^{Our vacation this year was in Florence, Italy, with a side trip by train to Venice. Beautiful city, very walkable, and with superb food in every little restaurant. We flew Swissair. It was truly pleasant to be on an airplane and be treated like a welcome guest.}

Central Portugal, but no specific parish just yet. Aiming to be not too far from Coimbra, and somewhere accessible by public transport as my other half doesn't drive. It is kind of retirement, though my good lady is an artist/designer and they never retire. :Just Kidding:

 

Retirement nonetheless, we've no inclination whatsoever to join the golf-junkies and their 'English pubs' in the Brit ex-pat ghettos down in the Algarve :LMAO:

 

There appears to be a thriving FS community in Portugal.

 

We hope to move next spring, but we'll have to sell the house here first :Thinking:

 

That's more than enough emoticons for one post.

 

Yeah I can understand wanting to avoid the ex-pats and wanting to get a taste of traditional Portugal. My other half and I fancy retiring to rural France - been there many times and just love the scenery, tranquillity and slow pace of life. I'm not sure we could uproot ourselves fully though.

Hi!

 

For summer hopefully this year we are going to an apartment in Switzerland in a town called Baden near Zurich for a few weeks. I love the Swiss coffee and croissants and will try to take the train every day to Zurich flughafen or Zurich hauptbahnhof. There are also nice thermal baths in Baden which is the main reason why we go and a good river to go jogging by. It will be hopefully me, my Mum and Dad and my aunt and we'll be going by car.

 

Many thanks,

 

Pierre

^{Our vacation this year was in Florence, Italy, with a side trip by train to Venice. Beautiful city, very walkable, and with superb food in every little restaurant. We flew Swissair. It was truly pleasant to be on an airplane and be treated like a welcome guest.}

 

Went to Tuscany in 2009 and spent a day in Florence. Stunning city but I was in a hire car (LHD where I'm used to RHD) and they are nutters behind the wheel! Apparently it's even worse the further South you go!

Went to Tuscany in 2009 and spent a day in Florence. Stunning city but I was in a hire car (LHD where I'm used to RHD) and they are nutters behind the wheel! Apparently it's even worse the further South you go!

If you think Italy's bad, Portugal has, I believe, the highest rate of traffic-related death & injury in Europe. They're very laid-back people generally, but once behind a wheel... :yahoo: :Shocked:

I suggest you buy a tank then, or walk everywhere! ;)