After 18 months we are finally in the final stages of the restoration of our old house in Costa de Lavos. Informally named ‘Casinha Xavega’, referring to the tradition of Xavega net fishing which is a ancient form of ocean fishing still performed from several of the local seaside villages on this part of the central west Portuguese coast.
I have made an initial start on a blog which details more of the story about ‘Casinha Xavega’, ‘Numero 6’ (a self contained one bedroom apartment) and the village of Costa de Lavos. The links are below:
Another month has passed and I have not managed to write my blog. It is a shame really as the building works on our house have moved forward and I have really enjoyed being part of the construction action during the last 6 weeks. Let’s put it this way I know alittle bit now about making cement and erecting and dismantling scaffolding!!!! Until next month.
In summary this month has been very busy, so much so I am going to have to write the content of this post later. The month has been an interesting one though what with a long walk through Porto, a trip to Birmingham and an unwanted visit to Lisbon. On top of that our house rebuild has gone kind of crazy as things start finally to come together, imagine after 10 months we now have windows!!!!
A Richtfest is not something I have heard of before so when I was invited to one I had to do some prior research on this German tradition.
Maren and Thomas are building a wooden house in Figueira da Foz and they are currently building an annexe. The Richtfest was to celebrate the building of the structure. The ceremony took place on a hot Sunday and true to tradition we had some food and drinks, a bottle was smashed and several toasts were made wishing good health to the building. I quite liked the idea of Richtfests and we will hold one at the appropriate time for our own ongoing building project.
Thomas and Maren celebrating their freshly build wooden structure.
July has had it’s ups and downs and mainly the downs have been based around our everlasting and seriously delayed house refurbishment, a topic that does not need to be expanded on in this post.
Further to this it was the month that we had our first Covid vaccination, something that we both have mixed thoughts about and to be completely honest if we did not have to travel internationally it would of been something that we would have not rushed to take, instead preferring to wait and see how this whole world pandemic and corresponding response plays out.
The ‘ups’ have all been based around the motorhome. So far it has had the engine oil changed along with the oil, fuel and air filters. It has been treated to a liquid vaseline spray to it’s whole undercarriage to protect it from the elements. Further to this a solar panel with inverter and a LPG gas bottle conversion has been added meaning we can stay off grid a little longer if and when we want too. The front seats have also been retrimmed to help it’s cosmetic appearance.
We have made two trips already, the first one to Praia da Veiria and the second to the city Tomar.
The Hymer has spent several days at the garage this month
The the highlight of the Tomar visit was the discovery of the Mata Nacionais, which is a park consisting of manicured gardens and a vast forest which is lined with four signposted walking trails. We choose to complete the 4km ‘Cadeira da Rei’ trail and at the mid point we were greeted with a giant swing which for me symbolizes well the ups and downs experienced this month.
I have been waiting to write this blog since October 2020 when the search for ‘eurosuntor 2’ began. After many months of searching and viewing any suitable motorhome that was nearby we began to understand the tricky Portuguese MH market. These initial viewings proved, as I had expected, that I would need to travel long distance to find a motorhome that we wanted. In early June I was in the throws of organising a trip to Braga to view two vehicles, a round trip of over 400kms when suddenly an advert popped up for a camper in Leiria, which is only 45Kms away from Costa de Lavos. Moreover, it was a Hymer B544, a motorhome I have admired for a long time. We know several people that have had this model and all of them agree it was one of the best motorhomes they have owned and they all wish that they had not got rid of them.
Having viewed a few of these already, you never know what you are going to find and therefore I was full of anticipation on the arranged viewing day. We had arrived early in Leiria and we killed the time by walking Rita along the city centre river. Every so often I made searching glances across the carpark of the sports stadium in hope of seeing the Hymer arrive. On one of these glances I saw it trundle in through the entrance and the initial signs were really positive, it still had all the Hymer decals and was in it’s original white and blue paint.
Cutting a long story short, we are now owners of this 1995 Hymer B544 and we have to say that it is immaculate for it’s age. It is almost as if it has not been used and has been kept in some weird motorhome time warp. It has all the history to prove it’s 103,000 Kms (circa 60K miles), the all important 2.5 Fiat turbo diesel, the original Hymer operating instructions handbook and even uprated rear suspension meaning it is rated at 3500kgs and not 3200kgs as some Hymer models of this age are. I am absolutely in love with it and we hope that it proves as reliable and enjoyable to use as the original eurosuntor 1.
eurosuntor 2 – 1995 Hymer B544. Just need to find some original Fiat hubcaps to top off the 90’s look.Back on the road!!!
The combination of the wild flowers and a clear day made our stroll around the perimeter of the fortress particularly pleasant
Over the last month or so the country has began to relax it’s Covid rules meaning we can now visit places further afield from our municipality of Figueira da Foz. The fortress at Montemor-o-Velho has tempted us from afar as we passed it on our way to Coimbra to get our driving licences changed earlier in the year.
Therefore in the middle of May we finally visited the fortress that is reaped in history being one of the original sites that Fernando 1st captured from the Moors in the year 1064.
Unfortunately though, when we arrived there were signs up stating we could not enter inside the walls due to the annual pesticide weed kill spraying that had taken place the day before. Nethertheless, we enjoyed a slow walk around the impressive castle’s exterior walls and the picturesque hillside village that lies below. We even treated ourselves to a glass of wine in the town square at Cafe Argentino, enjoying the toing and froing of the town.
We look forward to visiting more places in the local vicinity over the next few months. There are many places nearby that we have not been able to travel too which is really exciting, just as an example this really important national monument is only 26km away from our house!!
Seizing the opportunity of the more relaxed Covid rules in the Arganil district of we visited the mountain town Coja for an evening, a place we have unable to visit for months. The first thing we noticed was that everything was open including the inside of bars and cafes. The main street was thriving with local people enjoying a wine or a cold beer. Wow, wow, is this really happening, is this the future…..?
Crossing the old Coja bridge on a way to a riverside bar……we had to pinch ourselves to remind us that this was actually happening. Coja is a very pretty river town with cobbled streets and a certain ‘zest for life’. Maybe this ambience was enhanced due to the prolonged lock down that has been recently lifted in this part of Portugal
With the district of Figueira da Foz still being classed as a high risk Covid area we still need to be patient to enjoy this sense of liberation. Fingers crossed that we will be free soon……..
This month has been relatively busy and most of our activity can be bundled up into one or more of the categories named in the title of this blog.
Back in October we applied for our Portuguese driving licences, an act that has become more important since Brexit as our EU UK driving licences loose their validity for permanent living within the EU. The process itself was relatively easy to complete with a combination of online and paper applications and a trip to a private Doctor for general medical and psychometric tests. What was a little more frustrating was the time and the complete lack of progress reports to know where we were in the process. The conclusion of our application meant that we had to drive to Coimbra twice to complete our biometrics (a mugshot!) for our new EU Portuguese driving licences. In a world where you need a reason to be anywhere other than your nearest local supermarket we seized the opportunity for a couple of trips to Portugal’s third city. In fact on the second trip we treated ourselves to a take away ‘menu’ (grilled whole baby chicken for Sharon and Portuguese style pork for me) and sat at a park bench in the sun to devour our lunch.
Sharon on the banks of the Mondego river, Coimbra city is in the background
March was also the month for our car’s annual ‘inspection’ which is the equivalent to the MOT. Bearing in mind that our Opel Corsa (think Vauxhall Nova) is 31 years old the prospect of the roadworthy test has concerned me slightly. In preparation I replaced the two front tyres with a good used set I purchased in Cantenhede, a town just north of Figueira da Foz. Further to this I resprayed the drivers side with an aerosol to cover the scrapes that the previous owner had left me and replaced the windscreen wipers. With respect to the DIY paint job, the end result was pretty good and a much needed improvement. To my mild surprise it passed the test with flying colours so the old Opel lives on which we are both pleased about.
Our 1990 Opel Corsa A waits inline for it’s ‘inspection’
Keeping with the automotive theme the search for another motorhome continued and this involved another trip to Coimbra, our third in a month. A 1989 Hymer B Classic appeared for sale on the internet site OLX and the advert description was very favourable. From the photos the exterior and interior looked completely original and it was based on a 2.5 TD Fiat chassis with power steering which with motorhomes of this age is not always the case. The price was good too at €12500 so I started getting excited with prospect of owning a motorhoming icon. My initial enquiry went cold as it seemed that somebody from Viseu had beat me to the first viewing and they seemed like a serious buyer as they were travelling the long distance to Coimbra by coach. By mid morning though the seller telephoned me giving the excuse that the other person had failed to arrive and therefore we literally dropped everything and raced off to Coimbra. In the end though, the dream died as the vehicle was not exactly what I had imagined, there was no doubt that it was a good vehicle but it had been resprayed white and therefore it had lost a huge part of it’s originality as they were sold from the factory in a shade of beige (unfortunately the advert had showed an out of date photo!). There were also some patches of rotten wood in the floor which is an issue we have experienced before with ‘eurosuntor 1’, an issue that was only put right once the motorhome was returned to the dealer for a three week long repair. Even though my heart was yearning for this type of motorhome my head reminded me of all the risks of ownership of a 32 year old vehicle and therefore we passed up on the opportunity.
An example of a Hymer B Classic
Whilst I have been daydreaming about another motorhome Sharon has been concentrating on another much more practical project: catching the two street cats that were living in and around our house before we moved in. Blue the male is quite friendly in a food orientated way but Annetta is more skittish, this untrusting behaviour is maybe due to the fishing line that is wrapped around her neck and shoulders (hence her given name). Confident we could catch the cats after our five month attempt at winning their trust we booked a vet appointment for two sterilisation ops and of course for the vet to remove the fishing line once Anneta was under an anaesthetic. Overall it was a stressful few days as our gentle planned capture technique failed and then we had to rely on a much more brutal version implemented last minute by the builders who are working on our house (yes this refurb has been going on since early August, much to our frustration). Post ops, Annetta had to take a course of tablets which she refused to and then became very stressed and unhappy about been locked in our house so in the end we had to let them free back to their natural environment of the streets. Much to Sharon’s delight though on the evening of their release they returned to be fed and they have continued this pattern ever since and at times they spend most of the day in and around our house.
Blue and Annetta looking quite chilled out despite the trauma of their dislocation and subsequent operations. Finally Annetta is free of her fishing line.
12 months ago we were waking up with a slightly fuzzy head in Alcobaca. We had passed the night with our motorhome friends Rick and Mary with a take-away chicken and a box of red wine. It was Rick’s suggestion to pass by Costa de Lavos which was about 70 Kms to the north of us, on the coast. The drive there was quite eventful as we had decided to use the coastal roads as much as we could passing Nazare and Vieira de Leiria. It was leaving Vieira where we mistakenly did some off roading, using a sand track to connect us back with the Estrada de Atlantica. I have memories of looking in my rear view mirror and reading the expression on Rick’s face in the cab of the motorhome behind that said “where the hell is he going!?!”. Once on the main road and almost at our destination, we turned left off the N109 following a brown road sign towards Costa de Lavos. This short road cuts through a pine forest and then rounds a soft right hand bend where suddenly the view of the sea appears. We remember thinking, “this is nice”………
After over 4 years of roaming around freely, it was this road sign that prompted us to stop…….
………Roll on one year, I am writing this post seated at our kitchen table in an old fisherman’s house right in the historic part of Costa de Lavos. There are thuds, clangs and random conversation from the builders upstairs who are restoring the 1st floor of our house. We are in a world where you can’t go outside unless you have an ‘essential’ reason, and if you have a reason you have to wear a mask. We are also campervanless for the first time in many years, but in COVID times this motorised freedom is very much diluted and therefore we will wait until later in the year before purchasing ‘eurosuntor 2’. It has also been more than 18 months since we have seen our family and old friends, other than video calls and even the act of meeting and maintaining new friends is hindered by the restrictions placed on us. So much has changed, it seems.
The only traffic island in Costa de Lavos sports a replica Arte da Xavega fishing boat. We are really looking forward to the summer months when the real Xavega boats start their fishing season from the beach.
eurosuntor 