Two years in Portugal

We celebrated the beginning of our third year in Portugal on the 27th of February and spent the first few months of the year enjoying the improvements that we had made to heating water for the house, including the underfloor heating.

It didn't take long to figure out once the electrical bill started climbing, what we had saved with the wood-burning kitchen stove vs what winter would cost in the future with the new electrical systems (stove and heat pump).  The firewood increased to €185 per tonne (approximately half a cord) last year so the 6 tonnes (3 cords) would have cost €955 this year.  As the electrical bills came in it became apparent that we were not going to be saving much even with the efficient heat pump (€1500 between October and April) so we will have to accelerate getting the solar panels installed.

Since I last posted we took a trip to England

London, for Thanksgiving?  American traditions

in November to celebrate Thanksgiving with three of our children (Matt was planning to join us for Christmas in Portugal).   

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday

 

Back in Portugal, we are part of an informal hiking group, and enjoyed a few hikes in October and November before the weather got consistently rainy.  There are plenty of really nice walks within a short distance of us, some along the coastline and others further inland. 

Lagging behind to record the hike

Our group takes turns to lead walks and we've led two so far since we joined.

In December we had a visit from Nick and his girlfriend Vanessa.  We spent a couple of days in Lisbon where we walked to a few Christmas Markets and visited a design museum.

Christmas Market at Parque Eduardo VII

  We picked Matt up at Lisbon's airport and traveled further north to Nazaré 

Nazaré lighthouse and waves

where we got to see surfers being pulled into the gigantic waves.  

Just after releasing the tow rope

Back in the Algarve we were invited to celebrate a wonderful Christmas day with our Scandinavian neighbors who sang entertaining songs each time a toast was made. 

A Scandinavian Christmas in the Algarve

As the rains came we hunkered down, spending time on personal projects at home, interspersed with hikes and alternate jam sessions with two guitarists I have been playing with.

Playing with Marcus

 Emma and Jess also came to spend a few days with us in March and the sunny weather showed up for them.

At the Alte waterfall

Our Portuguese classes continue.  We have finished the course work for A2 - which is shorthand for basic verbal and written literacy but unfortunately is not enough to really have a good conversation with a native speaker, unless they are very patient and speak slowly.  But we are determined to keep working at it and spend almost every morning with some activity like crosswords, conjugation exercises or a little reading.

We have planned two trips for this year.  The first to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet Matt and his partner and the second to Namibia to travel inland into the game reserves, going up to Etosha Pan and the Okavango swamps.

 Since we have already left for the USA I'll have an update on the trip there fairly soon.