From the poolside to the backside of the Villa Coração d’Ouro
After what seemed like an almost daily repetition of opening and closing our suitcases, TJ had found an AirBNB in lesser known central Portugal, that would fit our needs to relax and stay in one spot where we could start organizing our move to Europe.
Southeast of Porto in the lower foothills of the central east mountain range Serra da Estrela ( home to Portugal mainland’s tallest mountain Torre at 6,539 ft), lies the town of Tábua. To get there by public transportation you take the Rede Espressos bus from Porto’s Campañha Bus station south to the old former medieval capital of Coimbra (€2.95 to €9,40 p/p depending on time of day) and from there you take the same company’s extension trip to Tábua for another $2 or so. If you have a little layover like we had, you can try the very nice MacDonald’s right next door to the bus station. It was more relaxing than milling around or trying to find a seat at the bus station.
Map of the Tábua area
The ride to Tábua is gorgeous alongside rivers and lakes slowly moving to higher elevations. We arrived at the busstation in Tábua late afternoon and decided to get some starter groceries at the next door Lidl Supermarket, before calling for a taxi to take us to our villa.
Now here I must make a little stop to insert an important observation. Why do Airbnb hosts in remote destinations not offer a provisioning service for guests that come in late, or stay with you for a longer period of time, and/or if the grocery or supermarkets are quite a distance away from the Airbnb? It’s a normal service offered in the Marine Charter Industry and guests are willing to pay good money for this service, especially us old people. You see in big cities, provisioning these days is no problem anymore. You go to Übereats or Wolt websites, check the selections and order and within a certain timeframe everything will be delivered to your door. Often without delivery charges! But in areas where these services are not yet available, a provisioning service would be a win-win for guests and hosts. Preferably this should be offered outside of the commissioned Airbnb framework.
In this area of Portugal rental car services are few and far in between and even taxi service is sporadic. Of course we were lucky, since Pedro became our local historian/ guide and taxi driver, sharing with us the must do things, the history of the area and what it has to offer. On the way to the Airbnb we learned from him that Tábua is a regional center that combines a total of 16 villages in the area and the village we were going to was called Vila do Mato, which made is easy for me to remember (Villa Tomato!)
Quinta Coração d’Ouro: “Heart of gold” which usually describes a very kind person, was the name of our Airbnb. A young woman, born in the Netherlands, who goes by the name Lianne and her life partner from Portugal (Ricardo) own the large villa and live here with their two young children and a slough of animals in a very large hacienda type building with surrounding acres and fields. On the many acres in the back of the villa they keep about 20 horses, all are mares (except for one very young colt), a donkey and four foals at tis timer, some cats, a peacock, chickens and a tiny ankle biter with Napoleon syndrome chihuahua. LOL.
Watching the animals’ antics, Ricardo who never stops working, chatting with Lianne and the children, literally observing as the floral gardens grew more beautiful, became our daily outdoor entertainment. Especially the silly foals once they found out they had long legs and could fly like the wind.
Our favorite bakery
Across the street from the Airbnb is a Pastelaria Finatas Bakery and owner Anna knows how to make a deliciously mean Pastel del Nata, this incredible Portuguese delicacy. The bakery is just steps away from a bus stop, which in case you don’t have a car, is quite important for transportation. However, the bus to and from Tábua only runs once in the morning and returns in the early evening.
In the distance, a eight minute walk in the other direction is a larger bakery called Seara da Vila, which has a nice air-conditioned restaurant with a menu, but we were more charmed by Anna’s fresh foods, which attracted quite a few expats from Holland, Belgium, England as well as locals. Especially in the weekends it is a thriving business. And she and her small staff are truly lovely.
Two important reasons for us to select Quinta Coração de Ouro were the pool, a nice pool to actually swim in, rather than just cool down…. and the spacious upstairs apartment that offered a large, well equipped kitchen, an even larger bedroom with extra seating areas and a comfy bed and a huge bathroom with tub and shower; and all air-conditioned. And on the ground floor there is a huge public room for guests, offering a large refrigerator, cooking facilities, games, books and large screen TV and plenty of seating arrangements. That Lianne and Ricardo truly went out of their ways to make us feel welcome, was an added bonus. It also helped a lot that both could communicate in English. If you want to relax and unwind, this is definitely the place to choose, however note the school age children are on summer break during July and August and it gets very busy. For us, we definitely had the perfect timing because during the entire month we stayed, there were only two sets of guest who arrived for one to two nights.
The next almost four weeks we planned to have a wonderfully relaxed routine of writing, updating websites, leisurely laying at the pool with a daily lap swim routine, reading and watching movies on Netflix.
Several days into our stay we decided to walk into the neighboring village of Midões, a town with a long important history, but also the nearest place for a supermarket and laundromat. Packed with backpacks full of dirty laundry we climbed our way on the road and soon discovered that we were in bad shape to walk uphill in the unseasonably hot midday sun for a distance of 1.5 miles. We made it by the seat of our pants, quickly put the laundry in the very modern machines and went for refreshments at the restaurant next door. It had a great outdoor terrace. The entire complex was built and operated by an entrepreneur who used the SPAR concept to bring this grocery service to a town with no facilities for tourism.
A Winning Combination
Note: In all of our travels through Europe we have been finding groceries we need, through a large number of SPAR stores and supermarkets. The original concept dates back to 1932 in the Netherlands. I will have to dedicate a musing story to this phenomenon, that today numbers 13,600 stores in 50 countries and several continents.
Quite a few Dutch, Flemish and British expats live here in the foothills of the mountains that separate Portugal from Spain, and they all claim to love it. Most of the year they meet almost daily at the local outside terraces for drinks and a chat and the rest of the year they keep themselves busy with the house and garden. Some of them work remote, but most of them draw a pension and live a good life.
Huffing and puffing we arrive back at the apartment and have enough groceries and fresh clothes for at least a week. Then we will consider another trip for replenishments.
And when that day arrives, we’ll saddle up once again loaded with shopping bags and backpacks, but this time on the way back, Han bites the dust a couple of hundred yards before we reach the building. His ankle tries to negotiate some loose gravel and he loses his footing and goes down with a loud bang, sandwiched between one heavy backpack on the front and two shopping bags on his back. We thought no-one was around to see this happen, but within seconds there are a handful of people offering helping hands out of nowhere. His arm and knees are scratched and his ribs are sore from some crushed canned veggies, but nothing more serious, although he hurt for the better part of a week. A friendly Portuguese man offers to drive us the couple of hundred yards we were missing from getting “home” and we thanked him profusely. Such beautiful people. Lianne helped with some “fix Han up supplies” and tried to take care of him, but he is so independent.
I actually walked into Midões town on my own the next time. I swear, I thought I would pass out from the heat. I decided to go a little further into the village square and take some pics of ruins, churches and scenery, but also needed a few things at the pharmacy. Then back to the store for groceries. I was just leaving the store, when I saw a woman we had met the very first day who is an expat, who helped us with the language barrier. I said hello to her and we chatted for a few minutes, then she offered me a ride back because she actually lives just past where we were staying. I definitely WAS NOT going to turn that down. I thanked her profusely because the damn groceries were so heavy. It was fun chatting with her and her life partner who was originally from England.
The next week was quiet, we only walked the half a mile into Vila do Mato village and found that the local bar and entertainment hall, also functioned as a limited grocery store. We bought a few items we needed and also about three pounds of frozen shrimp, which turned out to be some of the best shrimp we ever tasted.
A week later we needed to go to Lidle in Tábua and decided to make a day out of it. Lianne was so nice to offer us a ride into town and also help us out at City Hall where we wanted to get some preliminary information regarding our wish to move to Portugal. After listening to all the input from a city employee, who also turns out to be the high school English teacher, we decided that we would do all the paperwork in November in the Algarve, as that probably will be the area we would like to settle. After this we walked the city and got some refreshments.
At the end of the day we called our friend Pedro the taxi driver and he took us back telling us the stories about wildfires in the region as we asked him about the helicopters that had been flying over in the past couple of days and fire trucks that had been spotted in the area. Turns out that some of the forests have been prone to dreaded wildfires and that with the current drought, everyone is keeping their alert meter high.
He also tells us about visiting the Sunday market in Tábua town and we tell him to come pick us up that coming Sunday. He drops us off at the market and our expectations are high, but it turns out the market has fewer visitors than usual, as the national soccer team of Portugal is apparently playing a match in the Worldcup. We check out the offerings, but except for some sheep cheese, nothing really appeals. We walk a number of streets and later decided on a nice lunch in an outside café under the tree shades and a children play garden. Life is so much more relaxed here. Unfortunately this summer is extremely hot and not very enticing for long walks and discoveries, let alone visit attractions with a lot of other visitors.
On the way back we were picked by a female taxi partner of Pedro’s, who raced us through the streets and hillsides as if a wildfire was on our heels. It was a most uncomfortable harrowing trip and then the taxi cost was six euros more than what Pedro charged. Pedro was out of town on a long distance drive to Porto. He had given us his personal cell phone number in case we needed anything. We sure missed him on this particular afternoon.
The last week of our stay was devoted to the old routine of tanning and swimming because we were both not looking forward to the two travel days ahead of us.
First there was the bus-ride from Tábua to Coimbra, the couple of minutes available for a change over to the bus to Porto- Campañha, the chaos and confusion at the station and from there an Über to The Park Hotel at the Francisco Sá Carneiro Porto Airport. On travel day wake up calls were 7:00am followed by a 4:00am at the hotel. That is decidedly too early for people our age. The hotel room was nice, was able to check in early and they upgraded us to a nicer room, but please avoid their restaurant for your meals. It was the worst dinner experience bar none, at a price tag of over €30 per person. The dinner buffet was even more and I wish I had ordered via Uber.
We were up and running at 4am for a 5am hotel transfer to the airport and everything went smooth with our Ryanair flight to Milan-Bergamo and our connection flight to Tirana, Albania. We were out of Schengen on the 89th day of our stay. There are so many questions from others about how to count your days correctly, but honestly we should NOT have cut it this close. One plane delay would completely screw up the entire process. Give yourself a week leeway to cover yourself in case of emergencies and/or travel delays.
Wawel Royal Castle is situated on a hill in a bend of the Vistula River, with a length of 1,022 km the longest river in Poland. The complex consists of numerous buildings of great historical and national importance, including the Wawel Cathedral where Polish monarchs were crowned and buried. Some of Wawel’s oldest stone buildings can be traced back to 970 CE, In addition to the earliest examples of Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Poland, it represents nearly all European architectural styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, which is an important part of why the Historic Center of Kraków was nominated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. During its many centuries’ long existence, Wawel Castle gave residence to Polish Royalty from King Casimir III the Great to the three Sigismunds, but when Sigismund III moved the capital from Krakow to Warsaw, the city’s reign was over and the downfall began, until serious renovation efforts were undertaken in the early 1900s.
Funding for this renovation was recruited from everywhere and it was interesting to find out that even people from Kolomyia in Ukraine donated to these rehabilitations and restoration and in return were recognized with a personalized brick in the wall leading up to the castle square.
Four important Monarchs left four important chapels. While 
After the tour we invited Andrii for a cappuccino and a bite to eat at a famous nearby outside café named Santos Kawiarnia, where we learn that he is originally from Ukraine, but came to Poland more than a decade ago, where he got married and now was raising a family. We also learned that his brother was a defender in the Ukraine Army and that he had not been able to see his family in Ukraine since the war began. The risk for him being enlisted, in-spite of previously being rejected for active duty, was too great. In honor of his country, we gave him a Jeeps4Peace T-shirt and he gave us a pack of famous Lviv Ukrainian coffee and 2 silver Pierogi keychains.
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