Early in 2022 we began serious planning for a move to Portugal. Yes! Portugal
After a long awaited astrophotography workshop in Menorca Spain in May 2022, we added a mini-tour of several cities in Portugal – Lisbon, Porto, Braga, and Coimbra. We stayed the longest in Porto and Braga, thinking we would be most interested in the north. They were all great places to visit, but we were most intrigued with Lisbon.
After a 2nd photo trip in August, where we traveled with a small group to several high-elevation refugios in the Dolomites of northeast Italy, we added a nine-day stay in Lisbon at the start of September. We booked a three-bedroom apartment in the Avenidas Novas neighborhood near the Gulbenkian Museum where we might want to live, visited the grocery and cooked some meals, used the metro and buses to travel all over neighborhoods, explored parks to make sure we’d find green space, and took the train to tourist spots of Cascais and Sintra. We found some great restaurants and really liked the variety, especially vegan, no-lactose options.
With help from the Portuguese relocation/real-estate company Savvy Cat, we signed a lease for an unfurnished rental apartment a couple days before Christmas in Caxias, which is just west of Lisbon. We decided to travel there on a tourist visa to start furnishing the apartment while we waited for our residency visa.
And so it begins…
(scroll to the bottom for the most recent posts)
Living in Portugal – Diary
- Apartment in Caxias
We found a fantastic apartment to rent starting in February. We needed to have a rental for our visa application. We are in a neighborhood called Caxias in the Oeiras district, just west of Lisboa. It’s … - Why Move to Portugal
We’ve lived in Massachusetts for most of our lives, except for our college years. Now that we’re retired, it would be great to do something different. Moving to another country is probably the extreme solution, … - Our neighborhood
Our little neighborhood (o nosso bairro) is very pretty with lots of gardens, some a bit overgrown, and many behind private walls. The street trees will be blossoming in a few weeks. Two kinds of … - Exploring by shopping
We wear ourselves out every time we go shopping. It takes a long time to shop because we have to search through the store and analyze every label. For food or soap or lotions, we … - Pronouncing our town
Our Portugal apartment is in Caxias, which is part of Oeiras, a administrative district just west of Lisboa. We are a couple of blocks from the beach and the train station. There’s a walled tidal … - Getting Our Visa
There’s lots of information online about getting a visa to live in Portugal. We relied on Facebook groups and YouTube channels to fill in the gaps in the official information. We applied for the D7 … - Street Art
Lisbon is known for graffiti. It used to be illegal, but it seems to be embraced as part of the culture now. There are a lot of public murals too. The flat stucco walls of … - Dia da Liberdade – Lisboa Walkabout (video)
2023 is the 49th year since the 1974 revolution that ended Portugal’s mid-20th century dictatorship. The big event in Lisboa was a concert on the evening of 24th of April. We took our local train … - Dia da Liberdade – Cámara Municipal (video)
Dia da Liberdade 25 de abril 2023 is the 49th year since the 1974 revolution that ended Portugal’s mid-20th century dictatorship. It seems that the big Lisboa event was a concert on the evening of … - Dia da Liberdade – Street Music (video)
We saw several music groups while walking around Lisboa on Dia da Liberdade, 25 Abril 2023. 25 April is Portugal’s equivalent of July 4th, Independence Day in the United States. In this the 49th year … - Oceanário de Lisboa
The Oceanário de Lisboa is a wonderful treat for fans like us of fish and ocean life. It’s in the Parque de Nações neighborhood on Lisboa’s Tejo river near the Oriente train and metro stations. … - Cabo da Roca
Cabo da Roca is the westernmost tip of continental Europe, facing the Atlantic. Its distinctive red-crowned lighthouse was originally built in 1772. It is part of the Sintra park area, but it’s on the other … - Month of June 2023 – Activities
Shopping and day-to-day stuff We did most of our grocery shopping at our Caxias mini-mercado, with its good fresh vegetables. They have in-season strawberries and the best-ever dark red cherries. We spent several days this … - Transportation without a car
We accomplish all of our trips via public transportation. It takes longer, but more often than not, it works just fine. Sometimes we opt for Uber. There are times when things don’t go smoothly. Here … - Festa de Santo Antonio (video)
In Lisboa, June is a whole month of Festas de Santos Populares. There are a lot of neighborhood parties, with booths for food and drink in public squares. Grilled sardines is the signature dish, but … - Month of July 2023 – ActivitiesWe continue to settle in. We’ve got lots of boxes in our garage storage area. We’re slowly digesting them. We put our bikes back together. There’s a nice bike path along the shore, which is …
- Supplies for the first three months
This post harks back to our initial arrival in Portugal in February. What was in our 10 suitcases and duffles? We didn’t bring any appliance whose purpose was to generate heat. We checked all electronics to … - Retraining our brainsFebruary and March 2023 were full of spring flowers with temps in the 60s, 50s at night. Oh, I mean 15-20 degrees C by day, and above 10ºC at night. We’re retraining ourselves to think …
- Thanksgiving 2023Among expats, celebrating Thanksgiving is important. How to find our traditional Thanksgiving ingredients is discussed in many blogs, Facebook groups, and YouTube videos. We don’t have a big enough oven to cook the 17-lb turkey …