On Assignment – Casa Des Principes, Praia D’El Rey, Portugal
For our wedding, my sis and bro-in-law very very generously gave us a week in their swanky new Portuguese casa. In return, they asked me to take some pictures for the villa’s website for when they start marketing it to Joe Public in two years time. If anyone is interested in renting this luxury pad for a snip of what you’d normally need to pay, drop either me or Claire a line and we’ll get you in touch with Deb & Tony directly (see the contact us button if you’ve strayed here).
Why you need to rent this villa…
Located in Praia D’El Rey, Casa Des Principes (working title) is less than an hour north of Lisbon. Set amongst pinewoods, it offers stunning scenery, world-class beaches and golf courses, Unesco-protected villages and towns, superb food and wine (at more than reasonable prices!) and a lovely, temperate climate all-year round.
In addition to its large reception and lounging area, it boasts:
- Two bedrooms & two bathrooms
- Two sun terraces – one upper, one lower (both perfect for al fresco dining)
- A fully featured kitchen with all mod cons (the fresh coffee maker is recommended!)
- An indoor dining area that seats six
- HD TV with Sky, DVD player and stereo
- A choice of three heated swimming pools.
And, to cap it all off, the local golf course (only a 3 minute walk away!) was voted 2007 European Golf Resort of the Year and Portugal’s #1 course by Peugeot Golf Guide.
You might guess that we immediately became huge fans of the place, it’s a lovely villa in a great part of Portugal. Regrettably, I had to inform Deb that I’m not 100% happy with the photos, and therefore need to go back next year to try again. Shame…
More below – just keep scrolling!
First post
Claire relaxing in Matemwe, on the Eastern coast of Zanzibar. The villa we stayed in was built on a low-lying coral reef, and fresh tea was delivered to our door each day for sunrise. I managed to enjoy it once. Claire did it two or three times. Without question, you'll find more pictures of sunset here than you will of sunrise...
As Claire and I start making preparations for circumnavigating the globe, we will be attempting to regularly journalise our adventure via this WordPress site. What started as a microsite for our wedding guests has now morphed into our means of recording (and therefore safeguarding) the dispatches and memories of our world tour. In recognition of this effectively being an overhaul of our original site, we’ve moved providers and given ourselves a pretentious new name. The new name was chosen for two reasons.
Firstly, the ”North Room” was the guest room Claire and I shared on our first long-haul holiday together at Zanzibar’s Emerson & Green Hotel more than five years ago. Emerson’s is a fantastically old, colonial-style building set in the “atmospheric” (read as “cramped” & “musky”) streets of Zanzibar’s Stone Town. The North Room, on the 5th floor, is a “colonial vintage” style bedroom with a teak, four-poster bed and Zanzibarian stone bath. It has a northerly aspect to it and is jaw-droppingly enhanced by being only partially enclosed; one side of the bedroom as well as the whole en-suite bathroom are completely open to the elements. And that means it enjoys views reaching far-out over the old spice-trading port’s sun-bleached town houses and to the Indian ocean beyond. In the few nights we were there, we could lie in bed and listen to the sounds of the town and stare at the heavens.
Happy days.
Inspiring ones too, as it happened; it was this holiday that really sowed the seed for more far-flung adventures and gave us the aim (if we ever got the chance) to one day go further – for longer – and see more.
This “Norhtern” aspect to that room we shared also alludes to the second reason for the choice of name. As I’ve become obsessed more serious about taking photographs (Claire – you’ve got the patience of a saint darling), I’ve learned that north-facing room windows offer portrait phographers some very nice light. The reason for this is that they offer consistently softer light compared to those facing east, west and south – because of the daily transition of our sun. And, now that I’ve had the good fortune to establish a growing photography client base, North Room gives me a brand name that has both meaning and relevance. Simpe as that.
Anyway, whatever we make of this blog, we hope you enjoy visiting.
Mike & Claire x
This is the old North Room blog - the new one is at www.north-room.com/blog 
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