movingtoportugal

As promised in my very short update last week, here follows a big update as to the eventful recent happenings of our Portuguese “dream.”

Regular readers will know about the ongoing battles we have had with damp and mould, in the traditional Algarve townhouse we spent many months dreaming about before our arrival. Just like the rest of the world, Portugal has experienced freak weather this winter. The Algarve has had so much rain this year that the area, which experiences frequent summer droughts, now reportedly has enough water in the reservoirs to last for the next three years.

New mouldy discoveries

About ten days ago, my wife had a closer look in some corners of the house and discovered whole new areas of mould we had not previously noticed. She also noticed more of our possessions had been destroyed, including irreplaceable items from our wedding. We decided enough was enough, and set off to the letting agency in an attempt to get moved somewhere else. We had already planned to move in May anyway to a lovely modern apartment which, frustratingly, we knew was dry and free of mould, having been to look around in the midst of the December rain.

The letting agency was not as helpful as we had hoped. It seems that all year they have been faced with a constant procession of owners and tenants, all with similar problems, some with collapsed ceilings etc. Initially, all they offered to do was send in the cleaners yet again. This proved to be to our benefit, as the cleaners took one look at the place and declared it to be uninhabitable.

Feeling newly empowered, we set off back to the letting agency armed with this information. Underestimating our new ability to understand a little Portuguese, the boss proceeded to dress down the cleaner over the phone for daring to tell a client their property was uninhabitable. At least that was how we understood it. We made clear our desire to move somewhere else as soon as possible, but were not met with a lot of helpful suggestions. We left downhearted, just being told that the best they could do was see if they could persuade the owner of our new property to stay elsewhere when he visits, therefore enabling us to move into our new property straight away.

Fired up and slightly angry, we got in touch with someone we had met, and by the end of the same day were being shown around another property in town – a beautiful luxury home which we liked a lot, however, it just didn’t seem to feel right. The place was supposed to be empty, but it had tenants in there when we got there, and it was frustratingly difficult to work out exactly when the place was going to become available. The place was better than any we had seen, but our instincts told us to steer clear. We also saw the beginnings of some mould in one of the rooms….not what we were looking for…

Fortunately our evening of feeling dejected was turned around by an email from our agency confirming that the owner of the place we were due to move to in May had agreed to let us move in straight away, very kindly making different arrangements for his own accommodation for his next visit.

First thing the next morning, we picked up the keys and excitedly started to move the first of our things to our new apartment – relishing the prospect of having our first mould-spore free night in several months. We moved the bare essentials, and a friend came and joined us for an impromptu barbeque on the terrace. Everything was just marvellous and we kept saying over and over that the place “just feels right.”

Guess what? It didn’t completely last. When our friend left we noticed we had no external lights at the front of the apartment building. We also noticed our video entry phone wasn’t working. Exploring more, we found the building lift didn’t work, nor did our doorbell. After a while compiling these details it became clear that although everything in our own apartment was fully-functional, nothing in the condominium itself was working. It was all dead. We checked the fuse-box and everything looked right. We decided the following morning that we would go to the agency and see what had to be done, confident that it would just be a case of someone, somewhere, switching something on.

At this point the story takes on a distinct air of “only in Portugal….” It transpired that the reason the condominium power was off was due to someone, somewhere, not paying the electricity bill. This was quite easily sorted (it has apparently now been paid, we are just waiting for the power in the communal parts of the building to be restored.) It is worth mentioning at this point that the Portuguese utility companies are truly draconian in their approach to disconnections. Unlike in the UK where utility companies are obliged to give plenty of chances to pay and offer prepayment meters it is not that way in Portugal. If you don’t pay, off it goes. It’s just the way it is.

The problem of the power sorted, I received a knock on the door from an employee of the agency. The language barrier was a problem here as I wasn’t expecting the visit and didn’t know its purpose. After a lot of arm waving I established that she wished to photograph one of our sofas. I hadn’t noticed up to this point the arse-shaped mark on one of the cushions, looking as if someone had been for a swim and sat down before being fully dry. I was unconcerned but did ask about it when in the agency office.

“We were going to mention that…” here we go…..It turns out that in the last two weeks, while the place had been empty, someone had let themselves in to the apartment, and left again, leaving just a used beach towel and the aforementioned arse-shaped mark on the sofa. “You couldn’t make it up,” became our phrase of the day.

As it turned out, a locksmith was swiftly dispatched to fit a new lock, the electric bill paid, and over the weekend, we moved into our new modern, dry, mould-free apartment. We love it. Something about being here feels a lot more like we expected arriving in Portugal to feel like. In the four months we lived in the “mould zone” we did have some wonderful times, but looking back, something didn’t feel right. Perhaps it was waking up with sore throats from breathing in mildew and spending every spare moment spraying diluted bleach around?

NEXT POST: Carnival...

Now we are here, it feels like our Portuguese dream can truly begin….take two…there’s a rumour the weather can get quite nice around these parts, I wonder if it’s true.

Carnival report coming soon….

Continuing my report of a very pleasurable weekend exploring our new home-country, we arrive at Sunday.

The weather was not quite up to the standard of the previous day, and we initially resigned ourselves to visiting the supermarket to get provisions and having a quiet day in. We headed off to Continente, our nearest supermarket, just after midday.

In previous posts I have commented how it is wonderful that the shopping centre opening hours here are so long, and that you can go shopping up until 11 or 12 o’clock every day of the week. Well, since saying that, we have come unstuck and realised that other than at holiday times, despite most of the shops opening until this late hour, the supermarkets in fact close at 1pm. A strange state of affairs which I have yet to understand. Nevertheless, this time we were prepared and had our shopping done before they drew the curtains to the store at 1pm (and they didn’t mess about – when they say “closes at one” that is exactly what they mean…)

Almond Trees

After enjoying a simple lunch of some of the things Portugal does so well – warm bread, tomatoes, cheese and pate, the sky turned a rather more favourable colour so we decided to go off on another expedition. Each time we had driven east, towards Spain, we had noticed several signs to “Mata Da Conceicao” (Conceicao woods,) and were curious to have a look, so this was where we set off for.

Before leaving, I consulted the web and found a small amount of information on a local authority website about the woods, along with a few pretty uninspiring photographs. It is fair to say our expectations were pretty low when we left. After a couple of false starts through the country lanes and twice ending up back on the main EN125 road we found the woods. The journey at this point had already seemed worthwhile just for the drive through the orange groves and seeing several pretty little villages in the hills, but we were in for a real treat.

We turned into the woods onto what initially looked like a dirt track and soon became something that, in a small hatchback, felt distinctly like “off-roading.” We have to admit we are not looking forward to taking back this particular hire car: “yes, those scratches are when we tried to reverse out of our cobbled alley, under pressure due to an impatient local. We are not sure whether the dent was there when we hired the car. On Sunday, we accidentally went off-roading. Oh, and someone keyed it when it was parked on our road.” Don’t ever let anyone tell you the extra insurance isn’t worth the money!

Mata Da Conceicao

After bouncing along for five minutes or so, we met another car coming the other way and were both delighted that the occupants didn’t look surprised to see us, and reassured that we were in fact supposed to drive on this dirt-track. Shortly afterwards, we caught sight of water between some trees, stopped the car, and had a wander. There below us was a beautiful natural lake, almost hidden from view and only visible from certain places between the trees. It was a stunning sight and nothing like I ever expected to see in Portugal. If I ever find myself missing “England’s green and pleasant land,” I know where to come. My wife described it as a non-manufactured Center Parcs, which I think is a good description.

A lake in the woods

We drove away happily and continued to take in the views of the forest, especially the almond trees, now almost snowing with white blossom with the tiniest hint of pastel pink. The lake we had found would have been quite enough, but we then spotted a clearing with a stream, stopped the car again and found what I hope will become a frequent picnic spot. It was a fairy-tale view, and one that our pictures really don’t do justice to.

Neither of us had ever expected to find views like this in the Algarve. Perhaps in Central Portugal, but not here – we had happily swapped these scenes for the beautiful seascapes that are now in our reach. To find out we had this just down the road was truly awe-inspiring.

Already pretty blown away by what we had seen, we drove out of the woods and found ourselves rather lost. It soon became clear we were driving up a mountain! Before we knew it we were on windy roads, some without barriers, and gazing across incredible valleys, where almond trees were growing at what seemed like impossible angles. Once again we were experiencing breath-taking vistas which we hadn’t dared to hope to see here in the Algarve. The undulating landscape was something between things I had seen in South Wales and in Madeira – quite incredible. Again, the photos didn’t do it justice, but then again none of the photos I have seen in guidebooks really give you an idea of how stunning this place can be.

Just before sunset, we arrived at Altura, a beach resort near to the Spanish border. Exposure to so many stunning beaches over the last few months means it is hard to impress us now, and by Portuguese standards, this is a fairly run-of-the-mill beach, but it was still a lovely place to spend the last ten minutes of daylight on one of the best weekends we have had since arriving. We weren’t the only ones – there were plenty of people squeezing the last few drops of sun out of what felt to us like the first weekend of spring.

We fell in love with the Algarve all over again this weekend, and at times it is hard to contain our excitement for what the coming months will bring! After all we have only had winter so far. This coming weekend is Carnival – bringing with it Brazilian style street parties, and lots of samba, and I look forward to reporting back on what it was like.