Friday, November 25, 2011

A new toy for cats and dogs

toy for cats
As someone who has several very intelligent dogs, I am always looking to find something that entertains them mentally.

I read with great interest an article about a new accessory for dogs and cats that is receiving good reviews in the U.S..

At the end is a food bowl or food distributor, which requires dogs (or cats) to seek food and think how to open the compartment where it is, forcing them to use the mind and senses.
toy for dogs

Two videos showing the product,












Official website: http://aikiou.com

I hope it can reach Portugal in affordable price ;)

Monday, November 07, 2011

A trip to Palmela



Palmela castleOn this weekend, taking advantage, of the bad weather break, little blue sky and wormer weather, we went to take another trip in our country.

Since my son is learning the Portuguese history in school, were the Setúbal district represented an important part, I decided to take him to see in live one of the castles that had an important role in our history.

trip to Palmela with dogs

So, we went to visit the Castle of Palmela in the small village of Palmela that is located in the coasts of the Serra da Arrábida and from above Lisbon.

seeing Lisbon from above the Palmela castle

I have to admit that the will wasn’t huge, since the weekend had a bad start, but me and my son needed the break, and there is nothing like taking our four leg friends for a trip to lift the spirits and of course in the end we were very satisfied and happy with our decision to go ahead with our plans and go out.

trip to Palmela with dogs

Our 4 leg companions were two Australian Shepherd, that, like always, love the chance to be the envy of friends.

Palmela is a picturesque town with cobblestone streets that really takes us back to the time that what was so common to see on our lands and easily forgotten in the big cities.

Palmela castle

The castle is very well preserved and with a lot of signs explaining what we were seeing, and although we were forced to go on Sunday instead of Saturday how I had planned, we didn’t lost anything, since everything was accessible and open to visitors, including (to my great surprise) the tourist office located within the walls of the Castle.

trip to Palmela with australian shepherd

Even our canine companions had a chance to run in the castle gardens and had a stress relieve.

We have some mandatory points when we go to visit a new place, one is the local museum, other is the local church (since in many places is the most ancient building) and the local cuisine.

pastry Tradições

In addition to wine and muscatel, I was unaware of the sweets of Palmela and was the office of tourism that pointed out a local pastry that was focused on the traditional sweets

queijadas de palmela

On this pastry we taste three different queijadas de Palmela, a regional brad, and of course, the cheese of Azeitão, that my son just love. Also we bought a small dry sweet to give to our four leg companions.

queijo Azeitão

In the end we visit the Palmela church which is the first we've seen almost totally covered with tiles, which gives it an unusual clarity and lightness.

Palmela church

Palmela is for certain one more of our Portugal sites that will stay in our hearts and memories ;)


Other trips and travel: