As we have done most summers, we decided to take an August trip to get away from the warm temperatures and flocks of tourists in the Algarve.  We chose the northern Spanish region of Cantabria for our first week, and then, we decided to flip over into the Basque region of France for our second week.  

We made the 10-hour drive to Cantabria, taking Ryder with us, of course.  We had chosen the town of Argoños because the internet told us it had a nice dog beach and several excellent restaurants nearby.  The internet was half right, as unfortunately, the town of Noja where the former dog beach was located decided in 2024 to ban dogs during the summer.  Luckily we were able to find another dog beach about 20 minutes away.

About about a one-hour drive from Argoños in the town of Comillas is a villa designed by Antoni Gaudí, the famed architect of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.  Named El Capricho (The Whim), the project was built in 1883-1885 for a wealthy client, Máximo Díaz de Quijano, who unfortunately died before ever occupying the villa.  An early work of Gaudí's, El Capricho  showcases some of the design techniques which would become famous later in his career.

Located five minutes from where we were staying, Ibidem is a Michelin-recommended restaurant with some flashy, avant garde presentations of Spanish dishes.  

The culinary highlight of the trip was Cenador de Amós, a Michelin three-star restaurant in a nearby town.  In addition to three Michelin stars, the restaurant has received a Michelin green star, an annual award given to restaurants for their outstanding commitment to sustainable gastronomy, combining culinary excellence with industry-leading environmental and ethical standards.  The chef is Jesús Sánchez, and he was nice enough to stop by the table after our meal, which was an early celebration of our 37th wedding anniversary.

For our second holiday week, we drove another two hours north and east, arriving in the French Basque region and the town of Ondres.  Like in Spain, we chose this town because it was a 5-minute drive from a beach that does allow dogs in the summer.  But after trying Ondres Beach a couple of times, we decided to go a little further north to Labenne Beach, which was nicer and provided easier access.

Our AirBNBs in Spain and France had fenced yards for Ryder.  But the one in France had some neighbors which Ryder hadn't seen before:  chickens.  Luckily, they were on the other side of a sturdy fence.

One side trip we took while in France was to the Basque Museum in Bayonne, one of the larger cities in the area.  The museum had many fascinating displays as we learned about the 5,000 years of Basque history in Europe.

The Basque people may be the oldest culture in Europe, and they are genetically distinct from most Europeans with little mixing from external groups like the Romans or Moors.  The mountainous terrain of the Pyrenees provided a degree of natural isolation, helping to preserve their unique culture.  Their ancient language, Euskara, is a language unrelated to any other living language.  Today the majority of the Basque country is in Spain where they are an autonomous community with a certain amount of self-governance.  

​Basque immigration to the US peaked in the mid-1800s following the discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. The current day descendants of Basque immigrants remain most notably in this area and across the Sierras into the neighboring area of northern Nevada, then northward, into Idaho. 
​

We enjoy the change of scenery on our summer road trips.  And we really enjoy the different foods we come across.  Some great dishes, like the ones in the fine dining restaurants, are to be expected.  Others, can be quite unexpected.

After our two-week holiday, we were set to drive back to Portugal, but Mother Nature had some interesting ideas along the way.  Our week in France had been unusually warm, with temperatures rising close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on some days.  This hot weather had had a terrible impact on Spain and Portugal which had their worst fire seasons in over 40 years.  

The highway we were to take back to the Algarve was closed due to fires until the day before we left France.  Luckily, we did not have any problems on our drive, but in some spots we could see smoke and firefighting planes as we drove.

We were glad to arrive home, though our thoughts always turn to our next adventure!

There are two pieces of good news about our real estate in Portugal.  The first is that we closed on the sale of our San Pedro apartment, which was newly constructed but never lived in by us.  The second piece of news is that we have contracted to buy a home in Tavira!

Our original goal was to buy a home that would give us outdoor space for Ryder and more indoor room for us.  But to achieve this, we assumed we would need to be outside of the city of Tavira, since most residences here are apartments or small homes.  But as we looked at available properties, we found that there were a small number of places in our price range that met our goals but were still in the city.  In fact, the home we settled upon is only about 200 meters from our current apartment.  

Of the two starred properties in the image above, our current apartment is on Rua Avelino Dias Custódio, while our next house is on Rua Major Victor Castela.  This townhome also is in a quiet, established Tavira neighborhood, Mato Santo Espirito, which has a couple of restaurants and cafés.

Our next place is a townhouse, with one attached wall.  But it has a decent amount of outdoor space, including a pool and garden in a completely fenced yard.

The inside area of the house is 160 sq. meter (over 1700 sq. ft.), which is about twice the size of our current apartment.  The ground floor consists of a living room, dining area, kitchen, bathroom/laundry room, and enclosed garage.  The next floor has four bedrooms, one en-suite, and another shared bathroom.  One of the bedrooms is currently used as an office.  The top floor has a rooftop terrace with distant sea views.  There is even a basement (a rarity in Tavira) which houses the pool equipment and more storage area.

The sellers of this house are moving back to their native France, so we are going to be keeping most of the furniture.  This is good since the buyers of our current apartment wanted to keep most of the furniture we have there.  

We expect to close the sale on our current apartment in late September and then rent it back for 30 days.  We then plan to close on the sale of this townhouse in early October, giving us plenty of time to do any touch-ups (painting, etc.) and then to move in our belongings.  Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly.  We are excited about our new place!

When Mark was in Milan in June (after the trip with his sister Karen), he realized that one of his all-time favorites, Bruce Springsteen, was going to be ending his 2025 European tour in Milan in early July.  We hadn't seen the Boss since 2018 on Broadway in New York City.  Mark just had to go and was able to secure tickets.

So, we made a quick two-night jaunt to Milan to do a bit of sightseeing, eat some good (mostly Italian) food, and see the Boss in concert at San Siro Stadium (the largest stadium in Europe).  

Milan is more of a working, industrial city than the other large Italian cities, but its biggest tourist attraction is the Duomo or main church of Milan.  Started in 1386, the Duomo took almost six centuries to complete, with finishing touches applied in 1965.  Unfortunately for us, our visit took place during an extended Southern European heatwave.  And the tour starts on the rooftop of the cathedral, which means you get quite warm almost immediately.  For that reason, our visit to the Duomo was rather cursory, a quick overview with hopes that we will be able to come back at a cooler time sometime in the future.

We had some wonderful food in Milan, which is known for its culinary excellence.  We ate at Italian, Sardinian, and Chinese (dim sum) restaurants.  Debra had some of the best ravioli she ever had at Altriménti.  Mark had some fantastic dim sum at MU Dimsum.

We've seen Bruce over a dozen times in concert, and he never disappoints.  He is 75 years old, and he played in Milan for over 2.5 hours without an intermission!  The show was fabulous.

NOTE:  The last two videos below are of complete Bruce songs including his lead-in comments.  They may take a few minutes to download, depending upon your internet speed.  But they will give you an idea of what makes a Bruce concert so special.  If you'd like to see more Bruce videos from the show, click here.

As mentioned in a previous post, we put our existing apartment on the market with our current estate agent.  Before the apartment was even formally listed, our agent decided to show the property to a client of hers who she thought would like it.  Sure enough, after a couple of viewings by this client, we received an offer on the apartment which we have accepted.  We only had to endure two showings for which we (Debra and Ryder, particularly) are very grateful.   

So now we put our focus on finding our next house.  We have various trips planned throughout the summer, so we were pleased that the buyer of our existing apartment accepted a 90-day period to close (normal is 60 days here in Portugal) and also will allow us -- at our option -- to rent back the apartment for up to an additional 60 days after the close.  That gives us a lot of flexibility in our search.  

Mark made a visit to Zurich to see his niece Lindsey and her family, to celebrate his sister Karen's 70th birthday, and to spend a little more time with Karen on a brief trip to Lake Como in Italy.

It was wonderful to see Lindsey and her family.  Chloe (7) and Owen (5) are getting bigger everyday, so it is nice to spend time with them.  One afternoon, Lindsey took the kids to a local trampoline park to burn off some energy.  Mark tagged along but did not get on the trampolines! ​

On another day, we took a hike to the summit of Mt. Etzel, a local trek only about 20 minutes from where Lindsey and Mike live.  It was one of the first sunny days in quite some time in the Zurich area, so the area was swamped.  We had lunch with some friends of Mike and Lindsey, who were nice enough to arrange a little celebratory sign at our lunch tables.

And on June 9th we celebrated Karen's 70th birthday.  The kids helped put the candles on the cake, and then they sang "Happy Birthday" in Swiss German!

The day after Karen's birthday, the two of us took the train from Zurich to Como.  Surprisingly, the direct train only takes about 2.5 hours, so it's an easy trip from Zurich.  We arrived in the city of Como and then took a ferry to Bellagio, where we were staying.

The town of Bellagio is considered by many the jewel of Lake Como.  It's a lovely place with few cars and narrow pedestrian walkways which hold a variety of shops and restaurants.  Bellagio's central location allows for easy access to many other towns on the lake.  Bellagio can be crowded during the daytime, with lots of tourists who are visiting for the day.  But because the ferries end at about 7-8pm, the town empties out in the evening, holding only those lucky enough to be staying overnight.

Across the lake from Bellagio is the smaller town of Tremezzo.  Its main attraction is the Villa Carlotta, probably the most famous lake house on Lake Como.  For centuries, wealthy Europeans kept villas on Lake Como as summer homes, as was the case with Villa Carlotta (named after Charlotte, daughter of the Prince and Princess of Prussia, who was gifted the villa in the 1840s).  Today, the villa is a museum, surrounded by a lush botanical garden.

The grounds of Villa Carlotta are about 20 acres in total, with several very large trees including California redwoods and cedars and several plant-specific areas like the bamboo garden, the camelia garden, and the rock garden.  

After our visit to Villa Carlotta, we had lunch in Tremezzo at Ristorante n26, which looked right out onto the lake.  The maître d' was quite a character, and the food was lovely.

On our last full day at Lake Como, we took a ferry to Varenna, another quaint town on the lake.  We walked the gardens of the Villa Monastero and had lunch.  The town was nice, but it couldn't compare to Bellagio.

For our final dinner in Bellagio, we ate at the cute restaurant Dispensa 63.  It is the highest rated restaurant in town, and it didn't disappoint.  Our favorite dish was the gazpacho, and our only complaint was that the servings were a bit small.  But that just left us room for yet another gelato on the walk back to our apartment.  

The trip to Zurich and Lake Como was a real treat, and it was very special to celebrate Karen's 70th birthday with her!

After nearly four months, we are under contract on our new San Pedro apartment.  In Portuguese terms, the apartment is "Reserved," which means that a Promissory Contract (CPCV) has been signed between the buyers and sellers.  We received a 10% non-refundable deposit and expect the sale to close within 60 days.  Yay!!!

Now, we are in the process of putting the apartment in which we are living on the market.  We will again use Isabel Romano of Lemon Tree Homes.  She has already given a "pre-showing" to a client of hers, and there is quite a bit of interest in the property.  Once we go under contract on our current apartment, we will begin our quest for our next residence, a country home!

Mark's sister, Karen, is on a two-month trip to Europe, which will include taking her grandkids to Euro Disney, the wedding of her goddaughter on the Amalfi Coast, and a trip with her husband, Steve, to the Italian isle of Capri.  Karen's trip started off with a five-day visit to Lisbon (her first time there) with a girlfriend from California.  Then, Mark drove to Lisbon to pick her up and to spend five days showing her around more of Portugal.

About a two-hour drive east of Lisbon lies the city of Évora.  It is the capital of the central Alentejo region, and it is an ancient city which was occupied by Romans, Visigoths, and Moors before the Portuguese took control in the 12th century.  Today, it is the third most popular tourist area in Portugal, after Lisbon and Porto.  In addition to its antiquities, the Alentejo is known for its outstanding wine and excellent food.

We had a private walking tour of Évora, which explained much of the grand history of the city including its desirability as a country retreat for Portuguese royalty.

Outside of Évora, we visited the Alemendres Cromlech, the largest existing group of structured menhirs (tall upright stones erected in pre-historic times) in the Iberian Peninsula.  It is estimated that the stones are dated from 4000-6000 BC, making them older than Stonehenge.

We had a lavish Portuguese dinner at Taberna Tipica Quarta-feira in Évora.  It was a fixed "secret" menu, which basically meant you ate what they served.  The menu consisted of about seven starters (not pictured), four main courses with side dishes, and five desserts.  All of the food was definitively "country Portuguese," dishes that have been made for centuries in the interior of the country.  The price was about 50 euros per person, a remarkable value.  

After two days in Évora, we headed to Mark and Debra's hometown of Tavira, but at the recommendation of our tour guide, we first decided to head east to the historic town of Monsaraz.  The border between Spain and Portugal is dotted with hilltop, walled towns, which served as traditional lookout positions in the constant conflicts between the two countries.  Like Évora, Monsaraz's history reaches back to Roman times, and the town with its castle and protective walls is very quaint and well-preserved.  

Karen and Steve had visited us in October 2023, but the Algarve is a pretty big place with lots to do.  On this trip, we visited the Monterosa Olive Oil factory in nearby Moncarapacho to see how olive oil is produced and to do a little tasting of their many varieties.  We also traveled to the Central Algarve to visit the Praia da Marinha and see (from the top, at least) the famed Benagil Cave.  And finally, we treated Karen to an early birthday dinner at Pequeno Mundo, a Michelin-recommended restaurant in the city of Almancil.  

It was wonderful to spend time with Karen, but this was just the beginning.  Mark travels to Switzerland in June to celebrate Karen's actual 70th birthday, see his niece Lindsey and her family, and to take a brief trip to Italy with his sister.  Stay tuned!

Originally from Central Asia, tulips were brought to the Netherlands in 1593.  Over the next few decades, tulips became very popular, with "tulip fever" peaking in the 1630s.  Today, tulips are a national symbol for the Dutch, and every year the city of Lisse, about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam, is a focal point for their springtime bloom of tulips.  We decided to take a trip to see this spectacle.

After flying into Amsterdam and driving to Lisse, our first stop was a working tulip farm.  Tulip Farm De Tulperij, is a family business which grows and sells tulips and bulbs.  

​We learned that for the most part, the fields of tulips which we would see in the area were not for flowers, but for the tulip bulbs themselves.  Most tulip flowers are actually grown in greenhouses so that they can be raised all year long.  The Tulip Farm was a nice introduction for us to this annual event.

We stayed in an AirBNB in Lisse, a cute Dutch town at the heart of the yearly tulip festivities.

The center of the annual Dutch tulip festival is Keukenhof Gardens, a 79-acre park established in 1949.  Approximately 7 million flower bulbs are planted in gardens which are designed and changed every year.  ​​​While it is widely known for its tulips, Keukenhof also features numerous other flowers, including hyacinths, daffodils, lilies, roses, carnations and irises.  

Keukenhof is situated on the 15th-century hunting grounds of Castle Slot Teylingen, and it was originally the castle's kitchen garden, providing game, fruit and vegetables.  Keukenhof Gardens was established in 1949 by a consortium of bulb growers and flower exporters to showcase their products and support the export industry. 

The garden opened to the public in 1950 and received 200,000 visitors in its first year.
The tulip festival at Keukenhof is open to the public for eight weeks each year, from mid-March to mid-May.  Now, almost two million people annually visit the park for the festival.  ​

Each autumn, 40 gardeners plant the 7 million bulbs, donated to the park by over 100 growers.  Planting starts in early October and is usually completed by December 5th, around the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas.

The flowerbeds are synchronized to the different bulb flowerings to ensure blooms throughout the duration of park's eight-week opening. To ensure continuous bloom, three bulbs are planted in each location. The shallowest bulb will bloom first for three weeks, followed by the subsequent layers.

We spent over three hours wandering the paths of Keukenhof Gardens, marveling at the incredible designs and colors of each setting.  The sheer numbers of flowers and trees was a little overwhelming.  As the day wore on, the number of visitors ballooned with crowds of "day trippers" from Amsterdam.  We were glad that we got an early start to see this wonderous setting!

After two nights in Lisse, we drove to Zaanse Schans, a re-created windmill village, showing what a working Dutch town would have looked like in the 18th and 19th centuries.  For those who have been to or lived in Southern California, think of it as a Dutch windmill "Knott's Berry Farm."  

From 1961 to 1974, old buildings from all over the region known as the Zaanstreek were relocated to this site. But, two of the windmills in Zaanse Schans are preserved on their original site where they were first constructed.

The windmills were dedicated to specific functions, such as cutting wood or grinding substances on millstones.  The one windmill which was open to visitors (De Kat) on the day we visited was used to pulverize colored stones for paints and pigments.  

In addition to the windmills, the village at Zaanse Schans has original wood structures portraying a Dutch village from centuries ago.  There are buildings that served as a bakery, a tinsmith, a cooperage (barrel making), and a cheese/dairy farm.  There was even an exhibition of wooden shoe (clog) manufacturing.

Since we hadn't been to Amsterdam for several years, we decided to spend a couple of days there before returning to Portugal.  We stayed in the city centre, close to restaurants and museums.

​We visited the Rijksmuseum, the national gallery of the Netherlands, which has an impressive collection of Rembrandts amongst other Dutch paintings.  We also stopped at the wonderful Van Gogh Museum, established by the painter's sister-in-law and nephew.  And finally, we went to MOCO, a museum of contemporary and modern art.

Of course, we also had to sample the restaurants of the Netherlands.  Dutch food isn't well known to the outside world, but we enjoyed our samplings, including the one-star Michelin restaurant MOS..

​We loved our visit to Keukenhof Gardens and Amsterdam!

On Monday, April 28 at about 11:30AM, we lost power in our apartment.  We assumed it was a local occurrence, confined to our neighborhood.  We left to meet a friend for lunch at a local Portuguese restaurant, one of Ryder's favorites for their mixed grill.  

When we arrived at the restaurant, we learned that the power outage was affecting the entire country, along with Spain and potentially other countries as well.  While a bit concerned, we learned that the restaurant was still able to serve us menu items off the grill (Ryder was relieved) along with salad.  We settled into a leisurely lunch.

While at lunch, we still had cell service and were able to look up information on our phones via the internet.  By the time we got back to our apartment, however, we noted that we no longer had any cell service and so no connection to the internet either.  The Wi-Fi was out at the apartment, of course, because we had no power.  At this point, we began to feel a distinct isolation, with no way to communicate or get any information about the power crisis.  

We began to think of worse case scenarios, of having no power for 3-4 days.  We had plenty of bottled water; the water to the apartment never went off, but we had to consider the possibility.  We had a decent amount of food and a barbeque to use, though we would have to begin cooking the contents of our freezer within a day or two.  We had candles and small reading lights we could use as flashlights.  We had two full power banks to keep our phones charged for whenever the electricity came back.  It was interesting and sobering to think through your daily needs in an unconnected world.  

We thought to listen to the radio in our car but quickly found out that there are no English language radio stations here.  We did speak with our Portuguese neighbors, who told us that power was expected to come back in the overnight hours.  We settled in for a quiet, dark evening.

Just before 9PM, the power came back in our apartment.  Shortly afterwards, we had cell service and Wi-Fi internet.  We learned that not all our friends in Tavira were back on the grid yet, but they would soon be.  Even a day later, the cause of the outage has not been determined, though it appears to have started in Spain and affected Portugal through their inter-connected power grids.  

What lessons did we learn from this experience?  Keep power banks charged (we are going to invest in a solar powered one).  Try to always have some cash on-hand as the ATMs all went offline.  Keep at least a 1/2 tank of gas in the car.  Always have water and shelf stable food on hand.  Sobering thoughts for these uncertain times.  

In early February, our new apartment went on sale with our new estate agent, Lemon Tree Homes.  Isabel Romano, the owner of Lemon Tree Homes, was our estate agent when we purchased the apartment where we are currently living.  She did an excellent job for us in that transaction, so we are hoping she can do the same in selling our new apartment.  Here is the listing of our new apartment on the Lemon Tree web site:

​Apartment T2 - Santiago, Tavira, for sale - LTH103

Just as the new apartment went on the market, Tavira and the entire Algarve were hit with some historic wet weather.  Unfortunately, this slowed down interest in much of the real estate here since the Algarve's reputation is built on being a "beautiful place in the sun."  (The reality is that we needed this rain as there has been a multi-year drought recently.) 

Even with the poor weather, we have had many showings of the new apartment but haven't yet secured a buyer.  With spring weather having now arrived, we are hopeful of finding a buyer very soon!