Julie Thornley – Audrey’s one-way ticket to Portugal

Words & Pictures Julie Thornley

We were feeling a mixture of emotions the week of our move from the UK to Portugal – stressed, anxious and nostalgic but also excited! We had been planning the move for months, even years, but now the day had come when it was actually happening – our house in York had sold and the removals firm had arrived a few hours earlier than anticipated, catching us a little off-guard. Box upon box rapidly disappeared into the depths of a large van, our small house seemingly larger as our life contents were bundled away. However, it wasn’t until Audrey was collected that it really hit home. Audrey is my Topaz-Mist Figaro. She’s been with us for almost 9 years and I had recently had her resprayed as well as some repairs done in anticipation of her big adventure. I knew she’d cope well in Portugal and had already been in touch with the classic car club in Porto, where she would be deemed a vehicle of historic interest, being over 30 years old. I knew the better climate would also suit her – and us! – with more sunshine, no snow, sludge or salt and less rain. And so her journey began on a cold day in January this year, when I watched her being driven onto the back of a trailer.

The journey begins from York to London…and on to Portugal

The removals firm we used were used to transporting vehicles, usually fancy cars belonging to footballers and the like, so Audrey made a change from the norm and was labelled ‘cute’ by some rather burly removals men, who had not come across one before. Minutes later, she was strapped on to the trailer securely and was disappearing down the road from York to London. Meanwhile, everything was rapidly disappearing from the house and after only 3 hours, the men were gone, our belongings were on their way and we were setting up camp beds to sleep on for the next four nights until our flight to Porto. It should be said at this point, that our cat was still with us and that his journey abroad was to start the same day as ours, but that’s another story. However, by the end of that week having had little sleep on the camp beds and the cat wondering why his house was empty, we all embarked on our adventure. Boris (the cat) was collected early on the Friday morning and we then read the meters and locked the door for the last time, posting our keys through the letterbox. It was a strange feeling, leaving our house of 20 years and the UK, but we were both ready for it, having planned for such a long time.

We arrived in Porto that weekend, with hand luggage and a list of things we needed to do and buy. The weather was glorious and we enjoyed a couple of celebratory mid-morning beers in the sunshine, not quite believing what we had achieved.

To put things into context, we came to Porto for the first time seven years ago and that summer fell in love (as they say) with the city – its architecture, its people, the culture and the old and the new in perfect harmony. We only spent a week there but in that week started hypothesising whether we could buy a property there. Buying a place abroad was always on the agenda and Porto seemed like an up and coming city where property prices were still cheap. On our return to the UK, we scoured the net regularly and joined various mailing lists but at this point it was really just a pipe dream. However, after seeing a mortgage advisor, we realised we could in fact remortgage our house in York and therefore start looking in earnest. The rest is history – we found an apartment near the Ribeira (river front) that was being completely renovated and a year later, once the whole block was complete, we would sign for it, see it for the first time (yes, really) and collect the keys. We are lucky to still own the apartment and have had many happy holidays there over the years and it’s in the perfect location to explore Porto and all it has to offer. This leads me to why we decided to move here, as three years ago, we started looking – again, hypothetically – at houses, thinking that at some point we might make the move to Portugal, having been charmed over and over again by Northern Portugal and our many trips to the apartment.

Anxious not to bore you with the details, as this article is, after all, about my car, in brief we bought a ‘project’ – a house that was crumbling both inside and out, where the ceilings were in pieces over the floors, weeds were growing plentifully inside, the back garden looked like a jungle and there were damp patches throughout. It would have said ‘don’t buy me’ but for the spectacular view of the river Douro and the word ‘potential’. So started what became three years of house renovation, from finding an architect, a project manager and then builders and of course Covid holding everything up for over a year. I am happy to say that despite the difficulties of overseeing such a project from abroad, we succeeded, having found a good architect and good builders, who were able to literally build our dream.

Fast-forward to January 2022 and our arrival in Portugal. We had planned to move into our house in January, then February when it became clear that it wouldn’t be ready on our immediate arrival, but as we have our apartment in Porto, it was not an issue to stay there until our house was ready. That first weekend therefore, we readied ourselves for the arrival of our cat on the Monday, buying all the necessary cat paraphernalia he would need until his (and our) belongings turned up from York. All went as planned and Boris arrived seemingly unscathed from his long journey – collection from York to a cattery in Windsor, a stay in the cattery for 3 nights, then Heathrow to Lisbon on a flight, then Lisbon to Porto by car. Seeing as he’d not left the confines of York previously, he’d had quite an adventure but more than anything was happy to see us (and us, him!)

When it became clear that our house wouldn’t be ready for some weeks (due to supply issues and covid), we managed to delay the delivery of our belongings by a further two weeks and my Figaro even more. We didn’t want my car arriving before we were living at the house for a number of reasons, namely that the builders were still at the house each day using any available parking space and of course, security.

Audrey in the warehouse

Several weeks later and following our goods arriving, we could delay my car no more, despite the fact that our house still wasn’t ready. We had already sent mountains of paperwork over to the removals firm prior to our move, but it transpired one morning that they also needed an ‘Atestado’, a signed statement needed to get my car through customs, confirming our Portuguese address and that we did in fact live there. This was where the fun began. We learnt that to obtain some such document, we had to go to the local ‘Junta’ (town hall) in our village. We were led to believe it was an easy process, so in ignorant bliss we headed there one morning hoping to come away with the necessary paperwork. On arrival at the Junta and doing my best to explain in Portuguese what we required, it became clear that we would not be coming away with any such document that day. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that we needed two Portuguese witnesses to attest that we lived in the village and to return only when we had them. The following week with a sense of deja-vu, we returned with our two Portuguese builders in tow, having volunteered them for the job of attesting and signing the necessary paperwork. However, it became immediately clear that the witnesses we had brought along were not in fact sufficient, because although Portuguese, they were not from our village! (a requirement hitherto not explained) So, there began the comedy element to the situation, with our builders driving us around various places in the village – a small supermarket, a bar, a café, anywhere they had frequented whilst working on our house – asking random people first of all if they lived in the village (to meet the Junta requirements) and secondly if they would accompany us to be witnesses. Nothing came to fruition, understandably. However, as we are both musicians and had been to band practice once before, we remembered that perhaps someone in the band could help. Our builders kindly dropped us off near the band room and luckily a lady who worked there recognised us and was only too willing to help. She asked her mother to ‘man’ her shift at the band room café and meanwhile summomed the Euphonium player from the band to come and be our second witness. Thirty minutes later, I was back at the Junta and this time with two suitable witnesses and an assurance that I could collect my Atestado in two days. Sure enough, two days later my husband and I returned and the document was there, signed by the Mayor and with an official stamp. All this to clear my car through customs, the cost being only 10 Euros.

Several days later and with my car cleared and now in Portugal, the removals firm agreed to store her until I was ready to collect, so she stayed in a large warehouse near the airport for a few weeks, until the house was ready to move into and there was space to park.

Meanwhile, I contacted the classic car club (the Clube Português De Automóveis Antigos) to ask about temporary insurance and the legalisation process, as it suddenly occurred to me that now I had moved to Portugal, my UK insurance would not cover me should anything happen. So occurred another interesting day. The car club had given me an address of an agency who dealt with all aspects of vehicle legalisation, so we headed there first to start the process, having been advised by the club that they couldn’t insure me until I had started matriculation. The next two hours at the agency certainly tested my Portuguese and I must confess that half of the documents I signed, I did not read as I would still be there now. Again, there was lots of shuffling of paperwork (on their part) and lots of uncertainty (on my part) and I was rather perplexed at having to provide six months’ worth of payslips from when I lived and worked in England. However it seemed to be an essential part of the process, as was providing them with the original Atestado – which of course I no longer had, as the removals firm had needed it! Luckily, the removals firm managed to track it down in Lisbon and they duly sent it back to me, so I could provide it to the agency.

Paperwork underway, the next stop was the classic car club. To our delight, it housed a small display of classic cars, so whilst more paperwork was underway to obtain my temporary insurance and become a member of the club, the receptionist and car enthusiast let us see the old cars and scooters, ranging from a BMW bubble car (which the receptionist uses as her main car) to an old Rolls Royce.

Just a few of the vehicles on display at the car club.

In the back room of the club, they also have a bar and lounge, so we were served a coffee while the receptionist enthused about the club, her bubble car and her trips to the UK, where she had seen many Figaros (but none in Northern Portugal). I left with the temporary insurance, a club member card and the satisfaction of knowing that Audrey would be well-received at the first meet.

Now that I had my temporary insurance organised, it was with some trepidation that we went one day to collect her from the warehouse. My husband would navigate and I would drive. We had driven around France on holiday several years prior, but other than that had not driven abroad and therefore had little experience of driving on ‘the wrong side’. I also hadn’t driven her for months, she’d been in a warehouse for several weeks so I had no idea whether she’d start and the sat nav kept trying to take us back to York! A bit of shouting at the sat nav later and we set off. It is common knowledge that the Portuguese are bad drivers (they say it themselves), not bothering to indicate, driving too fast, swerving lanes and seemingly stopping wherever they feel like to talk to a friend, stop for a coffee or simply pick someone up. That they are blocking the road seems to be of no concern. In my case, I drove on the motorway (yes, she started first time) with my face pretty much pressed against the steering wheel and my knuckles turning white as my hands gripped the wheel. It didn’t help when 10 minutes in, one driver that was tight behind me and flashing his headlights, sped past me as I swapped lanes, only to smile and give my car a ‘thumb’s up’!

The hardest part turned out to be coming off the motorway, with the slip roads being on the left and my steering wheel obviously being on the right. With lack of vision to the left and a lack of confidence, I went around the same loop five times, the sat nav and my husband both telling me to just turn off! (I am going to purchase an extra rear mirror to help with this) The next obstacle occurred just as we reached our village, when I noticed the police following me – an intimidating experience in the UK for some reason, but especially so here in Portugal, where the police have a certain air of menace and officialness!

Anyway, we lived to tell the tale. The police didn’t stop us (even out of curiosity!) and Audrey coped brilliantly as I knew she would. There will be more challenges ahead – the roads are ridiculously narrow around our area (although the neighbours, being accustomed to it, manage to navigate the narrow streets with no problem), we will, at some point soon, have to drive into the city of Porto to have my car inspected as part of the legalisation process and we will, for some time at least, feel intimidated by the crazy Portuguese drivers who will not appreciate us tootling along at the average Figaro speed. However, above all, we’re looking forward to getting the roof down and exploring the many beautiful vineyards and scenic villages along the Douro, seeing how many bottles of vinho verde we can pack into the car.

We expect to cause quite a stir too – strangers have showed much interest in her asking me what make she is, how old she is and on her first trip out to the local supermarket and whilst we were loading the car with shopping, a man asked if he could take photographs of her.

It seems therefore that Audrey will settle in just fine.