Last few weeks in Portugal

Goodness, it's the 1st April already. We've been back in UK since 2nd March. Since then we've been really busy catching up with friends and relatives and trying to get organised so that we can go back to Portugal once and for all. The plan is to return to Portugal as soon as possible. Before then though, we have to get the house ready to sell, and then actually sell it! We are hoarders, so we have to get rid of loads of stuff and then redecorate several rooms. We are also working our allotment as we are happiest when we are growing some veggies.

Here is a summary of our last few weeks spent in Portugal.

Rain stopped exploration in the main. And then there was that big storm on Saturday the 27th February that brought down trees. We woke up to find that we had no electricity but apart from that the cottage seemed to be okay. We had arranged to travel to meet up with friends that day, and despite the weather we braved it. We drove over towards Arganil, watching the trees along the lanes with trepidation. There were signs that trees had fallen and had been cleared quickly, and the roads were littered with branches and other debris for the whole journey. We met Kathy and Keith at the Mendes Bar. The bar had no electricity either. Kathy had made us delicious chocolate cakes with icing topping as a farewell treat. Despite the bar being unable to serve coffees etc, it was full of Portugese chattering away.

We didn't actually get the electricity back on until 1630 hours on the 28th Feb. The reason why we had no power, and also the neighbouring villages, was because a pylon had fallen down on the N17. Our big clean up of the cottage was hard work without the vacuum cleaner. Twig seemed to know something was afoot as we packed our stuff away and cleaned the place through. We hauled the rugs outside on the varanda and beat them with brooms like the Portugese women do.

Very early on Monday 1 March we set off for home, driving up to Santander to catch the ferry for a 23-24 hour crossing.

The voyage was uneventful, thank goodness! We were dreading travelling in case we ended up meeting the storms we had experienced on the Saturday. All the rivers that we saw on our way through Spain had burst their banks. The Picos de Europa were thick with snow.

When we arrived at Santander it was gloriously warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. On our journey the Bay of Biscay was relatively calm, it felt just like being on the Witches' Hat.

Back in the UK and we hadn't gotten far before we met our first traffic cones. Then more, then more. How we hadn't missed them for six months! Our journey home was punctuated all the way with road works. About 40 miles from home we could resist no longer and we scouted out a chip shop. Slavering we were, imagining those hot salty vinegary chips. And they were horrible! Expensive and horrible. Nothing like what we had envisaged, or indeed, cooked for ourselves while in Portugal.

That's one of the things we have found since we've been back. The choice is overwhelming in the supermarkets. But nothing compares to Portugal. Everything we craved has left us disappointed (apart from cheese!). Nothing tastes as delicious as much as we thought it did unless we cook it from scratch using raw and fresh ingredients like we did when we were in Portugal.

This is the final entry for this blog as our six month Portugal Adventure is now over but after all the rain we may be escaping to Tenerife for some sunshine! We may start a sister blog to record the process we go through when house hunting and buying over in Portugal. We are looking forward to going back.