Today there was a break in the rain so we took the train into Amsterdam. The Zandvoort train station is an easy 10 minute walk from the hotel. Buying tickets was super easy. They have yellow machines at all the train stations. You can also buy tickets online. From what I understand you don’t even need to buy tickets, you can swipe your credit card at the machines to enter and exit the stations. I didn’t want to do that because kids age 4-11 cost less so I wanted to get a kids ticket for Leo. Kids under 4 are free and kids 12 and up cost the same as adults.
Zandvoort train station
I looked online and saw that there are trains to Amsterdam about every 30 minutes, so we decided to just walk to the train station when we were ready. A train arrived a few minutes later and it was so quiet that I didn’t even hear it approaching. I only noticed it because the whistle blew. The train we caught was scheduled for 9:20. It arrived at 9:09, doors closed at 9:19 and it left at exactly 9:20. The train has screens in each car telling you what the next station is. Taking the train in the Netherlands has been one of the easiest things I have ever done.
It’s not raining today but it is really windy and cold. We went to the NEMO science museum because it’s only 10 minutes from the train station and would give us a break from the wind. Leo was not into the short walk at all. He did love the museum though.
NEMO Science Museum
After the museum Leo had a bit of a tantrum because he just wanted to go back to the hotel. I guess he is all waked out even though we hadn’t even walked that much at that point. After stopping to get a snack I was able to convince him to go on a boat tour. I figured that would be a unique way to see the city since Leo definitely wasn’t going to let me see the sites on foot.
The boat tour was an hour and it was a nice break. Leo had a few toys that he played with so he (mostly) let me look around and take pictures. The houseboats in Amsterdam are amazing. Before the boat ride I had made a deal with Leo that after the boat ride we would get lunch and then head back to the hotel. He was really done with walking and luckily we saw a hot dog stand in front of the train station. He’s a pretty picky eater but he loves hot dogs!
Finding our train back was a little more complicated but still easy enough. The Amsterdam Centraal station is really beautiful from the outside. I don’t really remember the inside because I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss our train. We’re on the train right now. Fingers crossed there’s not another meltdown when we get off because we still have a 10-minute walk to the hotel.
Amsterdam looks like a beautiful city. I spent about 4 hours there so I really didn’t get to see much. Obviously it’s on my list to visit again some time. I don’t think we will come back this trip, but we’ll see.
We made it to CenterParcs Zandvoort! When I booked this one I noticed the reviews are quite a bit lower than some of the other CenterParcs Resorts. I see why and I don’t like it as much as the one we went to before, but I chose this one more for its location than the actual resort.
I chose this one because it’s right on the beach and there is a train station that’s about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. The train can take us to some cute nearby towns, and Amsterdam is only about a 30 minute train ride away. Sofia loves site seeing and traveling, but Leo needs more breaks and down time. Sofia is much more independent, but Leo doesn’t like to do things on his own.
I’m like Sofia in my travel style, so I figured this specific Centerparcs would be a good compromise for me and Leo. He gets lots of down time and we can go to Amsterdam for a few hours of site seeing. We can be together 24/7 which Leo loves, but we will also have lots of different things to keep us busy when we want to be.
We haven’t even been here for 24 hours yet so I really can’t give a fair assessment of this place. It’s not as charming as the last one and just has a different vibe. It also doesn’t have quite as many activities on site, but that’s okay because there is so much more nearby. The other resort we couldn’t even really leave because we didn’t have a car. Unfortunately it has been raining all morning, so we haven’t gotten to venture out much. We did check out the indoor playground. It’s not as big as the other one, but it’s still nice and Leo loves it.
CenterParcs Zandvoort
This CenterParcs has cottages like they all do, but it also has a hotel. Leo and I chose the hotel for a few reasons. First, it was hundreds cheaper. We’re staying for 7 days and I think the cheapest cottage was €400-€500 more. Plus the breakfast buffet is included with the hotel, so that’s one less meal to pay for. It doesn’t have a kitchen though, so we can’t cook. It has a beach view, which I really love.
The view from our room
Last night we walked to the main dome, which has the pools and the restaurants. We haven’t gone into the pool area yet, so I’m excited to check out the pools later. The rest of the dome was okay, nothing particularly impressive. They also have a farm/petting zoo here somewhere.
The weather makes me realize how lucky I was on my trip with Sofia. If it had rained it would have really sucked because we were outside the whole time. At least here we have inside activities to keep us busy. Even so, I really hope the rain lets up soon so we can go into the nearby town and maybe head to the beach. And go to Amsterdam of course.
I will make a part 2 once I have actually gotten to see the park. Like I said, we really haven’t seen much. I don’t dislike this place at all, but I bet I will end up loving it by the time we leave.
Right now Kyle and the kids are in Castelo Branco and I finally get a little bit of peace and quiet. I took the kids to Castelo Branco for a day trip a few weeks ago and it’s nice there. I need to go back and see more because we barely got to see it.
Castelo Branco
Summer vacation has been kind of rough, but we’re making it work. It’s so much easier when the kids are split up, so I’m taking Sofia on one more trip before school starts. Sofia has been wanting to go somewhere where the kids will understand what she is saying. I have been wanting to go to London for a long time, so that’s finally on our agenda for August! Obviously the language will be easy and I think that Sofia and I will like the food. I love palaces and gardens and London seems to have plenty of those. I love natural history museums and really miss them. London has one so we will definitely visit. Even better is that it’s free!
Barrocal Parque Castelo Branco
When the kids are in school we won’t be able to keep pulling them, so traveling will drastically slow down (for the kids anyway). Kyle and I agreed that we can each go on a 2-3 day trip by ourselves during the week while the other parent stays home. We will probably each take a trip every few months. In September Kyle will be going to Vienna to visit his sister. I’m excited for him. Vienna is on my list- really everywhere is on my list!
My first solo trip is going to be to Seville, Spain. I have been wanting to go but have heard about how hot it is during the summer, so the timing hasn’t been good. I think October or November will probably be a good time to visit. I’m excited to go but it will also be weird. I traveled before I met Kyle, but we met when we were 26. Then we had Sofia and Leo in our mid thirties. Things have been pretty loud and hectic since Sofia was born 5 years ago. It will be really strange to have so much silence and to not be showing the kids stuff. Whenever I go out without them I notice things that they would like and that I wish I could show them. I haven’t traveled completely solo since my early to mid twenties, which was a few decades ago now! I’m a little nervous about solo travel just because I have really come to appreciate the company of my family even though they drive me crazy sometimes.
Castelo Branco
In a few weeks I’m taking Leo to a Centerparcs in the Netherlands. Leo and I haven’t gotten a trip together, so it will be nice to spend a week with him. I loved Efteling, but that trip was hectic and busy so I am happy for a more laid back trip this time. Then I will have another hectic and busy trip when Sofia and I go to London. The Centerparcs Leo and I are staying at will be really close to a train station and only a 30-minute train ride from Amsterdam. I’m planning on going into Amsterdam for at least a few hours and hopefully we will be able to check out a town or two nearby.
Jump Yard Lisboa
This year has been absolutely insane travel wise. Once the kids are back in school I will have to start saving money, but that should be pretty easy. We have been bleeding money this summer. Entertaining kids is expensive! Kyle has been taking them out while I work and we have been paying a babysitter once a week so that Kyle and I can go out for a few hours. I suppose that all of the travel isn’t helping my savings account either, but after paying the bills I will almost always prioritize traveling. We have finally gotten used to living in Portugal, but it does still feel surreal how much we are getting to travel Europe and that we will get to do so for years to come. Especially now with Kyle and I planning on taking trips for 2-3 days at a time. I will get to see a lot of different places next year.
Alcobaça Monastery
It has been different splitting up to go on these trips. It’s weird making memories with only half of my family, but I also think these trips can help future family trips. Now Sofia and I have a pretty good feel for Efteling, so when we all go as a family we will know what rides we’re excited to take Leo and Kyle on. Sofia and I will get to know London, which will definitely help in future trips because we will know which neighborhoods we do and don’t like. Kyle will know a bit about Vienna so whenever we all go together he can show us around. It has been an adjustment to go with only one kid, but it does make the trips a lot more affordable!
Today was day 3 at Efteling. Tomorrow will be our fourth and final day. When I booked this trip I knew a lot of people compared Efteling to Disneyland and said that Efteling is better. I definitely on board with that! We go back to Disneyland Paris for Christmas so I will be able to compare again, but I think I Efteling will always be the winner in my book.
Efteling has so much green space and beautiful flowers. They have tons of fountains and ducks. Sofia has developed a sudden interest in ducks because there are so many here. Efteling has an abundance of benches that are in the shade, which I really appreciate since we have been getting 18,000 steps each day! I also appreciate how Efteling uses scents to add to the ambiance.
We meant to spent a day in each area of the park, but on our first day we were so excited that we walked around most of the park. We went on the big rides we wanted to do. The second day we went to a part of the park we hadn’t seen yet. Today we stuck to the fairytales and playgrounds in the park. Tomorrow we will have to revisit our favorite rides.
Sofia’s favorite ride is Max & Moritz, which is the family racing roller coaster. We both like Max best- the blue side. My favorite ride is droomvlucht, which I just call the fairy ride since I have no idea how to say that word. I love the track on the ride (it’s above instead of below). I love the displays you see and at the end you go up a bit and then down semi quickly. It’s cute and it’s fun.
Sofia also loved the Carnaval ride. It’s fine although the music is kind of annoying and gets stuck in my head. I liked the gondola ride. A few people said to skip it but I really enjoyed it. It was a nice way to rest for 20 minutes and to see parts of the park from a different view. There is a train here with two stations, but one of them is closed right now which is why we have been walking so much.
We rode all three tracks of Symbolica. We both really liked the treasures one. Sofia isn’t quite tall enough for most of the roller coasters yet. We did go on the wooden one which I really thought she would like. She ended up hating it because it was too intense.
We want to bring Kyle and Leo here of course. I think next summer we will try to come visit. Efteling seems like a great park for so many ages. Sofia’s age (5) is great but I could see older kids liking it too because of the coasters. The dark rides are nicely done and I think most people would appreciate them. I love Efteling- it is definitely one of my favorite theme parks and I’m excited to come back. Next time we’re going to stay at one of the Efteling hotels. We’re staying off site this time which is fine but next time we want to be in one of the hotels on site. They’re building a brand new one right next to the entrance with a sign saying it opening in 2025!
I’m still trying to figure out the Portuguese schooling system, but here are a few things I have figured out so far. School becomes mandatory the September after they turn 6 years old. For Leo this is pretty easy since his birthday is in February. So Leo will turn 6 in February of 2026. That means that school becomes mandatory in September 2026. For Sofia it’s a little more complicated, but not much. Her birthday is in September. She is only 5 years old right now and will turn 6 just a few weeks after the school year begins. They do have an exception if the birthday falls between specific dates. I can’t remember the exact timeline, but it’s something like if the student turns 6 between September and October then they can begin school when they are 5 instead of waiting the entire year until they turn 6. I’m not sure if school becomes mandatory this year for Sofia or not until next year, but she is definitely ready now and everyone I have talked to has said she can start when she is 5.
Mandatory school here starts with 1st grade. They have cycles and I have only really learned about 1st cycle, which includes grades 1-4. Prior to 1st grade kids can start with pre-school and then kindergarten. Here is our experience with enrolling them for kindergarten and 1st grade.
We registered them for private school, so the process might be a little bit different than public school, but I imagine it’s probably very similar. It all started by contacting the school. I think it was around March that we emailed them for a tour. We showed up and they told us that the next step would be to come back on a specific date to register them. We showed up on that day and they gave us a folder full of paperwork and a list of the requirements for registration and they told us to come back at a specific date in 3 weeks.
They asked for photocopies of documents (residency permit for student and guardian). Since they’re a private school who bases tuition on income they also asked for a recent rent receipt as well as our IRS tax return. They asked for the student’s residency number and utente number. They did ask for social security numbers but since the kids don’t have those yet I just left that part blank. They also had us fill out some of the usual stuff like who to contact in an emergency, if the kids have any allergies, and who is able to sign them out of school. There were a few things we had to plan out a bit, like getting their vaccination records from the Centro Saude and a letter from their doctor saying they are fit to attend school.
While doing this we also had to register them online at the Portal das Matriculas. I thought that this was only required once school becomes mandatory (at 1st grade), but the school told me I need to register Leo too. Through the Portal you have to submit a lot of the same information that the school asks for- residency card, proof of address, and approve or decline some releases. You also have to choose your school- I think you can pick up to 5. Our school told us to just pick them as they will approve our kids. I think the selecting up to 5 is more for the public schools just in case your top school is full you need a backup or two. Registering Sofia was a bit of a pain just because I had to translate so much, and even once translated not everything made sense.
The school and Matrículas wanted passport sized pictures of the kids. There are tons of apps that will convert pictures to passport sized ones. I found one with a bunch of different countries (since passport photo sizes are different in Portugal than in the US) and a 3 day free trial. I took a couple pictures, uploaded the digital ones to Matriculas and Kyle printed out two copies of each kid. Then I cancelled the trial.
We showed up to school yesterday to complete registration. Apparently I was supposed to make an appointment, which I completely missed during our last conversation. The woman doing regisration at the school does not speak any English, so I have been trying to get by with my super limited Portuguese. Luckily she is amazing and said she would do the registration. Once she entered all of the information she had me pay a fee for each child. Overall it was pretty easy, but a little bit tedious. The first day that we decided to tackle the paperwork took us a few hours to translate and get a lot of the documents together.
I am so happy that they are registered and just about ready to go for September. The only thing left to do really is order their uniforms from the website the school gave us. The woman in the office told me that there is a parent meeting the night before school starts. Hopefully we can find a babysitter and learn a bit more Portuguese by then. When we did the tour there was a woman who spoke English and she told us that the parents go to school with the kids 3 days during the school year and we’re hoping that the first day is one of them. I’m sure they will have a lot of helpful information at the meeting, we just need to be able to understand it!
So much has been going on the past few weeks and everything just feels like such a whirlwind. I’ll start with my favorite update- travel is back on! I guess I should take a few steps back first. So we heard back from the guy doing our taxes (he charged 185 to file the return) and it turns out I owe quite a bit less than I expected. This year work has been slow, so I have been trying to work as much as I can and save money because I thought we would owe way more in taxes. Work has been picking up the past few weeks and I even got a new contract that I’m really excited about. With that contract comes a lot of training, so I have been busy trying to get training in as well as learning the ropes of the things I will be doing in this role. So now that I’m not having to save so much money each month we can afford to travel again. I’ll talk more about that in a second.
The accountant we used charges 75 euro per month to do everything tax related. He will file all of my green receipts and social security. He will tell me how to pay my social security (and how much), and I can prepay some of next years taxes if I want to. We decided to go ahead and work with him because I still have not looked at how to file social security and clearly I need some help as far as taxes go. I signed a year long contract and that price will also include filing my tax return next year. I am relieved because the last 2 years that we have had to file taxes we scramble around in January/February tying to find someone who can help us file. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders to barely even have to think about taxes anymore.
I guess I should touch on the title as well! Kyle got pulled over a few days ago. We have had the car for a year so I am kind of surprised we hadn’t gotten pulled over until now. Two police officers were standing on the side of the road looking at cars and he said he knew he was going to get pulled over because they looked at his plate and then did a double take. They waved him over to the side of the road. They were pretty upset that he still has his US driver’s license, so we’re going to try to get started on the license exchange again soon. That’s going to be a huge headache. Kyle got pulled over because our inspection expired in December. We had thought we had more time but were wrong, so we got a 250 euro ticket. Ouch! Kyle schedule our inspection for next week.
The school closest to our house had a spot open for Leo. We went and got all of the paperwork and will have to bring it back to the school on May 6. We need Leo’s residency card so Kyle went back to the place I originally applied for it in Lisbon. The lady there said that they are really, really backed up and it will probably show up at some point. She gave us a paper and said to give it to the school. I didn’t translate it, but I’m assuming it says something about us paying and having to wait for them to send the card. I’m hoping that providing that letter as well as our receipt will be enough. I finally registered Sofia online today at the Portal de Matriculas, which is required from 1st grade on. It wasn’t too bad, though it did take me about 45 minutes or so because I had to Google a lot of things to understand them. Sometimes even when they were translated into English they still didn’t make sense. Once we (fingers crossed) get them officially registered I’ll make a post all about that.
We finally got the kids signed up for swim lessons, which is something we have been meaning to do for a long time now. They’ll stop going to school next week and won’t go again until September 1 at their new school. Hopefully they will have tons of fun this summer. They will go to swim lessons twice a week. Kyle just went to our local public pool and they had tons of options to choose from. I think it cost something like 128 for the both of them for 1.5 months of classes 2 times per week.
I have been busy getting back to vacation planning and have 3 booked for the year. In early June Sofia and I are going to Efteling. I have been wanting to go there ever since I heard about it. This will be our last trip together for a while. Leo and I will be going to Amsterdam in early July. There is a CenterParcs about a half hour outside of Amsterdam that we will stay at. He really loved CenterParcs and it makes things easier for me. For the Christmas holidays this year we are going to Disneyland Paris! We will be there the week before Christmas and we’re going to stay on site. I’m really excited because the kids are going to love it and it will be great to see Dinsey all lit up for Christmas. We haven’t gotten their school schedule yet, so fingers crossed they actually have the week before Christmas off. I have been trying to find out how many days of school kids can miss in Portugal but am not having much luck.
So that’s what we have been up to. And now I have to get back to my ever growing to-do list.
I know it has been a few months since my last post, but we have finally gotten to a point of just living our lives and I guess it has been too boring to post about. 😂 There are a few blog posts I am going to make once things are done, but for now I can give updates as to the things we have going on.
I guess I’ll start with the title. The kids got sick a few weeks ago. They have had a lingering cough but nothing too bad. Kyle got sick and then he just kept getting sicker and sicker. By Friday it was looking pretty bad. Thanks to Doctor Google I figured that it was probably an pneumonia or maybe bronchitis. In the US we wait until we’re on death’s door to go to the doctor because of the cost. I knew Europe wasn’t like that, so this morning I convinced Kyle to go to the hospital to see what they say. I have been essentially a single parent for the last few days and I’m ready to have a partner again. I don’t know how single parents do this.
Anyway, we decided to go to the private hospital that takes our insurance. They don’t have an emergency room, so we found the information desk and she was able to make Kyle an appointment for 45 minutes later. Kyle paid 17 euro for the visit. Kyle went to visit the doctor, who quickly confirmed that it is in fact pneumonia. He gave us a prescription and we went to the pharmacy where we paid 20 euro for 4 medications including an inhaler and antibiotics. It has been 3-4 hours later and Kyle is already starting to feel way better than he has in a while. So overall it took just a few hours and 37 euro to get treated for the pneumonia! We are still working on shedding our American mentality and getting to the doctor sooner out here. I’m so happy that we were able to get that taken care of so quickly and cheaply.
On to update #2, which would be our residency cards. So I renewed mine, Kyle’s, and Sofia’s online and Leo’s had to be done in person. Everyone’s has arrived except for Leo’s. They said that if his does not arrive in 60 business days that there is a problem. It has been 67 business days, so we have emailed them and hopefully they can get this sorted out.
For update #3, we have been getting ready for school registration. Elementary school registration opens April 15. Originally the plan was to enroll Sofia in the public school right next to her current school. That way we could park and drop Sofia off at 1st grade and Leo off at kindergarten. Since Leo has already been going to his school for a year he probably wouldn’t be too upset about having to go without Sofia. Sure, it would kind of suck, but it wouldn’t be scary as he already knows the place. Well, his preschool recently announced that they are closing down on August 31, so Leo can’t go there next year.
Leo’s Birthday Cake
We know that Leo and Sofia will be fine no matter what, but it would be kind of nice for them to be at the same school. It will also make things easier for us. Since we are looking for a combined kindergarten and 1st grade, that means private school. So I was expecting our expenses to go down by a few hundred euro a month since we were going to transition Sofia from private to public school, but now it looks like our school expenses will go up quite a bit instead. Arg. We found a great school somewhere in Leiria (I’m not familiar with the area) and we went to tour it. We love it but unfortunately they don’t have any openings for kindergarten or 1st grade. There is a school we always used to walk past and Sofia always wanted to go there. We see kids all over Leiria with their uniform, so we went to tour it and we like it a lot too.
There are pros and cons to each school. The one further away reminds us a lot of what an American private school would be. They even have a swimming pool and have lessons there included. They take regular field trips to the beach. The curriculum is very much to let the students take control and decide what their strengths are and what they need to work on. The school closer to our house means we would probably walk them to school a decent amount of the time. Their curriculum is more strict- actually the kids are a bit behind (especially Sofia) and they begin teaching them to read in kindergarten. Sofia has been learning a bit at home, but not enough to know how to read yet. Also if we go to the school closer to home we would walk into downtown quite a bit more as the school is on the way downtown from our house. The school further away would cost 415 euro each kid, and the school closer to us would cost 399 euro for 1st grade and something like 300 or 350 for kindergarten. I can’t remember.
Parents of enrolled students are currently having to sign contracts for the next year, so by the end of the week most schools will know what their fall openings will look like. The further away school has a waitlist and it’s doubtful that we will get an opening. The school closer to us already knows they will have openings for 1st grade as many of the parents put their 1st graders into public school. We’re not yet sure if there will be a kindergarten spot so we have to go next week to sign Sofia up and see if there is a spot for Leo. Obviously we hope there is a spot for him as he needs to go to school and we were hoping to keep them at the same school, but we just have to wait and see.
Our last update is about taxes. Maybe next year I will get everything right…? So last year I learned that I am supposed to be filing green receipts with the finincas. I learned how to do that and got it done last year. I also was able to get a social security number for myself. Now my next step is to learn how to pay quarterly social security taxes. Last year we found a big company to do our taxes for 400 euro. Their price this year is something like 600 or 700 euro. This year I really wanted to pay less as most accountants don’t charge that much. We dug around some Facebook posts and Kyle was able to find someone recommended that charges…I can’t even remember. I think it was around 200 or so, so that’s way better. He will file the return next week. I really want to see what we owe. Last year I used a bit more of savings that I should have and am a bit stressed about what we will owe for taxes this year. It will all work out fine, but I’m wondering if I owe what I think we will or it could be more, but it could also potentially be thousands less. Another thing to wait and see.
So that’s our life right now. I’m working and we are waiting to see what happens. No travel on the books right now unfortunately. We can’t afford it quite yet. I’m hoping that once taxes are paid we can have one last hurrah before the kids start school again in September. Oh, and we decided the kids will just finish out this month at their school, so they won’t be in school May-August so things are about to get a lot more hectic!
I renewed my residency card online back in November using the old SEF website. It says concluded but nothing else has happened so far. It wouldn’t let me renew Leo’s online so I had to schedule an appointment. It took a while to get one. The site always says there are no appointments so I checked multiple times per day and one day in December it actually showed some appointments in Lisbon so I grabbed one. It was on January 3.
Coimbra Christmas Market
I took both kids with me. We left a good 2.5 hours early but arrived late. First there was an accident on the freeway and we got stuck in traffic. Then there was an accident on one of the one way streets in Lisbon and we got stuck for at least 20 minutes. When we finally got to drive by we saw something had happened to a trolley and they were trying to repair it. Because of the accident the parking garage we planned to use wasn’t accessible.
I found a parking garage that was a 15-minute walk away. We finally made and the security guard helped us get our ticket to wait. This time was different than Setubal because the security guard wasn’t checking names. Anyone can walk in or out- you just use the machine to pick a ticket for whatever you’re waiting for.
Wonderland Lisboa
We ended up waiting for about 3 hours. I thought about leaving because we missed lunch and were hungry, but the longer we waited the more it seemed like a waste to not go to the appointment. We finally got called back and luckily the woman processing us spoke perfect English. She apologized and said that their systems were down for much of the day and everything was taking so much longer than it should.
She asked how we originally got our residency card (D7 visa) and then asked me what documents she needs. On the AIMA site they say proof of address, proof of income, proof of tax activity if applicable, and proof of social security if applicable. I gave her my lease but she said she didn’t need it since we haven’t moved.
Leiria Market
For proof of income I brought my 2022 tax return, but it’s not accurate as that year we lived largely off of savings. I brought all of my green receipts filed from last year to show that we do qualify. She said she didn’t need all of it, so I probably should have just brought 6 months worth. She copied everything and then took a picture of Leo and got his fingerprints. We paid the €170 fee by bank card. She asked for Leo’s NIF, utente, and social security numbers. I told her that Leo doesn’t have a social security number so she just took the other two.
She told us that we would hear back within 60 working days. If I don’t hear back in 60 working days I need to contact the AIMA headquarters in Lisbon. Obviously I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. I still haven’t heard anything back from my online renewal in November. I’m a tiny bit worried, but not too much since it hasn’t been 60 working days quite yet and of course things are going to be backed up with the holidays.
Fórum Coimbra
The whole experience felt a bit messy, which I guess is to be expected since the company has changed. In theory 2/4 of our residency cards are renewed. I still need to do Kyle and Sofia’s. I had planned on making a fun day out of the Lisbon trip but there were so many delays that we were there pretty late. On the way back to the car it was raining, so we all got soaked and just wanted to go home.
Caldas
I’m adding some pictures from the Christmas markets we went to this year. We made it to Leiria, Coimbra, and Caldas da Rainha. Coimbra was pretty nice- it was big with a lot of rides. Caldas only had a bouncy castle setup and some pedal cars. Kyle took the kids to the big Lisbon market when I was working. Christmas felt like it came and went so quickly this year. We did finally buy a Christmas tree and some ornaments this year! It was nice getting a tree again.
We’re about to leave CenterParcs to head to the airport. It has been so much fun. I was supposed to take Leo on a vacation in two months, but I’m just going to come back here with the whole family. I really want Kyle to see this place and I think Leo will like having Sofia here. Sofia is more independent and social than Leo is and even she has missed having a playmate here. She keeps trying to speak Portuguese and doesn’t understand why no one responds.
We finally got a break in the rain two days ago. We went to see the animals at the petting zoo. There is also the farmer’s house which has bunnies and Guinea pigs. During certain hours you can pet them which Sofia loved. She rode a pony and did the kid’s safari. The safari was tough because she was actually driving the car so I had to help her steer around a bit.
Yesterday she did an activity called “wanna be.” They have a few of them, like wanna be a farmer and wanna be a chef. She did the chef one and it was a special holiday one. They made cookies. For that one I dropped her off at the kid’s club for 1.5 hours. I got to walk around and check things out a bit more. They have lots of fun toys in the kid’s club. I think usually the club is for kids under 4/5 unless there are planned activities but I’m not sure.
We’re sad to leave but super excited to come back in a few months. No travel plans until then but this will be our first Christmas season with a car so I’m hoping to go see some lights. We still haven’t been to Coimbra yet at Christmas time.
Recently SEF has changed to AIMA. Our residency permits are up for renewal in December and things have been a mess. I have been following posts on Americans & Friends (the Facebook group) and many people making appointments have been getting emails that they’re cancelled and to wait for further details. Some people have had success using the old SEF online renewal portal, so I gave it a try.
It was really easy. I just click renew and then they review it and 48 hours later you pay the fee- €170 as of right now. It says concluded and in theory my residency card should arrive in 5 or so weeks. I just did mine for now to see if it actually works or if I donated €170 to the universe. It says Leo’s is not eligible for online renewal so I will still have to navigate the new AIMA system to renew his. Things are a mess right now and lots of people have expired cards, so I expect the same to happen with Leo but hopefully it gets sorted out soon. It’s almost impossible to get an appointment right now.
Yesterday Sofia and I made it to Center Parcs in Belgium. This place seems amazing for small kids. They have fun stuff like a huge indoor pool, big indoor playground, a farm, and then they have planned activities like pony rides, arts & crafts, and kid’s disco. Some are free and some you have to pay for. They also have some restaurants and a small market on site.
Today we checked out a lot of the indoor stuff. They have an amazing Aqua Zone with a bunch of different pools. My favorite was the lazy river and the indoor/outdoor pool. The outdoor setting is amazing.
There is a huge indoor play area. Our favorite was the foam ball area. You gather all the balls to fill a thing in the top that eventually spills over. There is so much we haven’t even done yet. There is a farm and pony stables that I want to go see. Sofia is scheduled for pony rides on Tuesday. Today she made a stuffed animal which she really enjoyed. This place is amazing and has been a lot of fun. Tomorrow is supposed to rain but hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be clear.
Growing Up Expat 