This week was about spending a few nights with our American pals in Pederneira, and meeting some new friends along the way.
Our friends in Pederneira had bought a small town house/bungalow in the village above Nazerè to get some relief from the extreme heat at their previous house near Castelo Branco in the Portuguese interior. It came along with some out-buildings, these were basically chicken coops and at our first visit we thought they may need to knock them down. That is because when we first met them (we did a house/pet sit) they were still in the original crumbling state of repair and were just left empty. But hats off to Vince and Cat, they saw an opportunity and had the vision to re-imagine these dilapidated structures.
Fast forward to now, and they have turned those chicken coops into a cool little self contained little studio. Modern and comfortable and just mind blowing to see it now from what it was when we first saw it. We stayed a few days to basically as a test-run to see what it is like to live in it in the short term. It was really quite comfortable. It is still a work in progress, with some work required on the roof, but it’s mainly done and certainly habitable. There were a few teething problems with the sink drain and shower heat levels, but these were swiftly dealt with. We just used it as a base and usually spent the evenings in the main house with our friends enjoying a couple of card games over a few drinks. (This last sentence hides the hilarious goings on with the somewhat calamitous effects of alcohol that go along with a card game requiring a complicated scoring methodology.) At least it was complicated to a group of Gen-X adults under the influence!
We also found what we think is very probably the best Indian restaurant in Nazerè. At least that is our opinion from all the ones we have tried so far. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch with Vince and Cat, and were very impressed! (So much so, we visited twice, as we recommended it to our other friends the very next night!). Swagat, Nazerè
If you have never visited Pederneira, it is well worth a quick stop. It is not as touristy as Nazerè (at the moment). The views are pretty stunning and there is a wonderful restaurant just next to the viewpoint. The sunsets are out of this world too! As the photo of the banner shows below, there is a new funicular being constructed that will bring people right up to the viewpoint sometime in the future. So, the area is becoming quite popular, I think our friends bought wisely!
Also, while we were there we met up with some folks from Wayne’s native Canada. They had been in touch through the blog and videos, and were keen to look at, and possibly purchase some land in our village of Alvados! It was lovely to meet them, and we enjoyed the wonderful Indian dinner together with their friends as well. We spoke about our reasons and experiences building here. We all seemed to enjoy similar things about Portugal the area and seemed to have similar stories to tell. Like Wayne he is a keen content creator, you can visit their channel here. Feel free to give them some love and like and subscribe! They seemed to have found and settled on a plot of land not too far from ours, so we could be getting some new near-neighbors in the future! We hope to meet them again very soon. They are cramming quite a lot into their visit and still need to attend various meetings and complete the relevant admin tasks before heading back. We wish them all the luck in their endeavors.
Also we found some time to visit a future sit. Once again this wasn’t too far away, and we got to see their beautiful house and get to know the dogs routines etc. We spoke briefly about our initial meeting in a previous post, but to see the dogs in their home environment is really meaningful to us. We even jumped in their car and took them for a short walk nearby. It was so great to walk them and were impressed how good they were on their leads. We felt they quickly relaxed and got comfortable with us too which was super nice. We can’t wait to spend some time with these two beautiful boys, so keep tuned in to see that adventure in a few weeks time!
There isn’t really much to report on the house project this week unfortunately. The wheels are turning slowly though, and we hope to have some more updates soon. We also hope to invite some very special guests around to see the progress and discuss some aspects of experience of building here from an expats perspective…
So a very brief one this week, we didn’t really get the camera out much, but plan to post some more exploration around Portugal as we go into the later part of the year.
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Our Portuguese Life 