Woodland Walk

We visited a place called Mata da Margaraça, in the Serra do Açor today, to do a geocache. The place was was another geocaching gem.

We managed to find an English written book in the information centre on fauna and flora of the Serra da Estrela mountain range. We had a quick walk down to the river, collecting sweet chestnuts from the ground as we went. We also managed to get a booklet from the information centre indicating 5 other short walks in the local area, and we are looking forward to attempting these.

Another glorious day, still too hot for us to do any serious walking.

On the way back home we made a diversion to Arganil to do a little bit of shopping at Intermarche. We are now equipped with one of their loyalty cards that enables you to get some items at a lower price, as well as collecting points to spend on electrical equipment.

En route we stopped at the Mendes Bar at Secarias. Jon was feeling ravenous, and brave enough to face the prospect of trying to order some food in a Portugese establishment.

In the end we enjoyed a three course meal, with wine and coffee, all for the princely sum of 5.50 euros each! Amazing. We were convinced they'd undercharged us but they were insistent!

Can't believe it's Thursday again, the weeks go so fast!

Roman Ruins near Condeixa

Yesterday we visited a Museum called "Museu Monografico e Ruinas de Conimbriga" near Condeixa. We paid 4 euros each entrance fee. The museum has a restaurant, picnic area, as well as the internal and external exhibitions. We spent ages inside looking at the artifacts that have been found on site - the information boards were also in English so that was really helpful. Then we entered the external part of the site. We were in awe from the onset.

What remains of the original Roman road, complete with wheel ruts, is one of the first things you see.

There are mosaic floors in abundance. These are remnants of the houses belonging to aristocratic families, so we felt highly privileged. We can just imagine some pompous Roman giving us the glare for roaming around his abode! Each mosaic was of a different design and though some reconstruction had taken place it was very sympathetically done. We took LOADS of pictures, and this linky will take you to these if you are interested.

Inside the museum one of the rooms was lent to the reconstruction of an inner courtyard that helped us visualise how the originals may have appeared.

The House of Cantaber is the largest dwelling found in the city and is one of the most spacious ever discovered. Bedrooms are designed around the open court. There is also in this dwelling a refined heating system, a private bathing compound, decorated pools and gardens. Wonder if he fiddled his expenses.

It was another very warm day, perfect for a wander about the museum, except for the most bothersome flies! Still, we could gain some satisfaction from imagining Cantaber the Rich in his luxurious abode being hassled by flies, unless he had a slave fanning him.

All in all we must have spent 3 hours exploring and would thoroughly recommend it as a day out to anyone interested in history etc.

The drive to and from Condeixa was beautiful as we travelled from one valley into another. On the way back we witnessed a beautiful sunset and managed to take a couple of photos, one of which is below.

Pictures

We're experiencing a few technical problems with the blog. Our pictures suddenly don't appear and the number of followers. Trying to sort it out.

Castles in the Air

The past few days have been overcast but very humid. Today we are back to glorious sunshine again. The clocks went back on Saturday night, like in the UK, and this will mean that by 6.15ish it is dark. We awoke to find the valley in mist, but by 10ish this morning it had already almost disappeared. However, we drove up and out of the valley and could see it was still lingering in some areas. In fact, as we drove up towards Lourosa, we could see the mountains standing proud of the lower cloud forming a temperature inversion. What a great way to start a trip to Lidl!



Our mission today was to get an electric blanket from Lidl. It only took one properly cold night, a week or two back, for us to decide that we would get one when Lidl stocked them this week. Hopefully, we won't need it for a while yet, but it's there just in case. Mind you, there's something a bit special about getting into a cold bed and snuggling close to your loved one.

After our shopping trip we went to Avo. We first visited Avo in June 2008 when we spent a fortnight in a yurt near Tabua. The place looked different this time with the autumnal colours, and the water in the bathing pools had been drained. This time we also ventured to find the castle. On the way up we spotted a man harvesting watercress from the stream. The final climb to the castle was up through a narrow passage between the houses that felt quite mediaeval. We wondered, would it only be in Portugal that last week's washing finds itself on display outside a historical monument? These are earthy folk, seeming to have little or no pretension. Our fondness keeps on growing.



Views from the castle were wonderful. What our pictures don't encapsulate is the peacefulness of the place with the smell of woodsmoke hanging in the air, the distant crowing of cockerels, jangling goat bells, birdsong, and the hiss of the rivers converging below.

Going Ape

The past two days have been pretty wet, with prolonged spells of heavy rain. But today the sun has reappeared and it feels more like being in the UK in the summer, dampish, fresh, green, and not too hot. In fact, judging from the satellite images we are experiencing the same weather front currently being enjoyed in the UK, so the temperatures are pretty much on a par.

We stayed inside during the wet spell, ensconced in "Jon and Suze's Wandering Wammal Card Emporium" (see our logo on the bottom right), where we spent hours making Christmas and birthday cards. We need to try and get them finished as quickly as possible so that we can get them posted, as with the Royal Mail strike starting today, they may take a while to arrive in the UK at their final destinations.

We realise that these cards may be the only way of wishing our close loved ones a happy Christmas apart from a phone or Skype call, and though our cards aren't exactly the most professional looking, they are definitely unique!

We ventured out today to do more geocaching. It was good to be out. After the rain the smell of the pine and eucalyptus is lovely (though eucalypti are not admired by eco-warriors or firefighters as they are very thirsty trees and something of a fire hazard). Strands of eucalyptus bark were strewn on the lanes, so we collected some for kindling purposes.

The Rayburn has provided us enough heat to produce a meal, though we had to keep it stoked up for a good hour to ensure it stayed at 200 degrees Celsius, for the duration of cooking. Jon had made naan bread and oven baked onion bhajis, and that was accompanied by vegetable curry, homemade mint/cucumber raita, and minted onion. Pefection!

So, with all that feasting, we felt obliged to try and burn off a few calories by doing 3 geocaches. The first one was at an abandoned "pousada" or inn. It was strange because the hotel seemed in perfect condition, and there was a swimming pool as well, now lying redundant. From the cache site were amazing views of the mountains and the valley. The second cache was at Sandomil. Here there is a Roman bridge and what passes as a Portugese "Go Ape" obstacle course in the trees. Also, a small climbing wall. Today the place was damp and in recovery from the rain, but the weir was impressive. The third and final cache was at S.Giao. There is a campsite nearby, but our destination was for the praia fluvial (river beach). We were the only people around, but in summer the place will be thronging. The cache took us along the river for a short way, and there was funghi everywhere (we couldn't identify anything apart from Fly Agaric, so definitely nothing to eat for tea!) The walk along the river reminded us of Wales with the raging river and beautiful woodland path.

Warm Glow

On Sunday we welcomed some friends over for a barbecue and it was a great evening. The nights after a hot day soon turn chilly after dark now, though it is counteracted by the fact that we can see the stars in all their glory. Complete darkness falls about 7.30pm at the moment. So, to make the most of the sunny day, we started the barbecue at 4.30pm, and it was just perfect. On the menu were meat kebabs, vegetable kebabs, sardines, hamburgers, Linda McCartney vege-sausages, pork chops, various salads, sauces and mustard, and the obligatory bread rolls. Swilled down with white and red wines, Sagres and Superbock, and Coca Cola for the younger ones.

We dressed the table with what we thought were candles and lanterns in red casings, that we thought would give a lovely warm glow, and at the same time get rid of any pesky mozzies. But our guests, who are more Portugal-wise than us, explained that these candles are used for memorial shrines! There is one way we would like to redeem ourselves though. Whenever we light these candles we will spend a few moments remembering those we have loved and lost; relatives, friends, and pets.

Balmy and Barmy

One of the things we are still adapting to is the totally laid back attitude in Portugal.

We've tried twice this week to get some credits on our mobile phones. The only place in Coja to get a top up is a small cafe/bar. It's the place we bought our sim cards from originally. Unfortunately, nowadays we never seem to turn up when the place is open. There is a sign on the door that indicates they will NOT be open on specific dates. Yet when we turn up on the dates not specified, at the opening times on the door, the place is still shut. We need to find somewhere else to top up, and it may be in a different town. Luckily we do have the Skype account so we can still text, but the phone is handy for making local calls.

Who is the boss in this house? Well, we like to think we take it in turns :-) but actually, we now realise that Twig is the boss. Jon is now outside on the balcony reading a book. When he went out he made straight for the camping chair, while Dame Twig is curled up on the comfy chair with the sun on her fur! I remarked that Jon should be on the comfy chair and said to chuck Twig off, then I realised that yesterday, when I was sitting on the balcony, doing a spot of Portugese on the Linkword, I settled in the camping chair while the fluffball snoozed! Mind you, she soon got fed up of hearing me pronouncing Portugese really badly and went off to find somewhere more peaceful.

The weather is, apparently, very warm for this time of year. On Sunday it was 32 degrees! We're not complaining though. We threw in some coriander seeds a few weeks ago to see what happened, and it's now tall enough to start eating. The first frosts are usually December we think. We're also having a barbecue this Sunday coming if the weather holds.

Viewing Experiences - Episode 1

Viewing properties has been a bit of a surprise to us.

Here is a summary of what we have found so far. We won’t mention specific agencies. Some of the occurrences may be unique to an agency, or may refer to more than one. But as we have only used 4 agencies so far, we are still “getting the hang of it”.

• Websites giving vague information about a property, this could be the price, the size of the rooms, the whereabouts of the property.
• One agent told us that they didn’t measure rooms as this was too much work.
• From what we can gather, owners decide on how much they want to sell for, not like in the UK where we are told what it’s likely worth is. We were told by one agent that owners sometimes will not decide on a price until they know who the client is, so that they can ask for more if they think they will get it.
• None of the agents has said they will keep us posted of properties they think will fit our needs.
• One agent advised us to keep checking their website as in a few weeks time they will have seen other people by then… (they don’t seem to operate the same as in the UK where they have you on a mailing list).
• No printed particulars. Only one agent said they would print out particulars of properties we had viewed, for our own information. And then they forgot. As we have internet access we didn’t chase this up, but it’s something to be aware of.
• One website we contacted that we thought was an estate agent is actually a property portal, ie advertising website. If they don't have an AMI number they are not licensed estate agents. To be fair, these sites do advise for you to make sure you use registered estate agents. Registered estate agents have to check that certain things are in order before they post the property for sale, eg habitation licence if required. One agent looked at his "pending" file and told us that there were a couple of places we might be interested in but as he was waiting for confirmation of certain paperwork he could not show us these.
  
• One website uses photographs supplied by the sellers of the properties – that might explain why some of the pics are a bit odd, eg picture of the patio with the family dog squatting in the background and week’s washing on line.
• It’s good practice to be shown properties that an agent thinks will suit you perfectly, but on one occasion we were shown one property we didn’t ask to see, and ran out of time to see the one we HAD asked to see. The one chosen by the agent on this occasion did not suit us. We haven’t arranged to go back again to see the one missed out.
• Viewing a property that the estate agent hasn’t seen in its entirety – there seems to be a problem with access to some properties. Don’t be surprised if your agent has never been inside the place they are showing you. Owners are often foreign, English, Dutch, German, Belgian. Quite often they have “gone home” without leaving a key.
• Houses described as renovation, are sometimes no more than a ruin because they are so dilapidated.
• Project plans for a part renovation that expired 12 months ago. This would mean we might have to go through the whole planning application again, including costs.
• Part renovationed properties that indicate the current owner probably hasn’t actually thought it through! House flow no longer works.
• Viewing all day without so much of the offer of a glass of water – we have now had a cup of tea at one house we viewed. Mind you, the one estate agent treated us to a two course meal, complete with wine and coffee at one of his favourite restaurants. That was rather nice!
  
• One worrying thing is that when we contact an agent a week in advance to make a booking, to suit them and the owner of the property, we turn up on the appointed day at the appointed time, and the owner of the property is out, because the agent has not contacted them beforehand. They are now frantically trying to contact them while you wait in their office/back of car.

THINGS THE PICTURES DO NOT SHOW

• Access roads at 45 degree angles
• Access roads that are barely passable without a four wheel drive vehicle.
• Neighbours (Portugese) glaring at the person selling the property. Can you hear the alarm bells jangling!
  
• Attic space – Roof truss not attached to the load bearing part of the roof! Get us outta here!
• Attic space with sawdust on floor, means the beams may be being eaten by something?
• Water rights - one lovely place we saw had 2 wells. One of the neighbours had been given permission to use 1 well for irrigating his land. That could be a problem if you will need that water yourself. We were told that we could put in a borehole, if we needed more water - this would cost approx 5,000 euros!
• Bear in mind other verbal agreements, such as grazing rights. If we want to use our new piece of land to grow vegetables to be self sufficient, but the neighbour who has previously been given permission to graze his sheep on the land is now told he is not allowed, he won't be happy. In fact, you may need to check that the previous agreement does not still stand?
  

TIPS

• Go armed with cold drinks and snacks.
• Go to the toilet before you set off as there is no guarantee some of the properties have a toilet. In fact, there is no guarantee you will actually see inside a property if the owner is out or a key not available.
  
• Take GPS reading, you can Google map it later.
• Take a compass reading, and bear in mind where the sun will be in the morning, midday, and evening. Think about your lifestyle, do you want to sit out in the evening and watch the sunsets?
• Wear long trousers and sensible shoes if you are looking at a Quinta, or piece of land.
• Take a camera.

POSITIVES

• Use each trip to explore the area. Usually the estate agent is driving, and giving you the perfect chance to soak up the scenery and spot places of interest.
• Look at what has been done with renovations etc to give yourself ideas.
• Use it as an opportunity to pick up snippets of information, both from the owners of the property and the estate agent.
• Enjoy the experience. Usually, the sun is shining. Chill out and relax, and accept that no one is in a rush.

A Drive through the Mountains

The weather has turned more inclement over the past few days but it rains mainly during the night. That gives us a nice break from watering the veggie patch. The peppers and tomatoes are actually flowering again! Jon has spotted that the figs have finally ripened off so we will be trying to harvest those. About a week ago we noticed the locals picking the wine grapes.

We went for a drive today, first we skirted the mountain range, Serra da Estrela, passing through parts of a river valley we have never seen. The rain has given everything a new green tinge, and autumn is only barely starting judging by the colours of the trees.

We drove over to Covilha, not because we have heard it's a lovely place to visit but, in the words of Wainwright, it makes the journey all the more rewarding to have a destination in mind...

Covilha was a bit big and a bit busy for our liking. There was a shopping mall! And a McDonalds! We avoided all that and found a lovely park with fountains and swans to eat our picnic in peace. There were black swans with bright red beaks (see pic).

Then we drove up through the Serra da Estrela, making a visit to the Torre, with its redundant observatories. The Torre was a bit of an anticlimax really, as there were no views to be had, and a few shops selling tat for tourists. Here are the ski tows too, and judging from what we saw, it would suit beginner to middle grade skiing.

We enjoyed the rest of the drive through the mountains, soaking up the landscape. Apart from about 3 other cars we had the place to ourselves. The clouds were quite low, and one moment we were in glorious sunshine and the next in pea-soup mist. Good job Jon was driving!

More information about the Serra da Estrela can be found at the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serra_da_Estrela

Meeting People

Saturday night we went to a new bar that was being opened by an English fellow called Charlie. We only knew a few people and they introduced us to other folk. Everyone agrees that it is quite hard for English people to earn money in this country, especially if you do not speak Portugese. It's extremely useful networking with other expats as they are usually trying to eke a living by some means or another that you may want to make use of one day. For instance, Kathy runs a book exchange, her husband is a builder, and another gentleman is where we buy our Linda McCartney sausages from the car boot sale. He also has a shop that you can visit at certain times of the week.

We do intend to try and integrate with the Portugese people as time goes by, and our Portugese actually improves. Though Jon did utter his first word to our Portugese goatherd neighbours, ie "cabras" (goats). First a couple of goats found their way into our garden and snaffled a few broccoli and cabbage plants that were just recovering from the previous onslaught, and then the whole herd managed to find its way onto the goatherd's vegetable crops. Honestly, we didn't lead them there, they just made a beeline!

Anyway, Jon tromped down the track to the house and indicated the cabras were munching. At this point there was half an hour of stick waving at goats and shouting.

Today, being a Bank Holiday Monday, we have had a spot of rain. The rain fizzled out around 0930 hours, and it is overcast now with sunny intervals. It's very warm still, though that could just be due to the fact we have had a cookathon. We have baked bread using wholemeal flour from the mill down the track, we have also made vegetarian cranberry and brie tart, and a tomato tart with pesto and parmesan.

For dinner Jon rustled up a meal he saw on "Daily Cook Challenge" of goat's cheese baked with a bread crust, sprinkled with sesame seeds and we ate it with cooked beetroot and salad. Delicious...

Inquisitiveness

Starting to live in a foreign country feels a bit like being one of the central characters in a role playing game. Inquisitiveness is often rewarded by answers, but not always immediately.

Suze fancied getting some marmalade. But for a country that is swimming with fruit trees, and has regions growing oranges galore, we couldn't see any marmalade for sale. Until Jon spotted "Marmelada" in Lidl, and we thought we had cracked it. Okay, the product was being sold in a plastic oblong tray, no problem. But when we opened it up the texture was more like a paste, and it didn't taste like oranges, though it was sweet and not unpleasant. Strangest marmalade we had ever eaten.

We have to collect our post from the post box that is 300m up the track, where all the other post boxes for this quinta are located. On the way there, Jon spotted a fruit tree bearing something that looks like apples. We took one to inspect more closely, under the knife. Okay, we scrumped it from the neighbours.

Inside, the fruit was different to an apple as it had no central core though it did have one or two pips. It wasn't ripe just yet either, so we didn't fancy having a taste.

In the post box we get junk mail. Some from our redirected mail in the UK, and some of it more local. We don't actually mind, as we are saving it up for when we need to start lighting the Rayburn. Our favourite junk mail are the supermarket flyers (eg Intermarche, Ecomarche) that come in full colour, with pages about the size of The Guardian. Not only do they tell you what offers are coming to the supermarkets soon, they have beautiful pictures of the goods in question with their name.

So, imagine our childish delight when we positively identified the mystery scrumped fruit as a "Marmelo". A quick Google and we learned that the marmelo is what we know as quince.

The end of this little story is when we were out with an estate agent. He was a lovely chatty fellow with very good English. Somehow we found ourselves discussing marmelos, and Humberto began telling us how they are used. A kilo of chopped marmelo to a kilo of sugar, cooked until tender, becomes a pulp.

He must have thought we were both odd as we suddenly became very animated and explained that the Marmelada we had bought, must be made from the marmelo and not oranges. Humberto nodded at us, yes, marmelada is made from marmelo.

Closer inspection of the tub of marmelada this morning, and the key ingredient is "polpa do marmelo". Obvious, now that we know!

We haven't given up on the marmalade hunt yet. That's another thing we have learned in the last four weeks, the supermarkets complement one another very well. Between them they sell most things that we could wish for. Intermarche, Ecomarche and Mini Preco have a more extensive range, and now we have located the stores we are far more successful on our shopping trips. And if we can't find marmalade, or even if we can, we might just make our own marmalades, lemon, lime, orange...

Alas Twig and Griffiths

Jon and Twig having a heart to heart about mousing responsibilities.