In addition to clothes, I’d brought the basics of bed linen, towels & fleece blankets with us in the event that these were not provided.
We now have a couple of my large fleeces suspended from the banisters to block-off the open stairs in an attempt to stop heat disappearing. This isn’t pretty, but it does cut out some draughts. There are small wall-mounted electric radiators in most rooms, but we spotted a halogen heater in a shop window, so on impulse, bought it. This is so bright we need sunglasses if sitting near or facing it! We’re also getting used to layering-up with clothes, thick socks & fingerless gloves, but still having cold extremities.
When sunny during the day, it’s actually warmer outside, but due to the garden being enclosed by high walls & gates, the sun only reaches small areas inside.
I bet it’s a beautiful place in the Summer.
Two weeks after flying to london, I’d arranged to meet my daughter in Manchester for her birthday weekend. We had tickets to see Tom Chaplin perform his Christmas album 🙂 It was a lovely, if very cold & wet weekend with sleet & icy temperatures.
The three days I was away, Northern Portugal was battered by storms with high winds & torrential rain. Poor Rob was more-or-less house-bound & had a total power cut for a few hours. We cannot light candles as they are poisonous to parrots & with no gas at the property & everything, including the cooker hob electric, he couldn’t do anything.
It was a miserable time.
When he drove back up the lane, part of the retaining wall for the field at the side had collapsed & he had to roll away boulders to get the car past. They were large & heavy so we couldn’t move them far & it was a tight squeeze to get past with the car.
I’d previously spotted a worrying bulge in the wall, but it wasn’t this that fell, but another part of the wall a short distance away.
We’re understandably concerned that this isn’t an ideal long-term home for the Winter.
When booking the house, I’d paid the landlord a one-off €35 to upgrade to faster wifi as without a good internet connection, I cannot do my work. Due to the location of the house, we had a satellite connection which had been pretty good. However, as the weeks went by, the signal deteriorated, kept disconnecting which was frustrating. Added to the cold (the house was barely warmed though after nearly a month), we knew we had to get out.
I’d paid one months rental on the yellow house & half-promised the landlord we’d stay for another month. This was mainly due to moving there on 25th November & not being confident of moving the weekend immediately before Christmas. However, we were not looking forward to cold Christmas there.
Searching Air B&B, we found an available pretty blue & white house in the Algarve at a reasonable price. Though we’d intended to work our way South in stages, stopping off to stay somewhere central for a few weeks, the thought of Christmas in the Algarve was certainly appealing.
As we were leaving the area, I didn’t want to miss out on a trip to Porto. I also wanted to see the vineyards descending the Douro river valley, so we took a riverside road into the city. Parking at the Estádio do Dragão, we took the metro into the centre of Porto & had a lovely afternoon.
However, there were no vineyards so the following day we went upriver instead. As it was Winter, there were no leaves on the vines, just terraces of brown earth. It was a good day though, pleasantly warm & we enjoyed the drive to Peso da Régua & back.