A week off!

A week off? This might sound a bit of a joke seeing we are retired and homeless, but we always seem to be busy doing lots of things! We really did have a week off of house-sitting and admin though. It has actually been quite relaxing for a change.

First off, we had a trip to Leiria. This was just to have a coffee before meeting with our next house sitting hosts. The house sit is only for a week looking after the most beautiful and friendly golden retriever called Bailey, and a small cat called Rufinho or ‘Rufie’. However before going to meet them we had a quick coffee or two and a walk around the Christmas market area. It’s really starting to feel festive and we can’t wait to pop in later in the sit during the evening when all the lights are on!

The builders are also on site now continuing the house build. The final layer of blocks are going on to the foundations. The wood base boards have been removed as the should have been left until the final blocks, but this was corrected before they finished.

We also took this opportunity to have an overnight stay in a hotel which was one of those experience gifts from our besties from last year. We decided to stay quite close and spent the time at Vila Nove do Barquinho, and then popped over to explore Constância the next day. The weather was supposed to be really bad, and there was plenty of flooding around Portugal, but we seemed to be very lucky and missed most of the worst. There was rain, thunder and lightning, but mainly through the night when we were tucked up and cosy!

There is a really lovely park opposite the hotel, with a really nice café pastelaria which was empty. But we did stop for a coffee nevertheless! And the restaurant next to the river was open too, so we had an absolutely delicious lunch there too. The chef was super friendly and explained how everything was cooked and gave us recommendations. We had a fantastic bottle of wine to accompany too.

The following morning, most of the storm had passed by and once again we seemed to be lucky with the weather and avoided any heavy rain while we drove just down the road to explore Constância.

We finished off the week with a visit to our favorite coffee spot in Alcobaça: Alcoa. They do the most amazing pastries and cakes. Just watch the video to the end to find out!

Until our next one…Até logo!