Before we moved to Portugal I was looking for some pictures for my blog and I found the picture of all the umbrellas. I finally figured out that the picture was taken in Agueda. It has been on my list of places to visit but we decided to wait until July when they have the art festival AguitAgueda and the Umbrella Sky Project. I’m not sure if the umbrellas are up all the time, but they are definitely up every July.

It’s a cute town and somewhere that I would have explored anyway, but it’s even more charming with all of the umbrellas and colorful things around. We have been lucky because the weather has been on the cooler side this year, so we’re able to enjoy more of the summer festivals and activities this year.

We don’t have a ton of plans for the rest of the year. I have just been working to fund our move to northern Portugal next year. I know I have always talked about Braga and it has always been the place for us, but things have been changing a bit since we got a car. When we moved to Portugal I didn’t want a car, so I wanted a walkable city with lots of things to do and a train station so that we could leave easily. I wanted to be really close to a city center. Braga has all of that.

With a car it’s okay if we’re a little further from city center. I want to be somewhere walkable, ideally within walking distance of a market, a playground, a restaurant, and the kid’s school. In some ways a smaller town might work because things will be closer and ideally easier to walk to. I definitely still love Braga, but I want to look at a few more places. I can’t remember where I first heard of Viana do Castelo, but it looks really cute there and I could see us living there. We also like Ponte de Lima and want to check it out. If we’re in a smaller city we might be able to get a little house with a yard. Living in an apartment has been fine, but a house has its draws too.

All of this to say that we just booked a trip up to Northern Portugal in the fall. We will be staying in a house in Barcelos for just under 2 weeks. We’re definitely going to Viana do Castelo and Ponte de Lima. I want to go back to Guimaraes and I’m sure we’ll add a few more places to look at. Braga is still very much on our list, but with the car we would probably choose somewhere a little further from city center since apartments in the city center are getting more expensive.