Exploring Portugal and the house build project is nearing the end

Hello beautiful people. It seems like it has been ages since we reported on our going-on’s!

This post is about our last few weeks which have been full of adventure, having family join us, visiting friends, discovering new places, and seeing some amazing progress on our house build.

It’s difficult to know where to start a blog like this, because it has been quite the journey and can seem like a blur at times (at least to us oldies!). The last post went into how we cope with being homeless and waiting for the build to complete. It’s important to note that we are happy to wait. It is frustrating, but only because we were used to things happening quicker, it is imperative that we don’t comprise on quality. That translates, in Portugal, as taking time. We are experiencing it in many things, but we did come here to slow down and lead a simpler life after all.

Talking about quality, we are over the moon at the work being done on finishing the house by our builders. We are and have always been excited by their innovative approach and modern concepts and we will discuss these in a moment. But, let’s catch up with what’s been happening…

Returning from Spain:

When we returned from Spain we returned to a previous house sit in Batalha. There is a theme of return house sits throughout the time up to our current situation. But it is peppered with new adventures, a new sit, and family and friends. On the house front we had new exciting deliveries, hinting at the finishing stages about to commence. We saw the kitchen base units being fitted, the flooring (laminate) delivered, and electrical wiring being commenced. We had a meeting with the builders and left feeling positive about the planned work too.

A birthday Party:

We had a pleasant surprise from our friends in the Algarve too. There was to be birthday come wedding anniversaries all rolled into one, but primarily Karen’s birthday and we were kindly invited. If you know us, and our motto you will familiar that we can hardly turn down such an event! The only issue was choosing a birthday present? Fate stepped in here, as we had been made aware of a textile museum in the adjoining village that we were planning to visit, and knowing Karen’s love of quality textiles, we set off to explore with one eye on a suitable candidate for her prezzie!

The museum was a real surprise to us. It was fantastic, and so interesting. The gift shop was just what we had hoped, a brilliant selection of gifts and we even have a few items earmarked for the house!

The drive down to the Algarve was interesting too! We never seem to take the same route. We prefer not to take the motorways. It means we don’t have to pay the expensive tolls, but more importantly for us, we get to see and explore areas you would miss altogether by taking the motorways which are boring in comparison.

The extended weekend with our dear friends was just what the doctor ordered too. Very relaxing with lots of laughs and getting to meet new friends and being reacquainted with their neighbors who we have met on previous visits. The Party was incredibly enjoyable, the food was amazing and it was a beautiful day. We can’t wait to welcome them all to our home soon. It was great to see the pets too. The two cats Ben & Jerry can actually tolerate each other now and Herbie and Picolet were much the same albeit Herbie was showing signs of his age.

Unfortunately, it turned out that it would be the last time we saw Herbs, as he sadly passed away a short while later, but we got to spend some time with him, and he was given the most delightful life full of love while Karen & Suzie had him.

There is no rest for the wicked, as the saying goes. It was back up to our friends to pick up some supplies then another trip up to Travanca. Not to house or pet sit this time around however, this was purely a social visit. But, there was a slight detour…

A slight detour:

Every time we travel up the roads towards Coimbra, we always look out of our windows and see an intriguing castle in the distance when navigating around Pombal. For us it’s like iron filings being pulled towards a large magnet. The call for exploration and new adventures is quite the addiction, and it was time to get our fix.

So, totally unplanned we decided to veer off course and grab a coffee somewhere near the castle, and see if it’s worth a visit. It was totally worth it on several levels. Firstly the cafe just underneath the castle was open (a promising sign!). The coffee and cake were amazing with a cute bottle of mineral water included! The castle was also very impressive and we got shown a couple of movies at the visitor centre in the castle itself (3D glasses included!). There was so much more history and legends involved in Pombal than we had imagined. It’s now definitely on our list of places to return to learn more.

Return to Travanca:

We then headed up to Travanca to spend some quality time with Kathryn, Roman and the dogs. We started with an amazing BBQ. Roman is quite the chef and cooks all his food from scratch. No supermarket wares when it comes to this guy! It turns out that they were planning to sell the house and move to another country.

Portugal was always just a stepping stone in their plans. It means we will have to visit them in their next home, but where that will be is still up in the air. So, we got to work in helping to prepare for viewings, which was quite fun. We learned to play a new card game (Five Kings), and had some great catch-up moments. We also headed into Coimbra for a Chinese buffet one day. It was fabulous food and drink and very interesting being served by a robot too! It turned out to be a very expensive meal for Roman & Kathryn though! Roman spotted a motor home sales business just over the road and we went to view some. They harboured the idea it might be an idea to have a temporary home if the villa sold quickly.

It turned out they had the ideal motor home for their needs, but it wasn’t cheap! It will be sad for us when they are no longer just up the road to visit, but we have a few more sits planned before they go. We actually agreed to do a sit for them in July. This was only agreed on if Roman agreed to reveal his secret recipe for baby back ribs which have got to be the best we have ever tasted! There was much hesitation, but we shook hands and we are both looking forward to the sit and trying out the ribs in our own kitchen and BBQ.

A new house sit:

From Kathryn and Romans, to our next house sit was less than a 30 minute drive. In fact while we were staying with them we popped over to meet our next pet and housesit. They kindly invited us over for a BBQ. (Can you see a pattern emerging here? We are going to need to loose a few pounds!). When we met Mark and Linda we noticed that Linda had an English accent but Mark had a South African, and he was stood at the BBQ which could only mean the it wasn’t a BBQ, but a Braai! For those who don’t know they are NOT the same thing. But what it does mean, is that you are not going hungry! The food was amazing, and Mark and Linda were such a nice couple and Milo, our next charge was the most chilled out dog with such a great temperament we just knew it was going to be a great sit.

We obviously already knew the area quite well, and so we mainly stayed around Mark and Linda’s village with local walks with Milo through the forests. In fact the walk through the forest to the next village was our favourite during the first week as it passed a pond with what seemed to be the largest frog, toad and newt colony we had ever seen! However, that pull for exploration and adventure eventually overcame us, so we ventured further out with Milo and were rewarded by two of the most beautiful forest river walks we had done and some stunning vistas at some incredible windmills above the area we stayed at. These river beaches, waterfalls and windmills were real hidden gems!

House build progress:

When it was time to return to see the progress made at the house, we were really impressed and now getting very excited to be in our new home. there was still a bit of work to do, but the end was really tantalizingly close. The work being done is really quite impressive. The architect and builders are one and the same. The tools and techniques they employ are really quite innovative and they are not the typical Portuguese approach. Some very cutting-edge equipment is at their disposal too!

In fact, why not swing over to Sandy’s channel and check out her explanations of what their company is all about. Here is one about some of the equipment they can employ! But check out some of her others, you might be able to spot our house in some 👍

And so we returned to a whole load of work being done to be able to get us moved in. The flooring was being installed, rooms were being painted, lights were being installed, electrics were being put in… A lot of things going on at the same time. We still had one more house sit we committed to, and that was going to be another three weeks away.
We were confident that we could start moving in when we got back after this final sit.

We actually were even more confident after we had to go back for a day to organise the permanent electricity contract. This needed to be in place before the solar system could be installed, so there is probably going to be ongoing work while we are still moving in.

In the time we had been away, the doors had been all but fitted, the skirting boards installed, more painting had been done, and importantly the plumbing was connected with working toilets and taps (we think – didn’t try them!). The hot water system still needs to go in, and the appliances, but most of the appliances were staged ready to go in. We just need the hot water and we are just about there, ready to start getting the furniture in. But, after four years, we are chomping at the bit to be in a home again. No more accommodation is booked so we really will be homeless if we can’t move in. 😂😂

Right, back to this sit, we are currently on…

A family visit:

Annette’s sister Rachel came out to visit. Unfortunately, again we were not able to put her up for obvious reasons, so our housesit hosts graciously agreed to let her stay with us for her short visit. We decided to try out the bus system here in Portugal to see if it was cheaper and easier for visitors to get the bus up to Fatima, where we can get to quickly and cheaply. Unfortunately the tolls and fuel to and from Lisbon are a pain. Then there is the traffic to contend with and parking etc. etc. The whole procedure for booking (we used Flixbus) was easy and smooth. The journey both ways to and from Lisbon was direct with no stops and the bus was comfortable and modern. The bus stops in Orient Station and the metro to the airport is on the lower level; only three stops and you are right outside of arrivals when you come out at the airport. So it is definitely the way to go in the future.

We had one whistle stop trip to show Rachel the house. She really liked it and has already started calling the second bedroom hers! Only a short look, but we had another sit to get to, so we were straight in the car and up to Sao Pedro de Alva for another return sit with Rosie.

We managed to get a few sightseeing tours with Rachel, as Rosie is so easy going and because the weather was perfect we could leave the veranda doors open so she could come and go as she needed with plenty of water, but we were never too long away.

We visited the Roman remains at Bobadela and managed to get into the interpretation centre this time around. Afterward popping just up the road to the museum of olive oil. Very interesting. We also had a picnic at the nearest river beach and a quick look around Santa Comba Dão and Mortagua when out shopping. Finally we took her on a trip to Luso and the palace at Buçaco. Rachel really loved this and has insisted we bring her back again!

So, that just about brings you all up to date. We are due back to the house in just over a week from writing this blog. The intention is to start moving in to the house providing it’s ready to receive us and with hot and cold running water and working toilets and electrics. Most of this is already done so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the amazing work our builders are doing continues at pace, but also confident that quality doesn’t suffer at the same time.

So in summary, it’s been a busy and adventurous few weeks! Keep everything crossed for us, and we hope to have a very positive post coming to you in a couple of weeks. There is no video attached this time as we just haven’t had the time to spend working on it, but if we get the time, watch this space…