We know what you are thinking…
How do a retired couple living in Portugal know when they are on holiday! 😂😂😂. Well, it has reached the middle of August and Portugal is in full holiday mode, so we are just joining in.
The builders are now on their well-earned holidays too, and so there will be no house progress updates for a few weeks. Everyone in Portugal seems to be making the most of some down time and recharging their batteries.
We popped over to the house just before they headed for their summer vacations, and were happy with the progress they have made. Most of the exterior-wall cork cladding has been completed and the white stucco coating on the middle section at the back looks done too. This time last year it was just a wood frame; we had a heat-wave after the holiday followed by rains so there was delay with the progress. At least the house is just about closed up now, so hopefully they can hit the road running after the holiday so to speak.
We were really excited to get the opportunity to do some more house-sitting to keep us occupied for the holiday period. Another of our fortuitous encounters with people we seem to bump into! This one actually came about by our friends in the village meeting a couple while attending their daughters club. They mentioned to our friends they needed to travel, but wanted reliable sitters, and we came up in the conversation. We then organised to meet with them to see if it was suitable for us and that we were a good fit for them too. I think we mentioned in a previous post that they invited us all over to a splendid BBQ, and luckily all the stars were aligned…
However, before we began that adventure we popped over for another visit to our friends from across the pond in Nazerè. Just a short weekend sit to relax and get a bit of relief from the intense heat. It’s always much cooler on the coast. Also as you may have heard or seen on the news, Portugal has suffered quite a few wild-fires. Although none have really been really close to our village, the larger ones can spread across large areas, and the photo below shows the evidence that the smoke can spread far and wide. The smoke that appeared over the house was from a fire that was twenty or so miles away.
We then headed back to our village with our friends before getting ready and packing the car for the two week house and pet sit. Our hosts for this sit would be Frank & Katherine. We are truly blessed with meeting such lovely people.
Before we did the sit though, we still had some free time so we also gave our friends a morning break from their daughter and spent the morning looking after her and managed to fit a brief visit to Batalha, where incidentally our next sit was going to be located, and visited a fantastic ceramics shop, also just a short walk away. Loja Maria Terracota (http://mariaterracota.com).
On the day our sit started, we headed over to Batalha and spent the night with our hostess and her friend before they were due to fly out the following morning. Both were flying back to the UK, but Kath was continuing on to the US to join her husband.
The next morning, while she was contacting her Uber ride to the airport, he was asking for more money than was originally agreed. It does frustrate us! Unfortunately some people try and take advantage of you when they know you need to get to the airport and they know you are foreigners. Luckily, we were overhearing the conversation on her speaker and Wayne offered to run them to the airport himself. It really isn’t that far and what are friends for, right? That also gave time for Netty to unpack and organise our stuff. There was no traffic to speak of either, not even in Lisbon. It must have been a public holiday, so Wayne made really good time and was back before long. We then settled down to watch a good movie and settled into our relaxing house-sitting mode once again.
One thing we love about the house-sits and have mentioned before now, is being able to gain experience with different types of pets is a lot of fun, and this was going to be one of those times. Although we have both spent time with farm animals back in the UK, we had never looked after sheep as pets! Meet Florence, Ursula and Wilhelmina:
Our other charge is ‘Gene’ the cat. he was very wary of the two strangers initially and mostly kept himself in his ‘parents’ bedroom. Although he has the run of the house we rarely saw him wandering about. Occasionally we saw him tip-toeing into the kitchen, but usually ran straight back to his room if we looked at him 😂😂.
We also found time to visit our friends who are so kind and generous and cooked a lovely dinner one evening. Because the sit was so close to our house, we also drove over to check it was still secure, we were pleasantly surprised that someone had been in to replace the window that didn’t fit when they originally installed them a few weeks back. Wayne had the drone in the car so we quickly took a few shots before going over to meet up with everyone. We don’t know how we missed it on earlier visits, but we noticed that the telegraph pole which had originally stood right next to the livingroom window, had been moved to the side of the road. Even better, it was behind the walnut tree, so in summer, when the tree is in leaf, you can’t even see it. (probably how we had missed it!).
And talking of meeting up with friends, we got to see Marc & Danu, the couple we had house-sat for in the Algarve for our very first sit using the trustedhousesitters app. They were up looking at properties in the region. We arranged to meet them for lunch in Alcobaça, not far from our current sit. It was really lovely to see them again and to hear about their adventures and to get an update on their pets we so miss. We were thrilled to hear they might be moving closer to us here in central Portugal and the opportunity of seeing them more often. We had a fabulous lunch which they generously treated us too. A small highly rated restaurant called “Pratu’s” (highly recommended!). It was a scorching hot day so we had a very slow wander around the town just to catch up. Danu was on crutches with a bad sprain, so we didn’t get too far and when it was time for us to get back to the animals we waited with her while Marc fetched the van to pick her up. We then headed back to the car, but it was only then Wayne remembered he had his camera! There is always so much going on in Alcobaça, and that dy was no exception. There was a big concert coming up and the sound-checks could be heard around the town. There was also a criterium (bike race) which made getting out of the town a bit of a challenge!
And so back to the sit and Batalha. It’s a lovely small town with the most magnificent medieval monastery. We love it there and love popping in for a coffee by the monastery, having hot wings (for Wayne) in a restaurant around the corner, or just sitting in the park!
So, apologies for not posting more regularly, but it’s a holiday! 😂😂😂
Our Portuguese Life 