Show the town or village of your Grandfather

[forest_hills]

My grandparents from my fathers side were from Coimbra. A city famous for its university.



University






From my mothers side, my grandparents came from Viseu








As for myself, i live in a small town called Linhó very close to the touristic village of Sintra.
One of the most beautiful places in the world to me.

Wow, I lived in Sintra ("currently" in Cascais), my grandparents are from Viseu and Aveiro and my week days' workplace as the view of your first pic (Coimbra). How odd 

[nevers0ft]

My mother was born and lived her teenager years in a really small village called Fundão, that by now must be inhabited by less than 50 people.





This is from another village really close to Fundão, sadly found no photos of the small village.
Me and my sister never liked it much even though we spent loads of time there in our youth, it has a really poor cellphone and internet coverage.
It's the middle of nowhere, but you can't deny the beauty of the wild forests and small streams.
Well at the least till the last summer when the black replaced the green caused by huge wildfires all over the place.

On the other hand, my father was born in a small peaceful city called Tomar, where I live at the moment.











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomar

Rich history which includes a templar presence that lead to the building of the Convent of Christ.

[Festivus]

What is impressive is how developed Portugal is. Parts of Spain would only dream of this infrastructure.

That's funny because I thought many spaniards thought Portugal resembles Spain in the 80s in terms of infrastructure and  development. I believe Spain is more developed overall, then again it's much larger, so I'm sure its bad parts are also larger. What are the most developed parts of Spain? Basque country, Madrid and Catalonia, i assume?

The wealthiest regions in Portugal are Lisbon, Algarve and Madeira, I think. Portugal has a problem in the interior. The interior is not that populated and doesn't offer as many opportunities as the coastal areas do.

How is the infrastructure in Greece?

[Faliro]

My mother was born and lived her teenager years in a really small village called Fundão, that by now must be inhabited by less than 50 people.





This is from another village really close to Fundão, sadly found no photos of the small village.
Me and my sister never liked it much even though we spent loads of time there in our youth, it has a really poor cellphone and internet coverage.
It's the middle of nowhere, but you can't deny the beauty of the wild forests and small streams.
Well at the least till the last summer when the black replaced the green caused by huge wildfires all over the place.

On the other hand, my father was born in a small peaceful city called Tomar, where I live at the moment.











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomar

Rich history which includes a templar presence that lead to the building of the Convent of Christ.

^^ Just looked at the street view. Love the old narrow streets. A bet a few people have searched for that lost treasure.

[Cloughie]

Fundão is known by the quality of its cherries.

[Faliro]

What is impressive is how developed Portugal is. Parts of Spain would only dream of this infrastructure.

That's funny because I thought many spaniards thought Portugal resembles Spain in the 80s in terms of infrastructure and  development. I believe Spain is more developed overall, then again it's much larger, so I'm sure it's bad parts are also larger. What are the most developed parts of Spain? Basque country, Madrid and Catalonia, i assume?

The wealthiest regions in Portugal are Lisbon, Algarve and Madeira, I think. Portugal has a problem in the interior. The interior is not that populated and doesn't offer as many opportunities as the coastal areas do.

How is the infrastructure in Greece?

I can only speak for the region of my forefathers - Catalunya. It is exceptionally developed.  However there are vast swathes of wilderness - just wastelands in between Barcelona and Madrid. The parts of Spain that lack development are mostly in the south and places likes Extramadura. From what I have seen on this thread Portugal blows away the rural communities there - unless every member of Serbenfiquista just happens to come from excellent towns!

Greece? Athens has state of the art infrastructure. Roads, trains, sewage processing - it is advanced. The rest of Greece? meh.. The Portiuguese towns win I think. The region my maternal Grandfather comes from (first post) now have state of the art roads - which is excellent. Takes just over 2.30 hours to now drive from Athens to Kalamata. Before it was ridiculous.

Even the small roads are better now. This is me taking the mountain roads to Sparta from Kalamata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrnB2QnBxK8

Greece has lots of nice towns and villages that are sort of up to date in most things (very different to Iberia though - different feel) but also of these type of abandoned villages - it is sad but I guess beautiful in a way:

https://youtu.be/SBd1YqOPgYw?t=1466

[Festivus]

Isn't Greece quite mountainous? That probably makes it more difficult to build roads in some parts of it.

[Faliro]

Isn't Greece quite mountainous? That probably makes it more difficult to build roads in some parts of it.

Exceptionally mountainous.

This is the main road to Leonidion - one mistake - instant death.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@37.1393691,22.7578344,3a,75y,18.31h,82.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHJvM_mljaH1mKLTAe8844Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Festivus]

How much snow does Greece get in the Winter?

I've only seen snow on tv and in pictures.

[Faliro]

How much snow does Greece get in the Winter?

I've only seen snow on tv and in pictures.

Gets a lot of snow. Especially the mountains.

For example - Leonidio is in the valley at the foot of the Parnonas Mountains. The next village up every year?



Some mountains around the area are snow capped for big chunks of the year - same even in places like Crete:

[Voros1904]

Very nice topic, the father of my father was born in Tavira, Algarve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqu4JZALx70

But on the 30's he moved to Luanda, Angola (On that time Portuguese colony)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aupx36nZE

where he met my grandmother, from Rio Maior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziq_9wotVRA

My father and his 11 siblings were born there. During the colonial war half of the family moved to Portugal, Brazil, USA and UK. But my father stayed (he was the 3rd oldest son and was in the army). The war was mostly concentrated on the North and there he met my mom.

My family is the tipical Portuguese-Angolan family, we live in both countries at same time (going and coming all the time) and of course we all almost all Benfica fanatics (except my brother Fernando, Fernando is a jackass(Porto Fan) 

[Faliro]

Very nice topic, the father of my father was born in Tavira, Algarve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqu4JZALx70

But on the 30's he moved to Luanda, Angola (On that time Portuguese colony)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aupx36nZE

where he met my grandmother, from Rio Maior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziq_9wotVRA

My father and his 11 siblings were born there. During the colonial war half of the family moved to Portugal, Brazil, USA and UK. But my father stayed (he was the 3rd oldest son and was in the army). The war was mostly concentrated on the North and there he met my mom.

My family is the tipical Portuguese-Angolan family, we live in both countries at same time (going and coming all the time) and of course we all almost all Benfica fanatics (except my brother Fernando, Fernando is a jackass(Porto Fan) 

Are there many Portuguese left in Luanda?

Tavira looks like a good place for a holiday.

[Festivus]

Very nice topic, the father of my father was born in Tavira, Algarve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqu4JZALx70

But on the 30's he moved to Luanda, Angola (On that time Portuguese colony)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aupx36nZE

where he met my grandmother, from Rio Maior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziq_9wotVRA

My father and his 11 siblings were born there. During the colonial war half of the family moved to Portugal, Brazil, USA and UK. But my father stayed (he was the 3rd oldest son and was in the army). The war was mostly concentrated on the North and there he met my mom.

My family is the tipical Portuguese-Angolan family, we live in both countries at same time (going and coming all the time) and of course we all almost all Benfica fanatics (except my brother Fernando, Fernando is a jackass(Porto Fan) 

Are there many Portuguese left in Luanda?

Tavira looks like a good place for a holiday.

I believe Angola currently has one of the highest White populations of Sub-Saharan Africa. Only Zimbabwe and South Africa have higher ones, I think. Maybe Namibia as well? Not sure if the majority of them are Portuguese, though. Luanda probably attracts people from other parts of Europe and people from the Americas as well.

[Voros1904]

Very nice topic, the father of my father was born in Tavira, Algarve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqu4JZALx70

But on the 30's he moved to Luanda, Angola (On that time Portuguese colony)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aupx36nZE

where he met my grandmother, from Rio Maior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziq_9wotVRA

My father and his 11 siblings were born there. During the colonial war half of the family moved to Portugal, Brazil, USA and UK. But my father stayed (he was the 3rd oldest son and was in the army). The war was mostly concentrated on the North and there he met my mom.

My family is the tipical Portuguese-Angolan family, we live in both countries at same time (going and coming all the time) and of course we all almost all Benfica fanatics (except my brother Fernando, Fernando is a jackass(Porto Fan) 

Are there many Portuguese left in Luanda?

Tavira looks like a good place for a holiday.

Plenty. During the war many Angolan-Portuguese couldnt adapt to the new life in Europe and after the war they moved back to Angola. Many other thousands stayed there and other few thousands imigrated on the last 20 years.

For me in this migration circle there is 3 main groups. The mixed (Portuguese-Angolan/Angolan-Portuguese), the Portuguese (with no conection to Angola) and the Angolans (with no conection to Portugal).

Is dificult to estimate an exact number of Portuguese-Angolan/Angolan-Portuguese but some statistics says there are 126.000 (2015) Portuguese-Angolan (39.000 registered in the Portuguese embassy in Luanda) in Angola and 162 604 (2011) Angolans (39.000 registered in the Angolan embassy in Lisbon).

These numbers are always dificult to quantify exatly because many people have dual nationality or simply live their life as Portuguese or Angolan.

[forest_hills]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NokbWCIeDY

A nice video of my town, which is the town of my grandfather too.

A few of my co-workers are from Vila Real One of my bosses actually started by showing me the history of i think Formula 3 and the majestic circuit of Vila Real, which had very well known international racing legends. Everyone there seems very passionate about cars and motorcycles in general (my boss has like 8 vehicles)!!