Vila Real Da Santo Antonio - almost to Spain

 Sunday is a quiet day in Portugal.  Most tourist attractions, especially churches are closed.  So we chose to go to an out of the way, very quiet location for our destination today.  Vila Real Da Santo Antonio is not on the Spanish border but is as close to it as you can get across the water.  It used to be that the only way you could get to Spain was by ferry - but they have build a bridge and now it is easier.  But we were looking for a laid back day.  So today is a photography day - no exciting things to explore - just what can we see with our photo eye.  

This is a seaside town - so the patterns in the tiles are sea life.

We parked behind this building - not knowing that it was the police station.  When we walked around to the front and saw it was the police station, we decided it might be a very good idea to move the car to a parking lot across the street.  

We walked along the water front before heading to the Grand Plaza.

The expected marina.

This looked like a statue with only hair all the way around and no face.  Michael thought it looked like a bunch of corks.

The Grand Plaza.

Something for the kiddies.

They have a lot of pedestrian streets.

Can you spot the air conditioner above?  

This man is cowish - or maybe it's meant to be bullish!

As we were walking along the seaside we saw some children (age 6-8?) taking a sailing class. The sailboats are half size.  We saw them later - moving along in their lessons.

The lighthouse.

I don't remember what these plants are called.  We can grow them in New Mexico, but they only get about1 1/2 foot tall.  Here they grow to huge hedges.

A strange balcony display.

Our rental home for this week.

April 23 - Loule

On Thursday, April 21 we left Sines just before lunch and hit the road heading for our next rental in Pechao in the Algarve region.   It has been cold and rainy the whole time we have been in Portugal. Our rental is great - fully supplied kitchen.  We have comfortable beds and comfortable sofa's in the living room.  Like past rentals we have stayed in in Europe - all of the floors are tiled - so the place is quite echoey.  But with just two of us it is not bad.  We stayed in on Saturday to catch up on our jetlag.  I celebrated my birthday with chicken fricassee made by husband and some chocolates.

It is supposed to clear up today, Saturday. So this morning we decided to go to Loule market place.  It was raining as we arrived.  People seemed to be leaving the market in droves.  There was no food or farmers market - it turns out it was the Gypsy market - we went to the wrong place!  We stopped at a Supermarket to get the last few things we needed, then went home.  It kept raining - even though the forecast said - no more rain!  Our hot water had stopped working and we had to let someone in to fix it.  Turns out Michael could fix it and send a photo to the managers of the property.  Some switch had been turned off.  

Later in the afternoon it stopped raining - so we headed back to Loule.  This time heading for center city and the Moorish style castle.  We also found the covered market - which is an interesting architectural building.  The market was over, but there were a few restaurants open; one with live music.

We next headed off to a nearby town named Almancil, to see Sao Lourenco church with its blue tiled walls and ceilings.  This style of making tiles is called Azulejos and is particular to Portugal.  The tiles are white with blue design.  According to some authors, the tiles at this church are the best examples of Baroque art on tile in Portugal.  You will find the same type tiles in Lisbon and other locations in Portugal.  It was cheaper to make the tile and use it in construction after the great earthquake in the 1700's than to use stone.  That is why you see a lot of tile on buildings in Lisbon.  Unfortunately you cannot take pictures in the Sao Lourenco church.  I do not understand it.  You can go to the Vatican in Rome and take photos anywhere you want to.  But you go to this obscure little church in Almancil and they have many people placed just to watch you that you don't take photos.  

We headed home - Michael made sausages with cabbage and potatoes and went to bed.

Loule

The now closed Covered Market.

Moving down the street from the covered market.

On to the Moorish Castle.

The small chapel near the castle.

Blue Tile in the small chapel.

Street scenes in Loule

Our parking spot - someone left and the truck parked so close I could not get in the car!

In Almencil - Igreja de Sao Lourenco da Almencil.

                      

                                         

All photos are on the outside of the church.

April 20-21 - Arrival in Portugal

 We have made it to Portugal.  Our trip from Albuquerque to Lisbon was just fine.  No cancelations, no late flights,  no missed flights, car rental was seamless, drive to hotel in Sines was no problem.  We are mentally and physically exhausted - so all of that was great.  Sines is only about 1-1 1/2 hours from Lisbon - so just enough to get us out of the city - but not too far to be exhausting.  

I took some photos out our hotel window.  Such a contrast.  Looking up you see beautiful ocean,  looking down you see what caused us so much problems in finding the hotel.  The road in front of the hotel in Sines was totally dug up and unacceptable.  Our GPS would say we were there - but we were at the back of the hotel with no entrance! We finally parked and walked around the block - and there was the entrance to the hotel - facing the dug up road.

View of the Atlantic through the buildings out our hotel window.

Looking down -the unassessable road.

The next morning we had time to explore Sines.  Not very exciting.

Near the castle is a statue of Vasco da Gama - looking over the ocean.

Of course they have roman ruins.  But these are replicas.

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Inside the castle/fortress

April 22, 2022 - Portugal and Happy Birthday to Me!

 I really thought we would not get here - here being Pechao, Portugal.  The past couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy.  A couple of weeks ago we started hearing rumors from daughter #2 and son-in-law that the State Department might be giving them orders to leave Shanghai, China because of the Covid shut-downs - and where would they land in the U.S.?  At the same time my husband and I are trying to pack for our upcoming trip to Portugal expecting to leave 4/19/2022.  Of course they can come and stay with us.  They can use our house while we are in Portugal.

We also have a non-profit in Accra Ghana and need to fund the next 5 weeks financial needs before we leave the U.S.  We had heard that WISE (a way to send money to a foreign company) was completely safe and much cheaper to use than wiring from your own bank.  I had set up our account on WISE 3 weeks before our expected trip and had no problems sending the first wire - which was money sent to Spain.  A few days before we were to leave I logged into our WISE account to set up ach transfers to send to our Ghana non-profit.  I barely logged on before I saw some strange upcoming transfers - all going to Great Britain.  As I watched in disbelief more transfers to unknown persons in GB appeared.  I immediately called WISE and was told they could not talk to me because I "was not the owner of the company"!   My husband was at a long Doctor apt.  I finally talked them into putting a hold on the transfers and I would have my husband call them as soon as he got home. 

I go back to the my WISE account and see more pending transfers.  Finally Husband gets home.  We call WISE.  Yes - they will definitely stop them from going out.  So far there were no pending transactions at our bank.  I check the WISE account.  Their are even more pending transfers to GB.  I check our bank account again - now there are pending WISE withdrawals from our bank account.  We frantically call WISE again.  They are closed - as is their fraud department.  I call our bank - which happens to be Wells Fargo.  I am put into an endless loop and the automatic voice will not transfer me to an agent.  I call our local WF bank and am given another phone number.  I finally reach someone in person in the fraud department at WF.  They can put a stop payment on the Vendor - WISE - so any further pending transfers would be stopped.  Now all we can do is wait for the bank sweep that happens at midnight to see what happens.  

Next morning - I check WF account - everything is fine.  I get an email from WISE - they have closed our account.  It was an entire day lost - but thankfully no money was lost.

While I am dealing with the fraud issue - I am getting emails and texts from Lisa - Yes, they are coming to ABQ.  They will have to fly from Shanghai to San Francisco then on to Washington DC.  She will get tickets from there to fly back to ABQ.  They will arrive on Sunday.  No, wait a minute our trip to NM was approved - we will fly to ABQ and be there tomorrow.  No - they can't change our routing - but I (Lisa) canceled our flights to ABQ!  Now I will have to rebook!  Oops - yes they were able to change the booking we will see you tomorrow!  

And they did arrive in ABQ on Friday.  Now we have to get them settled and bedrooms arranged.  Much grocery shopping must be done.    I need to shop for clothes for me for our trip before I can pack.  Somehow it all gets done and Husband and I leave for Portugal on Wednesday, April 19 as scheduled.

The travel gods were with us - and all of our flights and connections worked perfectly.  We arrived in Lisbon on time, got our rental car, and drove to Sines where we spent the night.  (No need to go to Sines - nothing to see there!)  The next morning we drove south to Pechao a small town in the Agarve region of Portugal.  

Today was raining and cold, but it is my birthday so Husband found some candles (not birthday) in the house so we had lit candles on the table for our dinner!  Happy Birthday to ME!

Wrapping Sicilly up!

 My husband has been doing this for a long time - a deep naval gazing look into how the trip went.  After this particular trip it seemed like a good idea to me as well.  What did I like or dislike about this trip and how can we make it better next time.

Timing of trip and weather

We left home in mid-October and returned in mid-November on this trip.  The last week was pretty miserable with rain -sometimes very heavy - almost every day.  It also got cooler than I like.   But weather is fickle and it also depends on the location we are traveling to.  End result - I would like to leave mid to late September and return at the very latest by the end of the first week of November. 

How organized do we need to be?

In the past - before Covid-19, we would have all rentals locked down before we left home.  Because we weren't sure if the trip would have to be canceled because of Covid, we only planned the first few rentals.  Daughter Alexis and family met us there several days after we had arrived.  We chose that house based mostly on the cancelation policy.  There were a lot more nicer homes that basically said you can cancel up to 2 hours after we approve you or we get at least 50% of the rent even if you don't come.  

We waited until a week or so before our trip to book our first hotel - and didn't look closely at the terms and didn't get what we expected.  From then on we booked for the next week or so ahead of time.  This meant much time was spent looking at rentals while traveling and adding stress and more mistakes.  End result:  Planning the whole trip ahead of time is much less stressful.  But also acknowledging that this trip was during covid and pretty much had to be handled this way.  Neither of us liked doing it this way.

Can we still travel in our usual manner at our age?

Maybe not!  We usually have 2 large suitcases, 3 backpacks, and a camera bag on wheels to start with.  Then add large bottles of water, bags of groceries and extra sacks of dirty laundry and unpacking and repacking things into your car every few days can be very exhausting and physically difficult.  Add in a couple of flights of stairs in the rental and it gets crazy.  

We take about 14 changes of clothing each trip - that's a lot of stuff.  But still getting the laundry done when you are moving around is a problem.  Europe doesn't do dryers - so everything has to dry naturally.  If the weather doesn't cooperate you can be left carting around wet clothes.

What about Driving a rental car?

Michael said he enjoyed driving in Italy.  But we definitely had some scary moments.  I myself was not comfortable driving there.  While Michael is behind the wheel, he counts on me to notice things that he doesn't have time to notice.  Most of the time, especially driving in towns and cities I am doing a constant monologue:  See that person jay-walking in front of you, I think that traffic light is turning red, SLOW DOWN, don't turn there, its a one-way, etc.  The last week or so of the trip I realized that I was feeling a lot of pressure in my chest that just would not go away.  After a few days at home it all disappeared.  It's nice to know that it was caused by stress and not a medical issue.   But I would definitely like to avoid or at least lesson that feeling.  

Touring with a Guide

I think we are going to have to change how this works for us.  We did two different days in Palermo with the same guide.  Guides are expensive - so they want to give you your money's worth.  But I ended up so exhausted and physically sore, especially after the first day.  When we tour by ourselves, we go at our own pace.  We can stop when we need a rest.  We can take our time taking photos and just enjoying the area.  Guides do provide a lot of history and local information.  They can take you to great areas of a city that you would not be likely to visit and generally make the experience more enjoyable.  We may have to find a compromise somehow. 

Is it still enjoyable to travel?

A resounding YES from me.  I still love going new places and seeing new things.  But I don't need to see every Roman Bath that still exists.  We can slow down and make wise decisions to cut some things out of our usual ambitious agenda.  Here are some of the things I love about travel:

Wandering around and exploring a town

Really getting into taking images

Finding a great restaurant or gelato place

Wandering into a great experience - like the parade in Taiwan, or the train experience in Japan

What's Next?

We would like to try living in Europe for an extended time.  We explored getting a Golden Visa, perhaps in Greece, but have decided that buying a home and all the accompanying repairs and problems would be too stressful.  We lately discovered the Digital Nomad Visa.  Portugal has an exciting one and we have a trip planned in late April - May 2022 to explore options in Portugal.  Our thoughts are that we would use it as a base to explore other countries in Europe.  Travel from one European country to another would take less time and money.  We could stay less time - maybe a week and so take a smaller suitcase.  

We would also get to know a country or at least an area of it much better.  We are looking for an experience like we had in Cefalu, Sicily, living in an area within walking distance to grocery stores, restaurants and the beach.  We are hoping to find something like it in Portugal.  Here is hoping we are successful next Spring!