Portugal
The Setúbal Peninsula and the Costa da Caparica
Although most people who fly into Lisbon will gaze longingly down at the golden stretch of sand that lines almost the entire coastline south of the city, few will know its name. […]
Setubal
Living Abroad
Autumn in Portugal, The Seasonal Wheel Turns
Like a living barometer, you don’t need a calendar here on the farm to tell you when the seasons are changing, the animals do that for you … […]
Europe
Being addicted to unfamiliarity
A year ago to the day Andy and I sat on the terrace of a shepherd’s hut on a plateau in Slovenia whilst I tucked into a bowl of gruel otherwise known as buckwheat mush and sour milk. Why? Because it was there… […]
Alentejo
Camel Spit & Cork Trees, a Year of Slow Travel Through Portugal
Our quest to find the ideal place to live, combined with missions to create Slow Travel holidays, took us from the honey-coloured coastline of the wilder side of the Algarve to the verdant valleys of the Minho in the north, and from living beside a smugglers’ trail in Alentejo’s ‘beyond the back of beyond’ border country to a small farm next to a cork forest in the Setúbal Peninsula… […]
Living Abroad
Following the curve, living with lockdown in Portugal
Less than 24 hours later and I wish we’d bought more at the Alentejo supermarket. The madness we’d been reading about in British press reports descends on Portugal. There are queues of shoppers at each till, their trolleys piled high with produce including, of course, multi-packs of toilet paper. […]
Austria
Europe’s just desserts, ten standout puddings
My least favourite part of a meal is dessert… unless there is something which awakens the sweet-toothed child that slumbers within. And there regularly is, no matter where we travel around Europe. […]
Living Abroad
Of postal delivery and speaking another language
The Portuguese, like the Spanish, are complimentary when you make an effort, telling us we can speak it well when we rattle of a few stock phrases when we’re appalling. […]
Europe
Victims of fake news and foggy mornings
Without leaving the house, apart from essential grocery shopping, we’ve managed to find ourselves the victims of fake news in a national paper in the UK. […]
Europe
Walking routes in Arrábida Natural Park
Arrábida Natural Park is a maze of tracks and paths. That’s the upside for walkers. The downside is not all of them are public ways. The trick is knowing which are and which aren’t. […]
Europe
The view from abroad, winter woes
The depths of winter (i.e. now) in central Portugal is a yin and yang affair. Warm enough to eat lunch al fresco in the midday sunshine, as cold as my home island of Bute in Scotland at night. […]
Algarve
Where to go warm winter walking in Europe
This is the time of year when there are regular travel articles about warm winter walking. Generally they’ll feature the same handful of locations. […]
Aveiro
Into the north, a Portuguese road trip
This was meant to showcase why Portugal is such a popular holiday destination. But not everything went exactly to plan. […]
Europe
Choco frito, the taste of Setúbal
The obsession with choco frito is said to have started in the days when cuttlefish had no commercial value. So the fishermen who sailed the waters south of the Tagus, from the Sado Estuary down to Sines, tended to keep chocos for themselves […]
La Palma
Scenes from the water’s edge
As the wintery sun yawns and slips towards the duvet of the horizon there’s a mini pilgrimage in Alcochete on the southern banks of the Tagus. The place of worship is Alcach, a bar with jazzy sounds and chairs facing west. […]
Europe
Eight reasons to visit Arrabida Natural Park in Portugal
It’s not that Arrábida Natural Park is a secret; Portuguese holidaymakers know all about it. But, apart from a handful of more inquisitive travellers, other nationalities are generally conspicuous by their absence. […]