03 Januar 2008

 
Happy New Year to all of you (year of the rat in China, but not in Japan, though the two countries use the same chinese zodiac. In Japan, it's the year of the mouse - aren't rats kawaii enough?)!

Sorry for the long silence; but we continued our way to my parents' place to spend the end of the year there almost directly after coming back from the airport. But here are finally some impressions from the Algarve (extreme south of Portugal).


Sunshine, and at least 15°C, every day - twenty degrees warmer than what we left in Frankfurt. It felt like a very advanced spring! So directly after arriving in Silves, our headquarter (45 min away from Faro airport), we started our daily routine of spending lots of time on sunny café terraces (and eating lots of typical local food like pizza and spaghetti and icecream ...).



Silves is a beautiful little town in the Algarve hinterland. In former times, it was even the capital of the independent Algarve kingdom. We were surprised of the storks nesting on almost all old towers and chimneys of the town.

Our place at the Quinta da Figuerinha - a place with a view; and many friendly dogs.

Chilly nights and cool mornings; no chance to use the swimming pool neither at dawn, nor later.


Breakfast on the terrace - with delicious portuguese bread, salted butter and fresh mandarine juice, made from fruits coming directly from these trees. And finally some time to read -paradise!

Not far from Silves, another house with a view; we knew the owner, who infortunately passed away two years ago, quite well and had several times the chance to spend some beautiful days there (always dreaming on how it would be to finally hit the lottery jackpot and buy the house to live there, since he wanted to sell it for years).
Apparently his children decided to keep, we heard they rent it as a holiday home.
Somebody put this page at the entry of the house - has anybody an idea what language this is and what it means?

Second breakfast: Pasteis de natas et galão at a small café in central Silves, managed by an old couple, who today looks exactly the same as 12 years ago, during my first Algarve stay.

The picturesque southern coast being only a few kilometers away, we spent lots of busy hours on several beaches, building sand castles (note the convenient bucket).


Huge contrast of coastal holiday homes (note the hung Santa Claus on the top of the third):

More to follow.

# posted by Julia @ 3.1.08
Comments:
hello.
i,m japanese girl.
i live in okayama-ken.
your kids are very very cute!!!
can i get your cute kids picture?
i can,t read your diary.
but i enjoying your many picture.
thank you !
# posted by Anonymous Anonym : 04.01.08, 07:17
 
Liebe Julia,

ich bin mal wieder auf Deine Seiten mit den Reportagen aus Deutschland gestoßen und schließlich auf den Zettel an der Finca. Es ist ein buddistisches Mantra in mehrfacher Wiederholung. Mit "Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayath" kommst Du wohl auch im Internet weiter.

Alles Gute für 2008 ! Viel Glück, Erfolg im Beruf (was genau treibst Du eigentlich in Ffm ??), Freude mit Deinen beiden Jungs und ganz herzliche Grüße aus Bayreuth !
Pedro
# posted by Anonymous Anonym : 04.01.08, 21:57
 
Es ist das Gayatri Mantra, meines Wissens ist es aber dem Hinduismus zuzuordnen. Übersetzung aus dem Sanskrit:
"Om, wir meditieren über den Glanz des verehrungswürdigen Göttlichen,
dem Urgrund der drei Welten, Erde, Luftraum und die himmlischen Regionen."
Möge das Höchste Göttliche uns erleuchten, auf dass wir die höchste Wahrheit erkennen.
Es ist sehr schön zu singen und bringt sehr viel Klarheit und Entspannung.
# posted by Anonymous Anonym : 20.01.08, 17:46
 
@miki: you can directly download the photos from the blog.
@Pedro und Ivy: Danke!
# posted by Blogger Julia : 20.01.08, 22:32
 
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