Portugal has been on my short list of travel for several years now.  I kept reading about and hearing from others about how many people love it and plan to retire here in the future.  Not just those from the U.S. either.  It is popular with many expats from other parts of Europe as well.  Why?  The weather, the ocean, the culture, the people and the food.  Obviously we had to check it out.  We flew from Rome and landed in Lisbon.  There we rented a car and headed south to the region known as the Algarve.  Thankfully, after the heat in Rome, the weather was clear and cool.  [Read more…]