Madeira, 30-8-2009

Yesterday we arrived on the beautiful island of Madeira after a 2 hour flight from Lisbon. We are staying in a really nice cottage on a vineyard high above the blue ocean. So, no camping for 6 days but living the luxurious life haha. We got our selves a little car that just makes it up the very steep and windy roads here and yes, driving here is an adventure on it´s own! Today we went to a secluded little beach village that only can be reached by a 200 meter vertical elevator that is build against the cliffs! The reward when you are down however is there. Fruit trees all around, a little beach cafe and banana trees everywhere. We could hardly believe that they could construct a tiny little elevator on the face of a cliff like that! Last night we enjoyed a good meal in the garden of the master-house of the quinta. We got free access to Internet here so I am sure I will write some more before we leave the island on next Friday.

tata

Frans & Leslie

Lisbon, 26-8-2009

After a nice drive down the fly Costa with stops at the little chocolate town Obidos and the beautiful city of Sintra with its Moorish Palaces we ended up on the campsite in Lisbon last night. We found a beautiful spacious spot for our Tipi in the woods with lots of shadow and no neighbour visible. Today we will explore the city and we do have an extra day tomorrow as well before we flt over to the island of Madeira. We will keep you posted.

Love

leslie and Frans

At the Portugese Costa

Hi everybody,

After spending a week in the dusty and rough North of Portugal, we moved South last Saturday. We ended up on a very Portugese campsite just about 15 km North of Nazare. The campsite is busy, very beach-like but the people are friendly and the food in the local restaurant is great. We managed to pitch our tipi somewhere in between some trees and some other tents but at least we got a good shadow which is important with the high temperatures in the daytime. Yesterday we spent our time on visiting the local beach and the city of Nazare that looked like the capital city of Portugal right now! The Portuguese holidays will end at the end of this week so I guess campsites will be a little bit more quit by that time! At this moment we are in the city of Leiria, a student city with a big castle on top of the central hill. Tomorrow we will make an effort to visit the city of Fatima that is about 30 km from here. From Wednesday we will move on further South to Lisboa where we possibly will stay a few days before flying over to the Island of Madeira. We hope to give you an update before we fly out on Saturday the 29th of August. Bon Dia

Frans & Leslie

Porto 19-8-2009

We did a good travel from Holland all the way to the North of Portugal. It took us only 3 days and that did include camping on the overnight stays. We ended up on a very secluded little campsite in the middle of an old vinyard called Quinta del Rio. Th owner is Dutch and very helpful. He actually rents out Tipi tents so our new tipi really fits in. We have the best spot on the ground with even a private outdoor shower that runs hot water in the daytime (not my choice but by the high temperatures in the daytime haha). Yesterday we went for a little kayak trip on the river that runs next to the campground. Two of our neighbours joined in so we had a party of 4 exploring the rapids of the river until ending up on a little terrace for the very needed drinks. Today we spent walking around in the city of Porto which is about an hour drive from our campsite. This morning we already enjoyed a glass of white port (I did not know that existed) with a little meal. The weather is great and in the middle of the day actually too hot (around 35 degrees Celsius) but the evenings are cool and last night I was enjoying the perfect view on the starry sky from our hammock next to the tent. We hope you are all doing good. Stay happy, healthy and....in touch !

Summer thoughts

It has been a while since I updated our BLOG. This is not because nothing happened, it is just because I was busy at work and I also communicate by means of Facebook now which is definitely a more interactive way of communication with friends than a BLOG! Anyhow, since my sailing trip in the beginning of May, we both have been busy.

It started with Leslie’s niece Victoria coming to stay with us for 2 weeks after spending 3 weeks teaching English in Sweden. Of course her visit was spent in visiting some of the well-known highlights in Holland like Amsterdam and not to forget the spectacular Boxtel area. A little bit more rare was a visit to Giethoorn in the North of Holland. This little town is surrounded by water and the main transportation still is using a boat. We camped on a little farm campsite about 30 minutes away from the town centre and as we brought our own boat, it was very easy to go around, shop and eat out in one of the many little restaurants.

During the second week of Victoria’s stay we went over to the island of Terschelling to enjoy the so-called “Oeral festival”. This is an annual theatre and music festival with performances all over the island, indoor as well as open air such as in the dunes, on the beach or in the forest. We experienced the best weather ever and also because of the great atmosphere we definitely stayed not long enough. We decided to come back next year and try to stay the whole 9 days!

At the end of June Leslie went over to the States to fulfill her caretaking tasks for mom and also to visit the children and grandchildren. Her stay appeared to be very nice and fruitful and just last weekend she returned safe and sound back to the Netherlands. During her stay in the States, I basically worked while my colleagues enjoyed their family holidays. I also found some time to work on my photo’s (scanning old negatives to finally have my photo archive all digital) and finally to visit some friends in the Belgian Ardennes for a weekend.


Tata

Leslie & Frans