The beginning
Dear friends, dear family, dear readers
As I write these first lines, I keep looking through the glass door and catching a glimpse of the rooftops of the beautiful old town of Sintra. We have been here less than a week and yet somehow we have already “arrived”.
But let me start from the beginning. For those who don’t know us yet; we are Liam (our soon-to-be 4-year-old son), René (my husband), and Rahel (me). René and I have traveled to almost 30 countries together and we would also like to offer our son the opportunity to discover many different countries and cultures. So last summer, we decided to postpone Liam’s start in kindergarten for one year and spend time together abroad.
So that we can continue to pursue our jobs, we will each spend more extended periods of time in one place. This will allow us to build a daily routine and hopefully make new friends.
Our plan for the next 12 months is currently as follows:
April to June we will spend in Sintra, Portugal.
July we will spend in Porto, Portugal.
After that, we will take 2-3 weeks to return to Switzerland.
At the end of August, we will continue our journey toward Asia – but we haven’t defined the exact destination yet. 🙂 The only thing that is clear is that we will probably be back home for about a month in December.
At the end of December, we will fly off to South Africa. Currently, we plan to spend three months there. We haven’t decided yet if we will travel further after that.
But back to the present: Since April 2nd we have been here in Portugal. We have a furnished apartment in the old part of Sintra with a beautiful view of the Jardim Correnteza. The weather so far has been almost summer-like, although the mornings still feel cool and damp. In general, Sintra has a special microclimate and the humidity is rather high.
Liam’s school is a comfortable 10-minute walk away. René’s and my workplace – a co-working space above the Palácio Nacional – is another 10 minutes up the hill. So far, everything is within easy walking distance for us – even if it’s rarely straight ahead. Sintra is built into the hilly landscape and is located at the foot of the Serra de Sintra. Accordingly, most of the paths lead either uphill or downhill.
Our first days here were intense and overwhelming – yet beautiful at the same time. Liam has already made a new friend, although neither of them speaks the other’s language. We are incredibly proud of him, for what openness and joy he started this adventure.
René and I have also already made friends and have been able to meet wonderful people. I will be happy to tell you more about our starting situation here in Sintra in one of the next posts.
The last months were very challenging for all of us: there was a lot to plan, organize or finalize. And suddenly we are here – a rather abrupt change into a new everyday life. It will probably take a moment until we have really arrived completely. Still, it already feels like much longer than just a good week that we have spent here.
But one thing is for sure: we are looking forward to everything that is coming!
Until then, we wish you all a great week & see you soon,
Rahel
written on April 7, 2023