You couldn’t write this…(no wait, we are!). Just as Wayne’s sister returns to the UK the weather turned the corner, warmed up and has actually stayed that way for a while. She was desperate to get away from the wet and grey skies in the UK, only to pick one of the coldest and wettest snaps we have had for some time!
So, after we had said our goodbyes and dropped her at the airport, we made our way back (in bright sunshine!) to Spain to continue our sit. We had just over two weeks left in Spain. It was going to be even more relaxed than last time, as Steve & Helen had a young lad working for them to look after the land. Our hardest tasks were down to feeding the dogs, cat and goats. Hardly raising our heartbeats really.
We did however need provisions. For those, we went back over the border to Portugal, either Castelo de Vide or Portalegre . That’s about as adventurous as it got that week. Not boring by any stretch of the imagination, just very relaxing. We love taking the routes less travelled! The scenery was stunning and the wildlife truly abundant.
We did have one road trip a bit further at the end of the first week however…
Clothes don’t last forever, especially when the building of our house has taken over four years now. Some of our clothing are still boxed up, believe it or not. So our sandals and walking shoes were getting worn out. Therefore, we decided to take a trip to Castelo Branco, just to have a day out in the lovely weather and see if we could pick up some new footwear to boot, excuse the pun.
This we did successfully and managed to get the car cleaned of the previous few weeks worth of mud and dust before it baked on. The cherry on the cake though, was deciding to stop for a coffee in the small town of Nisa on the way back. Firstly, we should add that the road from just outside Castelo Branco to Nisa, the N18 was absolutely stunning, going through some beautiful countryside. We saw eagles, vultures, and in the road we narrowly missed a snake and a turtle! (Not at the same time).
Nisa was a real gem. A lovely quiet town, like many getting ready for the celebrations on the 25th April. We had a bit of an exploration while we were there and it appeared we were there for what seemed like a bit of an army information/recruitment day! It was really quite warm, especially for April, so that coffee turned into an ice cold beer and a cider instead.
So, by now we were settling into a very relaxing sit. Annette cooked some lovely meals up to keep us both very full and very happy. However, the wine ran out and the gin got very low! Swings and roundabouts, it was time for another provisions run…
We didn’t add a video to this post as the upload speeds are limited, even though the download speeds are fine. So we will hopefully put one together once we get to our next sit. This will be familiar to our regular readers as we are back near Batalha for the final week in April.
We are also really looking forward to seeing the progress on the house build. We are getting queries from our furniture suppliers, who want to come out and fit the furnishings we purchased last year. We did pay for the delivery and installation services, so we are keen to get that done soon. We were informed that we are near the end, so we are getting very excited!
Thanks for getting this far, and we hope to have some more content for you very soon! 👍
Our Portuguese Life 