Hello from Portugal! We are here for the next couple of weeks visiting my mother-in-law who is living her retired life here. We are fortunate to bring our girls here and give them a taste of European life. The last time I had been to Europe was back in college - I went on a tour in England with Texas Tech University Choir in the summer of 2007. This is the first time for Z and the girls. Z's oldest brother and his wife from Seattle also joined us.
We arrived early afternoon on Tuesday, March 12th after about 15 hours of traveling. Compared to previous travels, I have made a point to pack as compactly as possible after realizing that most rental cars available were on the smaller side (and renting an SUV or even a mini-van was crazy expensive, and perhaps not even feasible to drive around narrow roads). Proud to say that we managed 2 mid-size suitcases and a backpack for each of us (minus Zaylee). I decided not to bring the stroller, and after 2 full days here, feeling pretty satisfied with that decision.
The first full day in Portugal was easygoing for our adjusting family. My mother-in-law lives in Azeitao, which is about 40 minutes south of Lisbon, so for this trip, we are keeping most of our activities in the southern part of Portugal.
After a slow morning, we spent most of the afternoon in small coastal towns - Alcacer do Sal, Comporta, and then took a ferry ride back to Setuabal where we had dinner there. It was a pleasant, early spring weather with the sun occasionally peeking through swiftly moving clouds and cool breeze. It was a welcoming feel since Texas spring tends to be too brief.
We completely forgot about the "siesta" where the restaurants close between each meal time, so we missed our lunch and ended up having gelato instead - I don't think Zoe minded it at all.
I got to enjoy watching my mother-in-law soaking in the long-awaited reunion with her grand-daughters, trying to catch up on all the things that she missed - from Zoe's everchanging interests to Zaylee's milestones - it is heartwarming to see and yet a little bit sad that we are always having to catchup.
We received shy but friendly greetings from the locals and their particular fondness for the girls who were enjoying the slow-paced environment. Zaylee was completely obsessed with cobblestones, which led to some tantrums when we needed to pick up the pace a little bit more. I kind of chuckled at myself for having to explain to Zoe that cars here drive on cobblestones, not on concrete or asphalt, just to increase her awareness. Of course, not all places in Portugal are just cobblestones, but this day, it was particularly the case.
Driving to Comporta, we saw many stork nests on electric towers (a common sighting in Portugal, actually) and beautiful wetlands.
We then took a ferry back to Setubal, eventually heading toward to Azeitao for the night. Setubal is more of an urban area so it seemed that my mother-in-law and her partner do a lot more outing there. We had the perfect view of the sunset while Zoe was soaking in the breeze and Zaylee just wanted to toddle around the ferry.
In Setuabal, we enjoyed some amazingly fresh seafood - starting with fresh oysters - and then moving on to some monkfish pasta as well as many other fish for dinner. It definitely felt a little more chilly at night, which we were all underprepared for, so the warm pasta felt and tasted really good.
I think we'll like it here for a while.
