Casa Catarina

I booked a 3 month stay at Casa Catarina during the "winter period". Casa Catarina is a renovated quintinha, a small farmhouse style house, beautifully situated in the hills of Porto Carvalhoso, above Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo. It's quite remote but is in a group of 4 houses so as a woman I felt safe enough alone. The first thing you notice is the white with blue accents of the house, which looks very inviting and of course the garden, really beautiful, full of fragrant and colorful plants and walking paths in between; I spent many hours on the blue bench in front of the house in the sun.
The house is spacious and has everything you need: a nice living room, a few small steps to the blue kitchen with a 4-person dining table and all kitchen utensils (including oven), bathroom with nice walk-in shower and washing machine, a large bedroom with a double bed and a smaller bedroom with possibly 2 single beds and a wardrobe. I used this last room as a workplace, because during these 3 months I did remote work for the company in the Netherlands, a work as they call it nowadays. The most important thing for me was a good internet connection and it was indeed very stable (even better than in the Netherlands), even during Team and Zoom meetings. The owner had also taken the trouble to properly set up the place for me as a workplace, but I only brought the office chair with me. In any case, both the owner and the manager were very helpful and responded quickly to questions.
At the front of the house there is a large garden and at the side/back a small terrace with parasol, a wooden terrace on top together with the plunge pool, wonderful on warm days. The living room and master bedroom have air conditioning (for cold and warm air), both bedrooms also have marble stone heating and the living room also has a pellet stove. Water comes from a special tank, you have to buy normal drinking water. There is a river nearby, which is very nice if you have a dog with you. Beautiful hiking trails in the hills or for mountain bikers. It is wonderfully quiet and you are woken up by the birds in the morning. The location is less suitable for small children or people with mobility problems or people who like a lot of hustle and bustle around them.
Santa Catarina is about 10 minutes away by car. You need your own transport here! I brought an E-bike with me, which was not a success unless you are super sporty because those hills are quite steep ?? There is almost no mobile coverage, but there is a landline and you can call via the internet with Whatsapp/Skype etc.
Fortunately, my 2 kittens Luna and Mel were also welcome at Casa Catarina and especially enjoyed the enclosed garden, where they could run and romp around in reasonable safety. How disappointing they will soon be in my Dutch garden. Litter box is available in the cottage.
I didn't need the air conditioning for the cold air, but more for the warm air and that worked fine. Together with the pellet stove it is comfortable and cozy.
During the winter time I was there, the worst rainfall in about 10 years fell and this caused some problems (as with almost all houses), but was neatly resolved by the owner and also by the manager of the house.
All in all we had a great time, definitely worth repeating.
MV