restored, the convent is modernly attired with plenty of common-sitting areas throughout the property. The rooms are quite large and modern with kind-size beds available. The primary building was made from large, hand-cut granite rocks with large wooden beam ceilings.
Part II of our Central Portugal Trip. Part I here.
Continue reading “Monsanto (Day 3 – Central Portugal Tour)”