We definitely wanted to visit a Christmas market in Portugal.
Lagos is 18 km away and the nearest major city to us. The town center is beautifully decorated. At the Christmas market itself, there is a stall selling homemade candles and soap. Otherwise there is only food and drink. There is plenty on offer for the little ones. There is an ice skating rink, a slide with hoops as a toboggan run, Santa’s house and a great program with choirs, theater and other performances.
Instead of mulled wine, there is “vinho quente”. Hot wine. Very sweet but delicious. And it tastes good even at 17° and without snow.
Sometimes you have to use a needle and thread.
And another small step closer to our goal.
Funnily enough, it was purely by chance that we chose the almost identical shades of gray to paint our coolers.
The German butcher Walter, who runs a “butcher’s hut” somewhere in the middle of nowhere, serves delicious German specialties and you can go out to eat on Sundays. There is a special meal of the day. E.g. Leberkäs, goulash, sirloin…
He also offers pitches for campers on part of his property for one euro per day.
This Sunday we had stuffed loin with vegetables and potatoes.
Served with a cold beer.
Our dear friends from East Frisia, with whom we have a great time here at the Camper Park, invited us over. It was delicious and we spent a lovely lunch together.
It really is in the middle of nowhere. Walter has a huge plot of land and makes his German sausage and meat specialties in a hut.
Which he also sells there. On Sundays only, you can eat there for little money and by reservation. It is only seated outside. Between the fig and almond trees and wherever you look there is only pure nature. Very nice atmosphere.
Unthinkable in Germany, but in this hut Walter is a butcher.
He is well into retirement age and because he offers such delicious sausage and meat specialties, his original hobby has turned into a full-time job. This is now too much for him and so he is stopping at the end of the year. There are probably two young German men, one of whom has apparently also trained as a butcher. Walter told us that the boys want to continue the small business. However, they want to make it much bigger and their plans sound more like a bar with music and trallala than a nice “butcher’s pub” with a cozy beer garden on Sundays.
Alex and I actually wanted to have a nice day with a motorcycle tour after dinner. But in the morning we realized that something was leaking again under the bunk bed by the water tank and the hoses. As the electrics were still at the same level, Alex had to deal with the problem before it got dark. So the motorcycle tour was postponed. Alex actually wanted to replace all the water hoses, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. As we had received two small pieces of spare hose from the previous owner, he had at least replaced these today.
Unfortunately, it was only a temporary solution. It’s still leaking at the connections. We’ll have to get some spare parts first so that the line is finally completely sealed again.
There were some really great presents for us to unwrap this week from our fantastic Advent calendar:
A Red Bull ORGANICS can for each of us. At home, we liked to have a drink like this every now and then after a hard day’s work. You can’t buy them here in Portugal. A great idea from our children.
A liquid soap with a rosemary and lemon scent. You can always use it. And the scent is unbelievably great.
Some beard care for Alex and a hand cream from RITUALS for me. Care products are great, because here on our adventure we don’t treat ourselves to anything like that, we only ever buy the essentials. We were really happy about this.
A chocolate spoon of “Irish cream” with real Baileys 😉 mega. We will definitely enjoy it.
A book for Iris by Sebastian Fitzek. One of her favorite authors. A limited edition. Great idea!
A semolina porridge for everyone. We like to eat semolina porridge, but we haven’t heard of this one yet. We are excited.
Our children have really surprised us with this calendar. We look forward to opening a package every morning.
Beforehand, we always try to guess what’s inside the parcel.
It’s especially amusing when we get it completely wrong.
