We had a great time staying with Tio, Tia and my one year old cousin. They helped us a lot letting us stay in their beautiful apartment and finding a sail repair shop to repair the main sail that slightly broke during crossing the Biscay. Also they found Mistress a place in their full marina.

I got to see my little cousin for the first time as we were supposed to go to Portugal when he was born but we couldn’t because of the madness. It was lovely meeting him, my Tios, and also seeing Tia’s parents again.

Tio is a tour guide and took us to all the nicest places in the Lisbon area. We went to Sesimbra, Setubal, Parque Natural da Arrabida, Cabo Espichel, Lisbon, Oeiras, Cascais, Sintra, Cabo da Roca and many more. Cabo da Roca (Cape Roca) is the most western point in continental Europe and the Eurasian landmass. They also have some beautiful places to go to visit like monuments or cathedrals and are full of history.

The weather is good (way better than England!) - for example people were going to the beach at the beginning of May. However, the ocean is only warm in the summer.

The Food in Portugal

I think I had the best food yet in Portugal – although I don’t quite fancy snails. I believe snails are an acquired taste meaning that you need to have them more times until you like them.

All the cafes and restaurants are extremely cheap as a coffee costs less than 1 euro. They have great fish based food and the bread is really nice – I still miss that bread. You can easily gain a bit too much weight over there. They also have fish pates – my favourite is the sardine pate. Also there’s a great variety of delicious deserts to choose from.

In my opinion, Portugal is one of the nicest places to live in on mainland Europe because the people there tend to have strong values which has been lost in other places and lets (not forget the mouthwatering deserts please!!).