Turquel - the starting point

Created by the monks of Cister, about 700 years ago, Turquel is a small town, with nothing special except being My town. It's a quiet and safe location where you can live an healthy and peaceful time. The locals are nice and warm, and being in the center of a small country, everything is minutes away.
The landscape is beautiful, and the weather always nice. As local attractions we have the Parque Natural da Serra dos Candeeiros, a natural park in a small mountain, with caves and dinosaur trails, a Manueline door in the main church, and some traditional windmills. Loosing expression in recent years, the local fruit is still excellent, specially apples, pears and peaches.
Anyway, the best is really the people.
My other writings about travelling
Travelling Disease
​My first touristy experience happened when I was 17, at the end of high school, with a memorable trip to Andaluzia.

In 1991, a few months before going to the war in Africa, I made another remarkable trip, wandering in west Europe with two friends. A little bit of Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and United Kingdom were known then.

After 30 years organizing life, I was infected with travelling disease. 
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Finally in peace and democracy, Fernanda joined the team and, before the kids, we tried to know better Portugal and specially Algarve, adding Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany to my travelling list, and... stop again, waiting for the kids to grow a little.

The family trips

When the younger reached 5 years, in 1988, it was time. Let's try to remember the family trips:

Just a couple again

From 2004 to 2011, when I professionally retired, we made a few more trips, just the two of us:

in family as seniors

In 2012 the family grew, and we recovered the family travel again, now with a new perspective, now focused in the babies, and beach in Spain became a regular vacation. From 2012 till now, Marbella, Benalmadena, Puerto de Santa Maria, Torremolinos,  Fuengirola and Roquetas de Mar were the choices to see something new each year.
Well, we still live, we still dance, we still travel, and San Petersbourg or Bali are just there...
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Avelino

The team - Avelino

I'm getting old, maybe life is becoming harder, but I'm travelling less nowadays.
Travel with the family, when possible, was always a must, but I had also some individual visits.
Professionally, with some trips to some of the countries already visited, I had the chance to add Ireland, Scotland, England, Sweden, Denmark and Czech Republic to that list.
In 2006, I visited Saint Louis and Philadelphia on the way, before the holidays with Fernanda.
In 2009 I spent a week in Istanbul used to know better that great city, and retired in 2011, Now family is in command.  So far...
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Fernanda

The team - Fernanda

She fears planes, but never looks behind. For almost 40 years she is there, in life and in all the good traveling days. Despite her good performance, she still has more than 350 shops in the world to visit and doesn't want to give up.
Her dream trip was to Thailand, and she would like to repeat. I don't mind (and flying to Bangkok puts Malaysia and Indonesia just "across the street", but she demands stopovers. Still checking prices...
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Tito, Cláudia and the first marvel

The team -Tito

Born in 1980 he has been a good companion in almost all our travels.
Nice and communicative, he is a positive member of all his teams, and usually takes the initiative.
As expected he found a new (better?) company, and started travelling on their own. In 2011 to Angkor Vat and Thailand.
When I was thinking that  it was time to reverse things, and try to follow him, In 2012 they enlarged the team with a marvel called Diogo and another one in 2015 called Guilherme. Do you imagine the pleasure of two weeks with them each year in Spain?
And the old folks are so useful... aren't they?
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Horácio

The team - Horacio

Born in 83 he closes the team, and lately, in doubt, he rather follow his brother than the old guys. Difficult to see in daylight, when awake has a good sense of humor and observation, that makes him a good company.

In 2015 he started to work in Brussels, and do you know a better reason to a deeper visit to Belgium?