“Yes! I still have a tiny bit of Google … A large part of Spain and Portugal is suddenly without power … a cyberattack, they suspect … ah, but now it’s gone. No connection.” Anja sighs, and I sigh with her. She’s visiting, staying for a few days, and is just as surprised as everyone else by the sudden power outage.
What’s the worst thing about a power outage? No internet
All the buttons were neatly up, as they should be, so there wasn’t something wrong with our installation. Of course I immediately went to check when my grinder didn’t work, and pressing the light button had no effect either. No storms, floods or excessive rain, so … what’s happening?
It was immediately clear that it was a Major Outage, not that someone in the nearby central had accidentally pulled the wrong plug, but the worst thing is that you don’t know what it is. No internet, so no information. So, we do have solar panels, but still no energy. Hm. How is that possible, EDP? Something to look into when this is past tense.
Now, for us, here in the countryside, it wasn’t so bad.
We came clear with it quickly. We are in the final stages of a renovation, but you can do sealing, painting and mowing the lawn without electricity. For Anja it was a bit worse, because she had just run out of cigarettes. And they do have them in the café, but in a machine with a plug and a remote control.
“Large parts of Spain and Portugal – that could take a while,” I say, “shall we just drive to the supermarket for a few essentials then?” “The freezer is full,” reports Broes, our cook, “so maybe some bread, milk, flour, eggs and wine. We can always make pancakes then.”
The small supermarket in the neighbouring village is closed. The pastelaria too, even the Lidl has the shutters down. Only the Intermarché in Soure apparently has a backup system, because the car park there is full. Huge queues at the petrol station next door. Apparently a long outage is expected.
We score the last bread, Anja her cigarettes, and we join the long line at the cash registers. “Look, you can still pay by card,” Anja points out, “so that all still works.” We always have cash at home, because I am not a fan of card payments. At home we have a glass of wine and are very satisfied with life, because with a good book and an early night, life is not that bad.
City people had it much worse. People were stuck in the elevator (brrrrr), entire groups had to walk through metro tunnels, all kinds of safety systems failed, and no one could actually work anymore. What do you do without a computer?
Confronted with the facts. It was world news!
I had fun with Hugo, who came out of his room in the evening like an irritated tiger, walked to his car to take out the battery: “This is too boring!” He is not a reader, and is glued to his phone almost 24/7, but luckily he is technical, so he managed to get the router back on with that huge battery. So we had internet again that same day; that was working again. While we had prepared ourselves for a week.
Next morning. With my sleepy head I had filled my kettle of coffee water in the bath (we live in an old bathhouse, so we always have plenty of water – it just flows spontaneously through the old baths as always) and automatically pressed the click-click button of the automatic ignition of the gas stove. Heard the humming of the freezer – and then it finally dawned on me.
No more power outage
It was already fixed after a day. Hats off to all hard workers who solved it!
.
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
You can subscribe to this blog- see at the right side of this page »
You’ll get it every weekend in your mailbox.
On Sunday morning we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.