On May 3 we reached stage 4 of the national deconfinement plan in Portugal. Restaurants started serving indoors although still with table and capacity restrictions. All schools, shops, and malls reopened. While still not back to “normal”, it finally felt Read more…

Covid restrictions eased up enough to allow us to take our first road trip on April 15 after 3 months of lock-down. We rented a car and tested the waters by taking a 5-day trip north along our border with Read more…

They say ¨There’s a light at the end of the Covid tunnel.¨ I say, maybe, but that tunnel is deceptively long, twisty, and full of scary clowns just waiting to leap out from the dark corners. After four days of Read more…

I’d like to say that the holidays passed pleasantly, but that just was not the case. The government of Portugal cratered under the pressure to “save Christmas” in this very Catholic country. They relaxed the restrictions just for the week Read more…

In spite of the pandemic, the curfews and restrictions, and the chill in the air…. People are still getting out and getting their fresh air and sunshine while following the rules. There is still much beauty and optimism. (Images from Read more…

Covid-19 cases have exploded here in Portugal as they have in most of the world. One of the measures recently taken by our government has been to institute a curfew. On weekdays the curfew where we live is from 11pm Read more…

It has been awhile since I posted anything. Like everyone else, we are just muddling our way through the weirdest year in our memories. We saw Covid-19 restrictions ease and then tighten back up again. We’ve adapted to the new Read more…

Once again, we took advantage of the nice weather and limited number of tourists to take an impromptu three-night road trip. We got a rental car and drove to the center part of the country. We did not put on Read more…

The government of Portugal has been campaigning to encourage residents to vacation this summer within the country. So, we decided to travel a bit and take advantage of the lack of tourists due to covid. Following all covid rules, of Read more…

We just returned from a visit of two and a half weeks to the U.S. for family reasons. Traveling during the time of Covid-19 was challenging, for sure.  We first booked a flight pre-covid with Iberia. That was canceled. More Read more…