New cars and planes

I was in another world this week. There are different worlds – the Modern world, the Other World, the Dream world, the Fairy Tale world, yours and mine Every Day World. In my EDW you find fireflies, frogs, storks, nice smelling trees, lots of flowering weeds and Portuguese farmers.

I was in the Modern world, with lots of new cars and planes

In honor of a family visit, a car had been rented. One with a screen next to the steering wheel, which helps you park by showing what is happening behind you on that screen, and honking if you are about to hit something. It has to be because that type of car is kind of obese, that you can’t see anything behind you when you turn halfway around. You do have plenty of room with five people, that’s for sure.

I was going to take my oldest brother-in-law to the airport. I have more, hence the distinction “oldest”. He also has a name, and we normally use that, but if I write Henk, that doesn’t mean anything to you, does it, dear readers. On the way there we had reached 153 kilometers – yes, sorry, it was already late, it’s a long drive, and we were hungry. Besides, I also like to roar past everybody at such a speed, because normally I’m a bit bored in our old Citroen in the right lane with a neat hundred, a hundred and ten.

The new car could do two hundred and ten, but I don’t believe that

On the dashboard they always exaggerate grossly. The car was certainly handy to transport us to a nice lunch on the beach of Figueira da Foz. I had discovered a new beach restaurant, with a nice spacious terrace, and if necessary there was also plenty of room inside. The beach of Figueira is enormously wide, so that at the beginning of the boulevard you can’t even see the ocean. This restaurant is located on a piece of land that they are trying to make into an oasis, with a pond, palm trees and handy planks, where it is a lot easier to walk than through the loose sand. Or in this case through the dune grass interspersed with nice lilac flowers.

The airport is a world apart

Lisbon airport is located almost in the middle of the city, and is not that big originally. There are plans to house it elsewhere, but that is not so easy. For the time being they have only added a Terminal 2, which you have to go to by bus. That was a less pleasant surprise, because although the time is definitely over when you wave goodbye to someone’s plane with your handkerchief, I still did not like having to leave my 86-year-old brother-in-law in a crowded bus.

I would wait a while, we agreed, to make sure everything went well. I did not mind that much, because there is such a variety of people! If you have the time, you can enjoy people-watching, a lost art, if you ask me. Before the smart-era, we liked to do that on a terrace, but unfortunately the weather was often not ideal because we did not yet do climate change.

Never perfect, in any World ….

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We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal.

A big step, especially with two small children.

We are busy to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa which has been turned into several holiday houses, rooms and a campsite.

You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.

Since 2018 we call ourselves the first B&B&B in the world – Bed & Breakfast & Bathrobes. You can buy a home-made unique bathrobe/housecoat with us.

Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation

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