These last couple of weeks have hopefully shown us what being retired in Portugal is really like, now things are starting to settle down…
There has been lovely days out in between some lazy days and some days just pottering in the garden. We have met up with friends, eaten some fantastic Portuguese food and shared some beautiful moments together.
That’s not to say the house is finished yet. The builders are continuing the carport, stairs and snagging items. We have started to get to grips with the garden. Chipping our wood cuttings and clearing anything remotely spikey or prickly! We have had some quotes for rebuilding the boundary walls and our final steps to getting an official address shouldn’t be too far away now. Fingers crossed! Our neighbors have said the monastery in Batalha will be finished before our house! 😂😂😂
So, what adventures have we been having? What is our retirement starting to look like then?
I think the first thing we need to emphasise is that being retired is quite busy! We never really had the time to travel, meet people and have a social life while we were both working. Now we find ourselves constantly meeting new friends, travelling, discovering new places and gathering together with all our new found friends and enjoying the company and learning about other’s experiences!
Our friends Manny & Carol were great company and sadly for us, they have returned to Canada for a few months. However, our other Canadien friends in the next village have arrived. So we still have the Canadian angle going on! We have enjoyed their visit to our house, eating out and walking their lovely dog ‘Astro’! They are also a great source of information about local events!
One such event we managed to see this November was the festival of the horse in Golegã. We knew it occurred every November from our former visit to the town. But we had always missed it. This month we had the opportunity to go with our besties! What a great day out! We are not particularly ‘horsey’ types (Wayne’s sisters are, they would love it!), but you could not help being impressed by the traditional costumes and the very impressive animals and skills of the riders. The entire town was in festival for the whole week and apart from the higher food and drink prices, it is a must see! Wayne and Peter even had a ride in a carriage around the arena, unbeknownst to the girls who were busy admiring the fashion show! You should have seen their faces as we waved from the arena! It is extremely popular and lots of night life too! We didn’t stay too late, but even the bars were crowded by riders enjoying a tipple or two!
Speaking of annual festivals, it was also the ‘Sweets and Liquor’ festival in Alcobaça this month. This is also worth a visit, even just to see the impressive monastery (but the cakes, pastries and liquors are good too!). This year we managed to meet up with some friends from across the pond, with our near neighbors Bruce & Paula. (We didnt get the 40% Ginga this year ☹️), but Manny & Carol brought a bottle before they headed back to Canada! 👍
In between all the meet-ups and visits, we were still getting on in the garden. One such day we were busy putting all our cut branches from our many olive trees through the chipper and we had a visit by a friend that Wayne had been friends with on Facebook. We had never met, but had a mutual passion for the local flora and forna and nature, travel building etc. We were admiring their project of some old stone houses they are renovating in a village near us too. Well, they were driving by our place after a hike and recognised the house. They jumped out and introduced themselves and we got chatting, showed them the house and so now we have some new friends. It turns out Irene (portuguese) and Peter (american) live in our nearest town. We look forward to meeting them again soon and sharing our experiences!
It real is an amazing lifestyle this retirement malarkey! 😂😂😂
Our Portuguese Life 