Well, we woke up early by the sun streaming in through our window, after all the horrible weather we had all week, it was such a lovely change to see the sun. We both looked at each other and said almost simultaneously, it would be really nice to be able to see that last property again in this sun. Teresa suggested phoning the agent and ask directions, but I thought despite everything I was fairly sure that I could find it again and if not then we would phone them. I would really like to revisit it without Remax and see what the views there were and how the constant downpour had affected the stream, would the stream be overflowing? What ever happened to our day of rest, peace and tranquility, oh well there’s always later today or even next holiday.
We agreed and by just after 8:30am we were breakfasted and had set off back up the A23. The conversation was as enthusiastic as the previous day, with an added slice of pessimism and apprehension. We managed without too much problem to find the road to the village and driving slowly through the village found the gap between the houses, folding in our door mirrors we squeezed through the gap. It seemed a bit further that we remembered, but we soon found the plot.
[Photos] The sun was beating down, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the views, well they were every bit what we would have wished for, to the North the views of the hills, to the East the plateaus, to the South clear views all the way to Castelo Branco and beyond and the West was protected by a raised bank, so no clear view but gave the property a feeling of privacy.
The stream was exactly as it had been the day before; the ground whilst soft was dry under foot. We spent about 2 hours just walking around admiring the plot and consuming the fruit. Yum…. Well one has to sample before buying eh!
As we got back into the car Teresa announced, “I want it, I want it, I want it,” I agreed. We drove down the lane trying to decide what to do next, do we show interest or do we wait? We need to time to think? This is only our first trip, but, but, but, it’s so right.
We drove out the village, through the next and by the time we reached the main road, about 10 minutes later, my mobile was ringing and it was Maria from Remax, “Just wondering after you comments yesterday, as it was such a lovely sunny day, today, would you like to go up to the last property we visited yesterday?” Do we say anything? Do we tell them we have already been back? Why not, we explained that we had already been back and spent a couple of hours.
Had we made it too obvious we were really interested? Well why not, we were and if we were why shouldn’t we find out more. So we arranged to meet them back in their office in Castelo Branco in the afternoon.
Around 2:30pm we met up with Maria and Paulo and explained we were really interested and asked a bunch more questions about what we could build, e.g. how big etc. I have to say we were really impressed with their knowledge, they knew the plot inside out, they knew all the information about what was allowed on the plot, plus what was or was not allowed on the adjacent plots as well. We were told that the plot next door was just agricultural and no building would be allowed. We thanked them again and explained that whilst right at this moment we felt this was right, we needed to go home to the UK and have a few days to think it over.
Could we really have found what we wanted on our first trip? No it doesn’t work that way, does it? We were so adamant we would not buy or even find anything on our first trip, remember in an earlier blog I had mentioned we had allowed 3 years to find what we wanted. We were so excited. I cant remember what we did the rest of the day, but I do know we did nothing else about from discuss this property, until we eventually fell asleep back in the hotel, so I guess one thing we did was drive back to the hotel.