Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Nazare; Critters, The Funicular, and Barbershops


The critters are always of interest to us. As I’ve said before, the area behind our house is open land. There’s a little farm and a big chained-up dog. I struggle with that poor dog being chained up all the time, but there’s nothing anyone can do because its healthy and barks playfully when the farmer arrives. There’s also a little terrier who stays faithfully by the big dog. A really fat and hairy horse lives there and occasionally two white horses show up.


I’ve seen a goat/sheep herder go by in the distance a few times. Joe and I ran across him with his herd the other day when we followed a dirt road (just to see where it would take us). The front-runners were goats and the sheep lagged behind. The border collie kept them all in line while the herder occasionally called out some mysterious order.


Seagulls are pretty weird here… in California they sound a certain way. To me it’s just the way a seagull sounds. Nazare seagulls sound like a cat in heat, or a baby crying, or a seal barking, pretty much anything other than a seagull.


I love the pets who wait faithfully for their masters to come out of the bar or store. In this case an old guy pointed to this dog and said “Stay.” And as you can see she did. All the men who came in and out said hello and patted her on the head, but she was unmoved. She was waiting for Poppa to return and you could tell she knew there was no back door—he wasn’t going to get past her.


Cats are a big deal here in Nazare. They have these random little houses built for them. We thought it was pretty silly, but we’ve seen the cats go inside, so I guess it has a purpose.


A gorgeous blue-eyed cat showed up on our patio the other day. It lurked around amongst the potted plants for most of the morning.


Apparently, there’s a horse ranch up on the cliff city, Sitio. I loved the photo I took of the horsemen going through the old town square past the souvenir shops, but here’s one of them next to the overlook of the lower city of Nazare.


There’re a few pets we see consistently around town. One medium-sized dog is the politest beggar I’ve ever seen. Last night we stopped at a little pizza place to get a beer and a glass of wine at one of their sidewalk tables. A car pulled up and a couple got out with an enormous dog that looked like a black bear. They longingly eyed our table and moved on. Five minutes later they returned to obviously wish an outdoor table was available. We got the hint and moved indoors. They were so grateful!


This guy is one of my favorites; he always carries a deflated ball in his mouth. It’s like a security blanket or something. I first saw him way up on the cliff by the fort lookout. His owner is this pretty lady who sounds French. She never has him on a leash because he never leaves her. The other day I saw a dog who looked remarkably like him staring a t a shop door, and then I saw the ball about fifteen feet away. My curiosity was piqued. I wondered if he’d notice if I touched his ball. He didn’t give me the chance.


We wore ourselves out today. I thought maybe we ought to try finding the big grocery store way up the hill. I figured if went up to Sitio to have lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant and then went sideways, we’d kill two birds with one stone. The restaurant was closed. We went somewhere else and shared some Belgium fries—delish. Then headed sideways across the crest of the mountain. Long story short, it was a super long day of walking (4-5 hours) and the grocery store was a disappointment. I’m trying to come to terms with a big change since our last time here. I could always find Skippy peanut butter. Now I can’t… anywhere. This borders on a tragedy, especially because I had one in my suitcase and took it out thinking I wouldn’t need it here.


The funicular (big sideways elevator), that takes tourists up and down the mountain, still isn’t running. We got into an interesting local topic of debate here. It turns out that the funicular works fine. The problem is the cliff it comes up under, and through, is becoming unstable. The logical solution is to reinforce the cliff around the top where it’s in danger of falling down onto the city below.


There’s an overhang another fifty yards away which is also deemed unsafe. It has a lookout shelf on it that tourists line up on to get that perfect iconic photo. The protesters showed up with their little “save the cliff” and “don’t change history” signs, etc..  I think if the cliff plummets down into people’s homes, and takes the funicular full of people with it, that would certainly be a historical moment—not a good one. They succeeded in stopping the reinforcements to the lookout, but the funicular cliff is getting fixed. It was quite the political upheaval here in Nazare.


Almost every day, we walk past a barbershop or two. Yesterday, Joe finally decided it was time for a haircut. We found a shop with bicycles hanging in the windows and a bunch of young Brazilian barbers. Marco seated Joe in his chair and asked his name. When Joe told him, they all looked at each other with big smiles and repeated it several times. My name, Heidi, usually gets that reaction, but not Joe. I finally caught what they were saying in Portuguese, “Like Joe Biden.” I got a good laugh out of that one.


It was laundry day again today. This time we put it on the proper setting for 60 minutes and we went across the street to the beach gym for an hour. Having learned our lesson, we loaded up the wet clothes and went in search of a nearby laundromat to get ‘em good and dry. Nearby turned out to be wishful thinking. We wandered in circles—covering more ground than necessary. When we finally found one, we lucked out and had a local using the drier also. I subtly spied on her and when she asked if I needed help, I said no… I’d watched her every move. ;)

Monday, March 18, 2024

Nazare, Should We Move Here?


Nazare—my first impression was it was a busy little hub of activity. Second impression, a little boring. Third impression? A busy little hub. It’s interesting how much more a community develops after you get to know it. In Nazare, there’s a pretty famous cultural thing regarding the traditional fisherman’s wives. They dress in these unusual skirts that are similar to petticoats. They wear scarves around their heads and usually have knee-high thick socks. They station themselves at street corners with handmade signs offering their rooms for rent. If you’re interested, then they hop to their feet and beckon you to follow them.


Another function of these sweet-looking ladies is to rope you into buying something from their little booths of nuts and dried fruit. Trust me, this is a serious threat to your wallet. They are super cute little ninjas. I went to the outdoor beach gym and one of these ladies was working out in her petticoats. They train for this!


The older men won’t give you the time of day. Especially to me… a woman. Now wait, hold on before you jump to conclusions. Portuguese men do not strike up conversations with women. It’s not acceptable. Picking up on a girl is a seriously difficult job here.


Looming over Nazare is the upper town, sometimes referred to as Sitio. It is perched on the cliffs overlooking Nazare, but is connected to Nazare on its inland side. A funicular glides up and down the cliff-side to give you access. Usually. For some inexplicable reason, it’s not functioning right now. That means we have to go up the stairs—to the cliff. We went a couple of days ago. I was so tired that I got conned into buying five dollars worth of cashews from one of the petticoat ninjas. Then we went down to the fort at the point. This is where the largest recorded wave came in at one-hundred feet high (30.48 meters). It was rough weather, but no hundred-footers. We wandered around the town square and settled into an Italian restaurant run by a New Jersey woman. Delicious.


We returned today. This time we visited the church and found the hospital with its awesome ocean-view. On the road going to the fort is a series of fast food booths. We stopped and got one of the best burgers I’ve had in my life. This time when we came back home, we skirted the stairs and went through the neighborhoods. We eventually ended up at the place we always end up at—the Cubato Bar. Joe’s favorite for their draft stout beer and it has a fantastic sunset view.


Something I haven’t seen here in Nazare is roasted chestnuts. These mobile roasters are everywhere in Lisbon. I tried them for the first time on this trip and loved them. I see I forgot to tell you about my evening at Antonio and Martinho’s house before we left. They did have a special dinner for us (and invited their friend, Pascal) and gave me a gorgeous scarf and a bottle of port from Antonio’s hometown. I think it’s amazing port and was sooo happy to be given a bottle!


Another place we like is the Irish Pub. Not because it’s good, because it’s not. But they have a great vibe and often have a band. It can get packed in there regardless of the weather or the quality of their boxed-wine. As you know, I’m a people watcher. The other night a young couple was sitting in my line-of-sight. She was really moving to the music—more than seems possible while seated. This was all lost on her partner whose eyes were locked on the futbal game on TV behind her. It’s possible she thought he was watching her, but I could see his eyes. Hilarious.


So this brings me to the question… would we move here? IF we could move to Portugal, which is currently not feasible, Nazare would be a fun place to live. I know you all think we live adventurous lives, but normally our entertainment is working out and hanging out with friends. We’re not fans of concerts, events, or sports. If that is your style than you probably wouldn’t like to live here. We like the variety of tourists and locals, the expensive gourmet restaurants and the cheap cafes. 


The promenade along the beach is excellent. I like how flat the front part of town is and how it goes straight out to the sand. If we want to get some hill climbing in, we can cruise around the back streets or head up the cliff. The biggest drawback to living here is the grocery store. Star is very, very limited. Surprisingly they do have BBQ sauce, which we couldn’t find in Lisbon. The fish market is open everyday but Monday and therefore Star doesn’t carry any fish. If we want fish, we have to go to the market before it closes at noon.


Another factor to keep in mind when choosing where to live is accessibility to Lisbon for the airport and other Lisbon chores. It’s about an hour and half from here by bus. A large hospital is located about a twenty-minute drive in the city of Caldas da Rainha. They do have a small hospital here on the cliff with an amazing view of the ocean.


I’m not sure what the swimming pool situation is here. I didn’t bring my swim-gear this trip. One thing I like is the gym on the beach… typical free Portuguese open-air gym. I’ve worked out there three times and I’m so sore—in a good way.


Doing laundry is a challenge. This washer is in French. It appears to have three choices; 3H, 6H, 9H. Though we found it hard to believe that the H represented hours, it turns out to be the case. One load of laundry took 3 hours. It also happened to get cold and rainy again, so it took 24 hours to dry. We are now on the hunt for a close laundromat to dry the clothes for the next time. We did figure out how to wash the clothes for a 60-minute cycle for the next load. That felt like such an achievement.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Nazare, Portugal; Wimpy French fries, Barking dogs and Hurricane-Force Wind


Follow-up; Flixbus has an odd way of doing business. We arrived at the bus depot and found our numbered sign. There’s no office or employees anywhere. It reminds me of Uber. I think it may be run by AI. When the bus showed up, I was relieved to see we had a human driver. He held a scanner and everyone lined up to have their phone QR code scanned. But, you see, I had a question. My receipt showed I’d paid for two seats but had only been assigned one seat, so unless I was going to sit on Joe’s lap for two hours, I needed to ask my question. The driver’s response was comical. Even though the bus was sold out, he shrugged and said it would be fine. Get on the bus. We did and managed to find two seats together. The bottom line is that no one is willing to pay the extra two bucks to reserve a seat, so it really is like musical chairs. Nice bus though and only had one stop.


Nazare is a wild and volatile place in the winter/spring! The weather seems to change every five minutes. This morning it’s been alternating between blue skies and rain. When we arrived yesterday the wind was so strong we were having a hard time not getting knocked off our feet. We retreated from the main ocean-front road to a side street with a little better luck.


Hunger drove us back out again to a nearby restaurant. I ordered garlic shrimp. Joe got a burger and wimpy Portuguese fries. Off to the grocery store to stock up on the basics like eggs and coffee. We retreated to our beautiful apartment and took a nap. Finally, we headed back out again to find dinner. We stumbled upon an Irish Pub… perfect! Beer, wine, and fish and chips with the added bonus of a live band. Believe me, we slept well last night.


On a funny side note; the Portuguese really do make floppy French fries. At the Irish Pub I asked if I could have the fries extra-crispy. I even mimicked a crunchy sound. The sweet young waiter made the same crunching sound as he pretended to bite into something. My high hopes were dashed when he proudly delivered an extra portion of wimpy fries! He asked if that’s what I wanted. I shook my head no and smiled. In the meantime I looked up ‘crispy’ on my translator app. I told him my mistake and we all had a good laugh, but we still paid for the extra fries.


We’re now officially on Portuguese time. We went to bed after midnight and got up late. After eggs and ham, we set off to discover what Nazare had to offer on a Sunday afternoon. First stop—a couple of espressos at a beach bar. Then wandering until we got thirsty and needed to sit for a few minutes. We lucked out and found a dumpy little local’s hang-out… a Cuban bar. We were customers number two and three. We got the window seat and watched the constant flow of geriatric men come in. They always shook every man’s hand and then settled at what became a thriving game of dominos or poker. When we left it was packed.


After that we set out to explore the back streets of Nazare. I found a store selling gorgeous thick cable-knit sweaters. That was tempting because it’s pretty dang cold here. I’ve mastered the art of layering. Actually, I learned that art pretty young from having been raised in Humbolt.


Looking out from our Airbnb patio reminds me of Ferndale in northern California. I’ve seen a lot from this patio: a goat herder, a big dog chained up to a lean-to shack, a little terrier who barks non-stop, and a really fat long-haired pony. This apartment is great for us, but it’s kinda weird. It has two bathrooms—two rooms where you can take a bath or shower, one of which has a toilet. I thought it had two toilet rooms… read the fine print. One toilet, two showers.


The sea is rough right now because of the series of storms coming through. It’s cold, extremely windy, and gorgeous. We stopped at the espresso beach bar to get a hamburger and fries. The burgers looked yummy this morning. I’m not sure what we ate, but I seriously doubt it had anything to do with hamburger. It was more like hamburger-flavored spam. It tasted okay but the texture was too weird for us. Hopefully we’ll have better luck for dinner.


Man it gets cold at night here! The wind howling off the ocean is breath-taking but not in a good way. I only have two pairs of pants and one of them is light-weight, therefore I’ve worn the jeans for a week. Fortunately baggy jeans are popular here. Last night we scurried into a local café. We were the only customers. After the usual long explanation that Joe wanted a dark beer and the usual result of them bringing us a light beer, we ordered a charcuterie board. The four employees and the owners watched soccer and yawned while we ate. I have to say it was cheap though. $2.75 for a glass of red wine and $2.00 for Joe’s stout. With the large board, two beers, and one wine, it came to $17.


This morning I stood in the sun on the huge patio and admired the sun on the mountain behind us. Before I went out, I slipped the cork into the sliding glass door track to prevent it from shutting behind me. Why? Because the really nice double-pane sliders have no handle on the outside and it locks automatically when you shut it… so obviously you have to make sure it does not shut while you’re on the outside. Obviously. Isn’t that how all sliding glass doors are designed? Life hack; when you travel, check the re-entry on sliders. This isn’t our first time coming across this.


Now I’m admiring my husband working out in the front room. He’s such a jock.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Lisbon: A Working Vacation



Ola. Though we’ve only been here a few days, it’s been busy. Today is a down day. It’s raining and cold. It rained so hard last night, it woke us up. Thunder sounds different in the city. It kinda echoes in all the nooks and crannies of the high-rises. One of the joys of traveling without a lot of plans is days like today can be ‘stay home and be cozy’ days. We’ll have to make a grocery-store run at some point because I’m making dinner for our hosts tonight… fall-off-the-bone ribs and potatoes.


Antonio just woke up. He must be late for work because he’s rushing around. Now he’s slurping down a shot of espresso, then grabbing his lunch bag, pulling on a big down jacket, and now he’s got his umbrella in hand and heading out the door. Here comes Martinho. He’s on time I think. He actually managed a bowl of cereal and a cup of espresso before he dashed out the door. Now we have the house to ourselves. Phew… I’m tired just watching them.


Our flight on Monday/Tuesday was uneventful. Just the usual tiny meal, but this time we had a great flight attendant who made me feel special by pouring me two glasses of wine. That’s nice because they are small glasses and I had another nine hours of flight-time. We binged movies and ate food from home (turkey, cheese, and ham roll-ups I’d made and then frozen for this purpose) for the rest of the flight. Ten hours is a long time.


That first night here was an insane mixture of too warm, too cold, too noisy, back pain and fitful sleep. I woke up refreshed after ten hours of effort. We made a late breakfast and headed down to find our attorney’s office. It required a pit-stop for a cappuccino and people watching in Saldanha. This is one of our favorite neighborhoods.


Our purpose on this journey was to determine where we wanted to move. I’d chosen four beach towns to visit. Then Portugal changed their tax laws. So instead of cancelling the whole trip, I made an appointment with an international law attorney to clarify the recent changes. Many countries have what’s called a double-taxation treaty. This basically means if you earned money and paid taxes on that money in your country, then you don’t have to pay income taxes again in the country with the treaty. The USA and Portugal had one of those treaties. Now they don’t.


To be clear; we are looking at the D7 Retirement Visa, not the Golden Visa. Our attorney, Catia Baptista, met with us for an hour to discuss the new paradigm. She brought an international tax law attorney to help the discussion, Laura Borges. The result is we will have to pay an extra tax on our passive income. Once by the USA and again by Portugal (up to 28%). This won’t work for us because it would eat up too much of our income. It’s both tragic and freeing because the D7 has a lot of rules regarding how much time we have to spend here. There is a way to circumvent the changes that occurred this year in 2024, but it’s sketchy at best. God’s not a big fan of sketchy, so we’ll pass on that. Amazingly, this first appointment was at no charge! Can you imagine that?


So, we’re on vacation for three months. That works for me. I still love this country, though it looks like we won’t be calling it home. Today was a crazy mix of chores. We woke up late because we were up late chatting with our hosts. Yesterday we’d gone into Millennium Bank to set up a Portuguese account (really it’s a European account). The bank-guy told us to come back today, so we did. Forty-five minutes later he told us to come back again—he’d call us. We went back home and did laundry, took showers, and ate breakfast, then he called. Embracing the concept of multi-tasking, we took our wet laundry to the bank. Three more hours later we walked out with new debit cards and the wet laundry. Off to the laundromat to dry the clothes and have a cappuccino.


Being exhausted, we decided to get on the metro in the pouring-down rain and go to the river. There’s a restaurant there that we love called Capricciosa. It was a perfect place to share a calzone and have a glass of wine while discussing what the future will hold for us. I got a text from Antonio wishing me a happy Woman’s Day and telling me that they were making dinner for us tonight and they’d invited a friend.


We rushed home and exited the metro onto a street full of people marching for everything having to do with women… everything! There were even people marching with a Palestine flag—not sure what that country has to do with women’s rights? Now we’re warm in our cozy little apartment with the smells of dinner being prepared. Antonio just said, “Maybe we have something for your women’s day, just maybe?” Now I’m excited. (They made me a fancy dinner and gave me pretty scarf)


Last night we made dinner for them and they opened a very nice bottle of wine, so I went shopping between breakfast and the bank and bought a nice bottle of wine for tonight… I think it was a nice bottle.

Anyway, I will sign off for now. Tomorrow we leave for Nazare on a super cheap bus called Flixbus. I’m hoping it’s not too good to be true.

Friday, March 1, 2024

The Ultimate Adventure; Where to Live in Portugal?




I’m sitting here in my California kitchen watching it rain through the window. I don’t normally start my blog from home, but this trip is a little different. Joe and I are embarking on the ultimate Dashing Bold Adventure. We’re moving to Portugal! This is the first step in that journey. We’re going to Portugal for three months. On Monday (the 4th) we fly from San Francisco to Lisbon. We will land in Lisbon at 11:00 on Tuesday (the 5th). We’ll be staying for a couple of days at our friend’s Airbnb again in Lisbon.

Our goal is to find a town to move to… a place to call home. We love all of Portugal, so this isn’t as hard of a decision as it sounds, but we want to narrow it down. We’ve realized that we would like to be in a medium sized ocean town (lots to choose from). So here’s the schedule:

Nazaré: From Lisbon I plan to get us on a bus to Nazaré (pronounced Nazaray). We’ll stay there for three weeks in the southern part of the town. This is a surfing town with an incredibly long history as first a fishing town, and then with the advent of surf boards, a surfer’s paradise. We’re looking forward to checking out its funky vibe.

São Martinho do Porto: Pronounced San Martin-yo, this is a pristine town with calm waters due to its perfect fan-shaped bay. The Portuguese call it Baby Beach. Because of this reputation, it’s a vacation spot for families and older couples.


Armação de Pêra: Pronounced Armasown, this is south in the Algarve. This is our middle-of-the-road town. It is level, with easy access to the beach and the housing is close to the beach. It appears that the population is basically middle aged. This is probably the most affluent of the four places we’re looking at.

Portimão: Pronounced Port-mown, this is the party town. Here is were everyone goes for their bachelor/ette parties. It’s a serious hotspot for Europeans and Brazilians. Because of the huge expat community, English is commonly spoken everywhere. The downside is the city is on giant bluffs, which translates to lots of stairs. Lots. But, the cost of rental condos with fancy pools is way cheaper.

We will finish in Lisbon for a few days. Stay tuned…