Today was another interesting day here in Portugal. We met with a realtor this morning and had a very interesting discussion. He showed us one property that we liked immediately that is actually in a golf resort similar to the one we are currently staying in and came away with many more questions than answers. There were many advantages to the property he showed us and made us think that there might be a different option to facilitate the move over here – when we decide to pull the trigger.
One of the challenges in securing a long term stay visa here, which is required prior to getting your residency permit, is that you have to show that you have a long term lease (1 year) or own a place in country as part of your application submittal. The catch is that you have to be out of Portugal (back in the US for us) to submit the application for the long term stay visa. Many people end up leasing places that they are unable to occupy for several months while this process plays out.
They used to accept Airbnbs and things like that, but they are getting much more picky. We have read many accounts of people who tried to circumvent the system by doing something they thought was very clever only to find that their visa applications have been turned down. This whole process of lining up an accommodation BEFORE you can submit your application from your home country is certainly one of the more challenging aspects of this whole process.
After we finished with the realtor, we drove to Caldas da Rainha which is only about 30 minutes from where we are staying to check it out when the shops were open and the town was alive since yesterday was a holiday. We went to the fruit market and walked around a bit. They have a lot of ceramics here and we saw some beautiful things.
A very unique thing about Caldas da Rainha that is a bit strange and/or shocking to some is that many of the ceramic shops have ceramic phalluses for sale, known locally as “louca falica” . They seem to be everywhere. There are also pastries in this same shape. How this originated seems to be somewhat of a mystery but it is something that Caldas da Rainha is known for! It is not to cater to the tourist trade as this has been going on since the 1800’s! Feel free to Google it – I’m not making it up! Welcome to Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.
After we left Caldas, we wanted to check out a little town about 20 minutes away but down by the coast. The town Foz de Arelho was another town like Nazare that we found quite charming. We didn’t spend a lot of time there but it looked like the kind of place we’re looking for.
We decided to take the adventurous route back to our hotel so we picked the really squiggly route on Google maps and took off on another one of Mr. Toad’s wild rides. It took us about 45 minutes to get back to the hotel but it was great fun and we saw some interesting homes and countryside. How did the world get along before GPS came along??
Tomorrow is our last day here in the Silver Coast region before we head further north to Porto Friday morning. We intend to go spend some time in Obidos tomorrow which is only about thirty minutes from here. Obidos is an old walled city and a major tourist attraction in the summer. Hopefully, it won’t be too crowded tomorrow. The adventure continues.