Reriz

 Sunday 19/09/21

The view of the house from the river

We've been having a lovely time at our house sit, so have not posted for a while. 

The sit started with a very tense descent down the steep driveway in Bokkie, literally millimetres to spare at one point, but we managed to get in.  

The house has a fantastic view of the terraced garden, river and forest.

We parked Bokkie up and met the owners, a lovely Anglo-Australian couple who have spent many years living in Spain and now Portugal. After the handover they treated us to a lovely supper in the local restaurant, before leaving for Spain the next morning.  

We have four love-birds, a pond of goldfish and Rufus, a lovely Podengo, to look after.  Rufus is an absolute delight, our favourite dog so far, apart from an annoying habit of running away regularly.  As promised, he does come back after a while, but it is a house-sitter's nightmare.  We are keeping him with us at all times now.

The village of Vila Nova, opposite to Reriz on the Paiva.

Pretty chapel in Reriz

Fixer-upper in Reriz

The property is perched on the side of a hill overlooking the Rio Paiva and is surrounded by forest.  It is absolutely beautiful, the only drawback being the distinct lack of sunshine on the house itself, making it quite chilly and damp.  We are not living in the main house, but in a beautiful guest lodge on the property, which is usually let out during the summer holiday season, so we feel very privileged to have this as our home for a fortnight.

Can you see our Lodge, nestled in the forest?

Charmaine has spent the last week with us, having braved all the Covid testing required for international travel.  The weather hasn't been as warm as we'd hoped but it has meant we've been able to enjoy some guilt-free relaxing.

Chill time!

I know it looks like I am loafing but it's my job to look after Rufus...

Unfortunately Charmaine will be leaving tomorrow so we'll enjoy one more evening and take her to Porto in the morning for her flight back.  Then it's time to start packing up for our next adventure. 

Bonus video:  (no sound)

This is the view from the kitchen, apologies for the reflections in the window.  It's a time-lapse video of the morning show we have while eating breakfast, wonderful!