Portugal by Eva
The view from the main house
Avid followers of our little family blog should havde observed by now that we’ve bought a little house (or rather plenty of land with a couple of functional and charming stone houses on it). This summer marked the first of hopefully many summers spent there.
Relaxing under the vines
Those of you well-acquainted with the Danish summer will know that there are no guaranties of great weather and all-day sun. For a sun&heat-seeker like me it was a relieve to go to Portugal, which was over-flowing with exactly that. Things were off to a good start.
When you go to a place where you have not been before, the safest approach is always to expect as little as possible. Thus, I’d done just so when it came to this particular place to avoid risking dissapointment. However, there was nothing to be dissapointed about. Even at night, the stars help to enlighten a beautiful view and the night was warm enough for us to sit under the vines, while processing the (several hours delayed) flight.
To be honest, I was quite lucky. As I came a week later than the rest of the VHG26-family and brought visitors with me, I missed out on a lot of the hard work and came to a very (paraphrashing Katja) ‘upgraded house’. I send my warm and sincere thanks to Aske, Katja and Nimbus 
Portugal was a cornucopia of great experiences and with a lot of that typical “summer holiday feeling” that you need after a year of work – especially if t the winter in Denmark has been as it tend to be: Cold and dark. it makes you bitter and winter depression is not an unknown term for the Danes. Therefore, summer holidays in the South are always welcome – and yes, even if you’ve been in Mozambique half of that winter, you still enjoy the Portuguese summer a lot!
K&N had their 10-years wedding anniversary while in Portugal! TILLYKKE!
And what did we do? We went to the beach in Viggo, Spain. Swam and sunbathed at the adjacent river beach (Bar do Rio – which proved to be a place of not only swimming but also ice cream, tuna sandwiches and coffee). Went to a spa (I realise there is sort of a water theme here). Occassionally, we even found time to do some work on the house. Like painting, taking down an old hen house and tear down the bathroom attic (I’ll let Katja and my dad expand on that since they were the main participants and have photo documentation).
Ready to work!
Of course, I also found time for horseback riding. Riding in the mountains is extraordinary. The view is breathtaking (sorry for the clichés but they are very accurate) and the horses and guide impressed me in their abilities to get up and down steep slopes without showing the least bit of unsteadieness – that is more than I could’ve done for sure.
So all in all, A wonderful trip. This time we had the honour of two visiting groups: The Voodoo Man family and Henrik with Kids. We cannot wait to see more friends and family in our new Portuguese home the following years. This family is a family of many homes. It’s simply fantastic.
Follow this blog and author for the next exciting story that will (probably – I never make promises) feature my experiences at Roskilde University (I start next week – Wish me luck!)
No worries - We have a guard!
