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!

Mark has been running with friends here in Tavira for over a year, and in late 2024, a few of them decided to run the Lisbon Half Marathon, scheduled for March 2025.  Mark hasn't run any race of this distance for over 40 years but decided to give it a go with the simple goals of having fun and finishing without injury.  

For 3-4 months, training consisted of 15-20 miles per week of mostly slow running to build a solid physical base.  A bit of speedwork was thrown in, mostly just to get an occasional endorphin rush.  Sore knees were iced, and lots of ibuprofen was taken.  As race day approached, the rainy weather which had covered much of Portugal for several weeks was increasingly a concern.

Mark's friends, Agnieszka and Beth, were running the race as well, and we all traveled to Lisbon the day before the race to pick up our race bibs and get a good night's rest.  The rain continued through Saturday and early on race day Sunday.  

The Lisbon Half Marathon has an amazing start for the 20,000 runners who were competing.  It begins on the April 25 bridge which runs for two miles from Almada (south of Lisbon) across the Tagus River and into Lisbon itself.  To get to the starting line, we had to take a train to Almada then walk onto the bridge, and it was raining the entire time.  

Once onto the bridge, we were afforded wonderful views of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Almada and the Lisbon skyline.

But what should happen once we got to the start line?  The rain stopped, and the skies started to clear.  It was amazing, and totally unexpected.  

It ended up being a wonderfully sunny day, though the rain did start again about 30 minutes after the race ended.  Everyone completed the race, and Mark finished in 2:02 with no injuries or issues, which made for a fantastic day.  

On November 15, 2024, in the middle of a driving rainstorm which left several roundabouts virtually underwater, we made our way to the local Notary (how it's done in Portugal) and closed on the purchase of our new apartment.  It took over three years from the time we committed to purchase the unit in October 2021, about four months after we arrived in the country, until when we were able to complete the transaction.  And after all that waiting, we have now decided to sell this apartment. 

This was a decision that we did not approach lightly.  After much consideration and with the belief that we will be in Portugal for at least another five years, we have decided that apartment living is not for us.  Having nearby neighbors (though frankly, they've mostly been great) and having to walk Ryder to do his "business" is not the lifestyle we've been used to in the past.  So, we've decided to change course.

Our plan is to sell the new apartment first, followed by our existing apartment.  We'll take the proceeds of the sales and look for a standalone house in or near Tavira, hopefully no more than a 10-minute drive from the town center.  In selling our apartments, we are fortunate that real estate prices have appreciated in Portugal and in Tavira particularly.  Of course, that also means that houses we'll be looking at have also increased in price.  Nonetheless, we are hopeful that we will find something that will meet our needs at a price we are willing to pay.  

The new apartment is quite nice, and in addition to being brand new, it has high-end features which are quite desirable.  At one point, we considered trying to sell the new apartment ourselves, and we created a web site for marketing purposes (click on this link): sanpedroapartment.weebly.com.  But we later decided that selling with the aid of an experienced estate agent was worth the cost so that we could begin our own property search that much more quickly.  

So, if you know anyone who is interested in living in Portugal (for whatever reason), be sure to refer them to us.  We've got a couple of apartments that are going to be for sale! 

​We'll post more details once the new apartment is officially listed with our new estate agent.  

Mark's niece Lindsey and her family live outside of Zurich, Switzerland.  Mark's sister Karen and her husband Steve were visiting for much of December, so Mark traveled there just after Christmas.

Though a few days late, Mark played Santa and brought gifts for Lindsey's kiddos, Chloe (7) and Owen (4).  They are both into Legos right now, so shopping was easy.  Legos are available throughout Europe.

The weather in Zurich was cold, but mostly clear.  So one day, we decided to go skiing.  Not surprisingly, there are loads of ski resorts in Switzerland.  The kids will even go on ski trips as a part of their regular school curriculum.  

We took a 45-minute drive to the Flumserberg ski resort.  It was bright and sunny, and the temperature was pleasant at around freezing.  The kids had private ski lessons, though Chloe joined us for one run down the mountain afterwards.  For Mark, Karen, and Steve, it had been some time since we had been on skis.  It's was a challenging, but fun day!

Due to our Portuguese language class, our Christmas events this year were a bit limited.  Ryder made his usual trips to the beach, at times with some Christmas garb.  We had a few friends over for a Christmas Eve prime rib dinner, featuring a juicy, US beef roast courtesy of Costco Seville.  And Santa was able to visit us, even with our lack of a chimney.

To celebrate the conclusion of our intensive Portuguese language class, we decided to travel to London to see the play Wicked just before Christmas.  Debra wanted to see the play before then seeing the movie here in Portugal.  We only were in London a couple of nights due to a busy holiday schedule, but luckily, travel to other countries here is quite easy.

On the day we arrived in London, we went to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.  One of our fellow students from the Portuguese language class had mentioned it as something worth seeing.  We had expected it to be a Dickensian Christmas market, so were surprised that it was mostly a carnival/amusement park with lots of rides and neon lights.  It was still fun (there was a small Christmas market, but nothing out of Dickens), and we enjoyed mulled wine and bits of food.

We arrived for our matinee showing of Wicked on the next day.  No cameras were allowed during the show, but Mark (and others) were able to snap a couple of pictures during the curtain calls.  We thoroughly enjoyed the show and will make an effort to see other plays which might come to Portugal in the future.

Of course, London is not only a great theatre town, but it is also a fantastic place for food.  So before we flew back to Portugal, we were able to dine at the two Michelin star restaurant A.Wong.  It is a fine dining Chinese restaurant, but at lunch time, they offer a dim sum tasting menu.  Of course, we had to try it, and it was fantastic!

We are sorry that we haven't been able to update the blog for the past couple of months.  The Portuguese language class which we began in October really took a large part of our time and energy.  The good news is that we are finished, and we both passed.  We expect to receive our official A1/A2 Portuguese Language Certificates next month, which means Mark can apply for Portuguese Citizenship in January.

We have several new posts which will be coming in the next few weeks.  But first, Mark is going to Switzerland to visit his niece Lindsey and her family, along with Mark's sister Karen and her husband.

Wishing all of our friends and family a joyous holiday season.  We appreciate your checking in on us, and we look forward to sharing our new adventures in 2025.