Perseverance pays....

[macliam]

A bit of everything.... I married a Portuguese girl 30 years ago and fell in love with the country. I spoke Castillian and French, so picked up enough Portuguese to get by and travelled all over the country, to some amazing places that few tourists would see and met some great people. Then I worked hard enough to allow us to buy a place in the Alentejo, which we both love...... nothing big, but enough for us and with 5 acres of land and far from the madding crowd, paying it off with my retirement lump sum. hey presto!

I fell in love with and married a Portuguese girl 30 years ago and fell in love with the country?

Terrific success story your own place in Alentejo and 5 acres of land!

Do you help us mere mortals, be it for a fee, to follow in your footsteps and live a magical lifestyle?

A quick YouTube video is mouthwatering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIDGFrkeu0

Nice video, but the pronunciation is painful! Almost every word they try to use is wrong! Try this one..... you'll have to read the subtitles, but it's more "real" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK24NLHEiMw (You'll also hear how Portuguese is actually pronounced, God help you!)

Land near me is cheap, but not too fertile - and needs a LOT of work to grow anything but scrub. I spend my time working on the house and land, not sunning myself by the pool.... but it's peaceful and clean - there's no light pollution and little other pollution either.

Monte.jpg (238.14 KiB) Viewed 2505 times

I'd encourage anyone to take a look at the Alentejo, I'm in the middle of nowhere, but can be on the Algarve coast in under an hour and also on the Atlantic coast in the same timescale, all without much traffic.

[BeautifulSunshine]

Cottages.com: Book holiday for May using £30 of Tesco points to get £100 off. Cancelled of course so offer is we can have holiday for next year without fees to them. So ask for same fortnight, same cottage next year. July we get email saying our voucher for no fees holiday next year is running out.

I have sent lots of emails since May. Keep getting the we will get back to you asap but those with holidays about to start are being prioritised.

Yesterday we got confirmation we can have the cottage for the fortnight we want.

A well deserved break.

[BeautifulSunshine]

Rathlin Island Massacre

The Rathlin Island massacre took place on Rathlin Island, off the coast of Ireland on 26 July 1575,[1] when more than 600 Scots and Irish were killed.

Sanctuary attacked
Rathlin Island was used as a sanctuary because of its natural defences and rocky shores; when the wind blew from the west, in earlier times it was almost impossible to land.[2] It was also respected as a hiding place, as it was the one-time abode of St. Columba.[2] Installing themselves in Rathlin Castle, the MacDonnells of Antrim made Rathlin their base for resistance to the Enterprise of Ulster. Their military leader, Sorley Boy MacDonnell (Scottish Gaelic: Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill) and other Scots had thought it prudent to send their wives, children, elderly, and sick to Rathlin Island for safety.[2]

Acting on the instructions of Sir Henry Sidney and the Earl of Essex, Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys took the castle by storm. Drake used two cannons to batter the castle and when the walls gave in, Norreys ordered direct attack on 25 July, and the Garrison surrendered.[3] Norreys set the terms of surrender,[3] whereupon the constable, his family, and one of the hostages were given safe passage and all other defending soldiers were killed, and on 26 July 1575, Norreys' forces hunted the old, sick, very young and women who were hiding in the caves.[3] Despite the surrender, they killed all the 200 defenders and more than 400 civilian men, women and children. Drake was also charged with the task of preventing any Scottish reinforcement vessels reaching the Island.[4]

The entire family of Sorley Boy MacDonnell perished in the massacre.[3] Essex, who ordered the killings, boasted in a letter to Francis Walsingham, the Queen's secretary and spymaster, that Sorley Boy MacDonnell watched the massacre from the mainland helplessly and was "like to run mad from sorrow".[5]

Aftermath
Norreys stayed on the island and tried to rebuild the walls of the castle so that the English might use the structure as a fortress. As Drake was not paid to defend the island, he departed with his ships. Norreys realised that it was not possible to defend the island without intercepting Scottish galleys and he returned to Carrickfergus in September 1575.[5]

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathlin_Island_massacre