Vila Viçosa

Sunday 10/03/19

Bokkie has grudgingly moved from her resting place under the olive trees as our house-sit has come to an end.  Bittersweet as we are happy to be travelling again and won't miss round-the-clock poop scoops and feeding but we loved the house, the location, the owners and the dogs -  will miss them a lot. 

Why is only one dog on the lawn???  It's walkies time.

'Boy'

Bonding with the hooligans

On Saturday, João was kind enough to take us to the market in Estremoz and also showed us a few sights in the surrounding area which was lovely.  We hadn't toured the area much while we stayed there, partly because we wanted to rest from being on the move constantly, but also nervousness to leave someone else's animals alone for prolonged periods when you are in charge -  so it was really nice to be shown around.  

We had coffee and local delicacies in Alandroal on the way to the market, lunched in their favourite (tiny) restaurant in Estremoz, visited a local wine farm and popped in to see the village of Juromenha, looking out over Spain on the opposite bank of the Rio Guadiana.  It was the most glorious day, quite different from the rain storms we had had during the week and the countryside was looking lovely; it really is a wonderful area.

Statue of Queen Santa Isabel who turned food into flowers (edited version) 

Castelo de Estremoz

The view from the castle

Herdade Das Servas Winery

The fortress at Juromenha, looking out at Spain on the right

On Sunday Maria returned from the States to we made them a farewell lunch, scooped our final poops, said goodbye to the dogs and tried to remember how to live in Bokkie.  We didn't go too far and stopped in Vila Viçosa to do all our laundry and prepare ourselves for the next few weeks. 

Reflecting on the last two weeks, we cannot say enough good things about our house sit: Maria and João (the owners) are such a lovely couple, and so hospitable; taking the time to embrace us into their family life and teach us about their culture.  Whilst we were quite nervous about the actual responsibility of looking after such a large group of dogs, we found them to be so well behaved and socialised that it was really a pleasure to be with them.  We deliberately chose a rural, Portuguese house as a house-sit, and we feel that we know the people and area so much better now.   

So what happens next?  Our daughter Charmaine and boyfriend Chris are going to join us for a few days in Nice at the and of March (which we are very excited about!), so we need to head slowly in that direction.  And there is also another house sit in France coming up in April...