Emma

Hello All


Been reading this forum on and off for a while now as we hope to up sticks from the Cotswolds, UK and settle in Northern Portugal sometime.

My question is to those of you that ride... horses of course we have 2 and would want them to come over once we have settled (ish!) has anyone else had experience of this? clearly i will only move them if i have a suitable place for them to live, and as we are looking towards the North i am hoping the climate will be OK for them.

Also, maybe i will start another thread, or have a mooch through the existing ones - i can't help but notice that most ex-pats in PT are not overly happy with the working environment - are many people "commuting" to the UK or rest of Europe to work? as this is the plan for my partner in the beginning, as he is the main bread winner (for want of a better word/phrase) and works in IT. Has this proved very difficult/easy for you or would you consider it to?

cheers in advance


Emma x

Supremegermalene

My husband is thinking of commuting back to UK for his regular clients (he's a decorator not an escort LOL) as they all tend to have major works done once a year so it would mean flying back for a week or two at a time and the money he'd earn in that two weeks would probably be 2 months worth in Portugal.

We are leaving a van here at my Mums for him to use hopefully it'll work out ok, if he can bear to be away from the kids for that length of time.

Magick

Hiya

I would say that the climate in the mid-north Portugal is just fine for horses - from my limited experience I would say its pretty much the same as the UK but hotter in the summer and not as cold in the winter.

So long as the horses have adequate shelter from weather extremes I cant think of any reason not to bring them over - I assume tho that they would need a vets cert to get them in and certainly to take them home again if you decided to leave PT

Emma

LOL i have "clients" in my work as well - and get the odd strange look if i say i have been with a client!! - tsk! how our minds work eh?!

My children are 9 and 15 and we are having a baby due in August - how old are your children? chances are we'll wait till the eldest has completed his final yr at school (if i can get him there grrrrrrr! he hates school) then move out next yr when baby is nearly a yr old. but hey, "best laid plans.. etc.." we are pretty open as to when, just so long as we do get there!

Your husband sounds sweet - i reckon mine will be only too willing to jump on a plane for a weeks work away from us!! lol (i am joking of course! )

We are used to him working all over the place - so we are just hoping that either the company he works for now will be happy with him working out of Portugal or we'll have to find another one that is! but he is happy to travel - eventually, we want to run our own business out there - but again that seems full of pit falls, so keeping another income seems a better idea in the beginning... anyway, i'm waffling now.. oops!! lol

thanks for your reply

Emma

Thanks for your reply

yep - you are right i think the movement of animals around Europe is very strict now!

Supremegermalene

Mine are 7yrs, 20 months and 5 months and we hope to move in the new year, provided we can sell our house. It may be things happen before then it all depends what happens with things over here. I'd love to move before September so my eldest starts a new year in school at the beginning rather than mid term but we've both just bought cars and need to have them here for 12 months to export them but it might be we can't without paying import tax anyway so we may just take the chance or try to find a way round it so we can go earlier.

I can't wait to just be able to walk out my front door with the pushchair and stroll around until I find someone to have coffee with. It is so much more social there compared to here, I hate being shut in the house all day and having to drive everywhere.

Gemmax

Emma

HI gemma

So, you are still in the UK and with your hands full with your three little ones!!

do you mind me picking your brains a little?? just wondered if you have spent much time out there and how you have chosen schools?? we are thinking that our 9 yr old, who will be 10 when we move - will probably go into a British school for 12 months or so as the language will be a barrier for her, but only as a tempory thing so the transition is easier for her - nothing set in stone, but just our thougts at the mo. the other side of the arguement is that she will get to know the local children going to a local school as well as picking up the language quicker and if theres someone who speaks English in school she may well be fine - but we'll cross that bridge later on i thinking!

Also, we are looking towards the north of the country, as i said earlier - which part are you hoping to move out to?

sorry for all the Q's, please don't feel obliged to answer any!! lol

emma x

Supremegermalene

We will be moving to the Algarve, my husband is from Praia da Luz. It is really not fair to compare the two regions as Luz has loads of expats so the local schools have a fair few English/German/Dutch kids I doubt there would be very many up north? Have no idea though. We are thinking private English school to start off with though, Portuguese state schooling isn't that great occasionally teachers don't turn up and there are no relief staff etc. When they are little they may only have morning school so the older ones can go in the afternoon...I doubt we will really be able to afford private school for long though and very much doubt it when all 3 are in school. Hopefully by that time they will have sorted the schools out a little? Who knows.

All I remember is when I moved to Mexico when I was 8 (was there for all of 2 weeks in the end) I went to an international school. We had a spanish lesson that was conducted totally in Spanish and when I came out I cried my eyes out as I didn't understand a thing and felt like someone had thrown me overboard...if the whole day had been conducted in Spanish I would have found it awful, but I was a very shy child that always wanted to do well and couldn't cope with not being able to do something.

HTH
Gemma