Restaurante O Ricardo – Grape Harvest September 17th, 2018.

Having finished another fantastic & authentic meal at our “hidden gem” (Restaurante O Ricardo) with our friend/Lawyer (“the great Fernando”), to our great joy and surprise Geoff & I were invited to take part in the ‘Grape Picking’ harvest. Of course, we immediately accepted, having never done it before. However, a few minutes later the “great Fernando” informed us that this wasn’t a simple or polite invitation but something far greater, something closer to a great privilege & honour. This was a time-honored tradition performed only by family & close friends. The harvest day arrived, Geoff & I arrived at Restaurante O Ricardo at 07:00 hrs as instructed, having travelled nearly an hour from our rental villa. The first thing we noticed was ours was the only car in the car park. Had we got the date wrong, no, they’re waiting to greet us was Mr Ricardo’s eldest daughter, hot coffee at the ‘standby’. We then walked around to the rear of the restaurant, into the vineyards and to our embarrassment there was a group of about 20 people already picking. Having had a five-minute lesson on “how to” & “what to look for”, Geoff & I set too. 

Nearly 8%t of Portugal’s landscape is given over to vineyards today, which Geoff would like to round it up to 10%. Located between 38º and 39º latitude north of the equator it provides a desirable mix of winter chilling and summer heat and is an excellent climate for growing wine grapes.  I haven’t determine with historical accuracy when or who introduced vine growing to the province. What I now know is that when the Romans arrived in the southern lands of Portugal, in the area we now call Alentejo, vine growing and winemaking were already part of the customs and traditions of the local populace.  It is even probable, going by existing historical registers, that Alentejo wine could have been the first wine from Portugal to be exported to Rome!

Mid morning was interrupted with ‘Breakfast’, not surprisingly washed down with wine!! Followed by more picking, now getting hotter.

Finished at 14:30 hrs, tools cleaned, washed/changed and sat down to a most magnificent meal, not surprisingly washed down with more wine.

FABULOUS DAY, NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN.

Awakening ‘Herdade da Avessada’ from Hibernation.

The longest known animal to hibernate is the ‘Big Brown bat’, which can hibernate for 344 days. Herdade da Avessada has been in a state of hibernation for 7 years!

Geoff and I knew when we bought our new home that it was going to present us with some unique challenges, apart from not knowing the; language, house buying system, planning laws etc..etc.

Because Herdade da Avessada presented us with probably the most unique challenges of all, the fact that it had been build brand new and then left in a state of hibernation for the last seven years. Let me put this challenge into perspective for you. Our home had never been connected to a water supply, therefore the entire plumbing system had never been tested. Now apply this factor to the electricity system, heating system, air conditioning system, fitted kitchen equipment and solar panels. Now that I suggest is unique!

Building contractors never like to adopt another builders work! Simple, let’s get the original builders back to commission all of the services. Well, that plan backfired, on the grounds that the original contractor believed we had just won the Euro millions! Not deterred are trusted Lawyer, now good friend [Fernando], casually mentioned one day a company called PINETREE CONSTRUCTION, but in no particular context to the hibernation problem.

Several months later, PINETREE name almost erased from our memory, when ‘lady luck’ intervened.  The exact date & time was Tuesday‎, ‎5‎ ‎June‎ ‎2018 @ 15:08hrs, when Geoff and I had taken my darling Dad to visit the marina on the Alqueva Dam.

DAD TAKING A BREAK.

ALQUEVA DAM

ALQUEVA WATERS.

What a fantastic day that was and it will be the subject of another ‘posting’. What is important, is Geoff and Dad spent a few hours, walking around the marina & restaurant admiring the build quality. We left after a wonderful long lunch, Geoff driving, when we had just left the marina when Geoff suddenly slammed the brakes on and grabbed the camera. There it was, like a shining star!

How’s that for luck!

According to Webster, “luck “is defined as the things that happen to a person because of chance or the accidental way things happen without being planned.

Next stop, are trusted Lawyer/Friend (Fernando), who swung into action and before long PINETREE or more precisely; Mr Antonio VAZ was all over our new home with insurmountable enthusiasm.

Phase 1 is now officially underway with PINETREE and most importantly; Mr Antonio VAZ, steering the ship. Daily emails with pictures & diagrams flow across the internet.

Can’t wait to see Herdade da Avessada brought back from looking tired and dusty, to become our ‘new home’!

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“Hidden gem” is an idiom which means something which is extremely outstanding and not many people may know about.

Having found our new dream home, here in Evora, all Geoff & I wanted now was the icing on the cake, that being somewhere we could call our “local”. What we actually found was an oasis of a beautiful traditional family owned restaurant, far enough away from the “madding crowds”. It was a genuine accident on my behalf, a small map reading error (much to Geoff’s amusement), that we literally stumbled across the most idyllic country restaurant. The restaurant, with its own vineyard is located in the village of Valverde, made famous by Geraldo Sem Pavor (“without fear”), who was a Portuguese warrior and folk hero, who lived in Valverde in the year 1204 and was made  Governor of Evora, by the then Portuguese King. The city of Évora honours Geraldo by depicting him on its coat-of-arms and naming the central plaza; ‘Praça do Giraldo,  after him.  The village is a peaceful rural settlement characterized by its traditional Alentejo’s  streets with white houses coloured with a blue or yellow strip around doors and windows. Keen to try it Geoff & I immediately abandoned the car and walked into the restaurant, well at least I did, Geoff got delayed along the way admiring the beautiful gardens and befriending several lovely dogs.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g189106-d4560587-r290769003-Restaurante_O_Ricardo-Evora_Evora_District_Alentejo.html

The menu offers traditional Portuguese cuisine, which looks and tastes like it has been expertly cooked with love and respect. The added bonus for Geoff, is the fantastic red wine grown & produced in the garden, which he proclaimed was “delicious”. The service from the host (owners’ daughter) was excellent, taking time to explain each dish and how it was made. Needless to say we have been back quite a few times,  and to my great pleasure took my father for lunch.

Life only gets better when you have these luxuries on your doorstep.

September 13, 2018.

The 13th might be unlucky for some!

It was always going to be problematic selling the old home and retiring a year later, with the added stress of going from a 5 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom flat in the meantime!  With a lot of encouragement and coaxing from Geoff, I managed to downsize, much to the benefit of the local charity shops. The ‘game plan’ was simple, what do we need for the flat, in order to live for twelve months, until retirement. Everything not going to the charity shops had to go into storage. The long-term storage plan began to inflict pain upon the budget, to such an extent that the plan was scrapped. Second plan, ship stored contents to new home in Evora, simple! All we had to do was work out what the correct postal address of our new home, I mean how hard could that be? Geoff & I settled on one version of the postal address but added the fail safe map with an X marked on it. Next, make sure we were present on the day of delivery to act as ‘convoy escort’, for the 5 Km of the uncharted minor road network, between our new home and the main road. With all the possible variables that exist when moving 1,353 miles to a different Country, then Geoff & I considered ourselves to be amongst the luckiest.

Geoff & I drove to meet the removals lorry and only had to wait 20 seconds, how about that for punctuality? What we didn’t plan for was a very large removals lorry plus an equally large trailer, that wouldn’t fit along the unchartered minor road network. Luck was on hand again, our belongings were contained within the main lorry, so the nice driver just un-hitched the trailer, perfect. Much to our relief a second vehicle arrived, as the removals lorry was reversing up our drive, with local labour to help unload…perfect!

September. 2018

To drill a bore hole appears on ‘face value’ to be relatively simple procedure! The second phase of obtaining “Agua” (water) from the bore hole to the house proved more challenging than expected. The water is approx 100m below the surface & the hole is approx 150m from the house.

The solution was easy, after being recommended a contractor.

https://www.sondalis.pt/contactos/   

As soon as Sondalis were contacted to the completion of the job, took two weeks! They were simply fantastic. Wished we had used Sondalis from the beginning, but hey, there’s always a possibility of a second bore hole?

So, the ‘white elephant’ of no water rectified. Onto the next challenge!

May/August 2018.

Geoff and I knew from the moment we fell in love with Herdade da Avessada that it was going to be a new type of project for us to contend with and would require a completely different mind-set to ‘doing up an old house’.  Herdade da Avessada is a brand-new contemporary house which has never been occupied since it was completed in 2012.

With this in mind we instantly recognised that an Architect was going to be required. Again, contrary to professional advice that all of the best Architects are in Lisbon we wanted one from Evora. Needless to say, our trusted Lawyer (Dr. Fernando Porta) came to the rescue, with a recommendation to meet Nuno Alexandre O’Neill and discuss our ideas. Nuno could not have been more amiable to our ideas but asked for time to bring his own ideas to the table, perfect solution.

After purchasing Herdade da Avessada, Geoff and I took regular walks around our new home, room by room and around the large garden (19 Acres) brainstorming ideas between us. Had strangers been listening to our conversations they would have concluded that we were probably insane, which is odd as the term brainstorming originally referred to a state of temporary insanity. As we each pitched our ideas against each other as though we were competing for a Grand Design game show, the individual plans gradually transformed into a collective of each other’s best bits.

When Geoff and I fell in love with Herdade da Avessada it came with a caveat, which I guess some business minded property developers may also have called a ‘white elephant’. The caveat being the house wasn’t connected to the city water and was never likely to be. Not deterred we pressed ahead on the assumption that a bore hole would solve the issue.

      June/July 2018.

Thanks again to our marvellous Lawyer (Dr. Fernando Porta) https://pt.linkedin.com/in/fernando-porta-8a827655 who enthusiastically conducted all of the administrative responsibilities. Sometime later the ‘drilling company’ https://www.charnecapinto.pt arrived on site and started drilling. It quickly appeared that our luck may have eventually run out, as the drill kept going down and down, but no sign of the liquid gold!

Bore hole 2 – Now forgive me but I imagined that here in the 21^st Century that a Hydrogeological survey would dictate the location to drill, but no. Thanks to our Shepherd who asked the farmer next door the second location to drill was determined by old fashioned knowledge. Drilling commenced and the old-fashioned knowledge proved accurate. “HOOOORAH!!” our luck returns. Flow test determined a significant deposit of water providing 1,000 Ltr/Hr.

Herdade da Avessada

February / March 2018

The journey started when I was only very young, in fact it wasn’t my journey at all but my beloved father’s. It was his dream to one day, live in Portugal. Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of any body’s control this never came to fruition. Not deterred my partner (Geoff) and I took up the challenge, eagerly assisted by my father. Over the last seventeen years we have explored Portugal from, Faro to Lisbon, which we cleverly disguised as family holidays.

With the passage of time and looming retirement, the first monumental step for Geoff and I was to sell our beloved home, which had consumed our blood, sweat and tears over the last 16 years refurbishing it. Sold to the first viewer! Next step, down size and find somewhere to live for the next year or two.

The act of Selling and Buying, here in ‘Blighty’ just added to our energy of house hunting in Portugal. The search finally ended in February 2018 after we hopelessly fell in love with the serenity and tranquillity of the Alentejo region and in particularly Evora. For those of you who have yet to take the brave step of straying from the Algarve you are in for a life changing experience. The History, Scenery, Culinary delights and not forgetting the World class wine are just a tiny sprinkling of the magic dust which covers Evora.

Old Home > New Home = 1,353miles.

It was just a question of finding the perfect home in the perfect spot. With the grateful assistance of our ‘Marvellous Ladies’ at REMAX (Clare, Ana & Catrina), our holidays became more of house hunting and a lot less sunbathing. Having covered hundreds of kilometres and having viewed too many properties, “sorry Ladies”, we changed our tact and viewed a property unlike we had seen or wished for! Needless to say, it was perfect! Negotiations expertly conducted by the ‘Marvellous Ladies’ at REMAX and hey presto, the deal was done over a fabulous meal in Evora.

Geoff and I know we are lucky in so many ways but our next step was to find an English-speaking Lawyer to guide us through the process. Contrary to professional advice that the best Portuguese Lawyers are all based in Lisbon we wanted our Lawyer to be in Evora, so they could guide us now and in the future. Our wish came true because of a ‘casual’ conversation with the Proprietor of our hotel, where we were staying and after some transatlantic emails between Portugal, USA and UK we were highly recommended to Dr. Fernando PORTA, who is without doubt the best Lawyer in Portugal! Fernando typifies the Portuguese with his extraordinary kindness and desire to help and assist in any matters, legal or not. Fernando is a champion, his advice and guidance worthy of a medal (Ordem do Mérito). If our luck holds out Fernando will become a lifelong friend.

Mr. Porta passed the Portuguese Bar Admission exam in 2006. His mother tongue is Portuguese and he is fluent in English and Spanish.

https://www.fernandoporta.pt

Mr. Porta is an experienced lawyer in the field of legal services provided to foreign investors in Portugal. Since the beginning of his professional career he has specialized in understanding of the needs of visitors and investors, new residents or immigrant entrepreneurs, as well as providing guidance, advice, and navigating the uncertainties that typically accompany acquiring a second residence and general residency issues.

THE JOURNEY NOW BEGINS.