This spring we had the lovely German blogger Inken Pauli and family visiting. Below is her account of her stay with us, you can see the German original on her blog Around About Travel.
Casa Flor de Sal - a paradise in the Eastern Algarve
When we spent our Bavarian Whitsun holidays in the Eastern Algarve, we stayed in a highly recommended accommodation: the farmhouse Casa Flor de Sal in the Ria Formosa Natural Park. Not only we adults found the estate beautiful and personal; even our children were, and still are, thrilled when they talk about the swimming pond, the pools, the storks, frogs, fish, rabbits and chicken.
The eyes of our children grew big as we drove up the driveway of Casa Flor de Sal. A huge stork nest welcomed us with its five-headed stork family. Immediately after getting off, everything had to be spotted by our children: an enchanted swimming pond, pools, a playground and a vegetable and fruit garden with thick strawberries to be harvested!
Casa Flor de Sal is an estate located in the Ria Formosa Nature Reserve. Alexandra and Martin, a Portuguese-Danish couple, have run the estate for many years. With great attention to detail, they run the property with seven individually decorated holiday homes, surrounded by a heavenly garden.
During this holiday, we realized that kids do not really need any amusement parks to be happy. Every free minute we went to the pond to observe frogs, fish and other animals.
The estate - managed with love!
It was remarkable with how much love Martin and Alexandra operate Casa Flor de Sal. The garden was beautifully landscaped and maintained to the smallest detail. Every morning we picked strawberries and peaches for breakfast, for lunch and dinner we had fresh salad and cucumber from the garden. Casa Flor de Sal was like the Garden of Eden: everywhere hung fruit on the trees or shrubs and it grew the most beautiful flowers! Around us were storks, chicken, rabbits, frogs and fish. During the stay, we almost did not see our children: they were tracking the frogs and fishing at the pond, on the basketball or football field, on the playground or in the pools. In the evening, we often played a game of billiards before going to bed.
Swimming pond and swimming pools - in swimming gear all the time!
Who of you has ever bathed in a swimming pond? We admit, we had to convince ourselves to take our first dip in the pond. Then it was great to swim next to water lilies and frogs. The resting places at the small beach next to the pond were comfortable. Great were also the pools, and the possibility to have homemade smoothies from Martin and Alexandra. The swimming pools and the swimming pond were fenced and locked by a garden gate, perfect for families with small children!
Cottages - cozy and authentic!
We stayed in a beautiful Portuguese-rustic, but tastefully decorated cottage with a bedroom, living room and a sleeping loft for the children. Every day we had breakfast on our roof terrace and in the evening grilled on our patio. Fortunately, there was a small shop in the Casa Flor de Sal with the most necessary food and supplies, in which we often bought sausages for our barbecue. All cottages have names of birds that can be found in the Ria Formosa. We stayed at the Stork House.
Activities - From Flamingo to Frog-Watching
There was a lot to do at Casa Flor de Sal! Martin and Alexandra offered a varied daily program adapted to the seasons. On Monday, it was the flamingos. Impressive, as they came in droves to land in the deserted salt lakes. On Thursday evening, we watched the bats drinking at the swimming pond. For this Martin had set up floodlights. Even the otherwise shy frogs were so dazzled by the lights that we could observe them in peace on the lily pads. Every morning the children could help Ligia, an employee, feeding the chicken, rabbits, ducks and guinea pigs.
Free bicycles were also available, with which we made wonderful tours. A bike ride was especially memorable for us: we went to Fuseta to the Café Borda d'Agua to have a coffee. The trip passes old salt fields and the beautiful landscape Ria Formosa - a very special sight!
Unfortunately, we did not manage to go on a kayak tour offered by Martin. Maybe next time?
This year we have started weekly stargazing sessions with our guests as many over the years have commented on the fantastic night skies we have. We look at what is there around 22:00, at the moment Jupiter and Saturn are in view. At one of the last sessions I put my camera out too - the bright spot just to the left of the center is Saturn; with the telescope we could clearly see the rings. You can also see the Milky Way over the left part of the photo. 
A great thing about stargazing at Casa Flor de Sal in the summer is that you don't get cold :-) For interested photographers: ISO 800 30s f/4.0.
One of the birds you are sure to see at Casa Flor de Sal if you look is the Little Owl. They are common around here, and we gave Alexandra a sponsorship of recovering one at RIAS as a Christmas present.
RIAS is based at the visitor centre at Parque Natural de Ria Formosa and had saved two little owls; one found with a broken pelvis and one fallen out of the nest. As we had sponsored it we were invited to participate in the release, unfortunately Alexandra was not able to be there but was replaced by our oldest son Daniel. We had the chance to see it before the release and they are really small, just compare to the hand.
And then it went:
Just a last look close up:
After all the work with updating the website I wanted to do something different. We have had some very clear days and nights (and cold, today it _snowed_ 6km from here!) and I thought I would try star trails with the pool. In the evening I set up tripod, prepared camera, had the lens focused to be ready before six in the morning and then - clouds showed up! Not to waste the work I took photos anyway, here's the first result.
As our guests know, we have a stork nest at the property, and it is interesting to follow what is going on. 
We have had storks on it every year, but the last 3 seasons they have not been successful breeding. One year the young died, and the two next nothing hatched. We think one of the partners are new this year, and in any case they have produced two young, who seem to be growing well. They have to, as they normally leave the nest around the beginning of July. Looking at the photo, you can see one of the parents lying to the left of the young. Other birding: A couple of days ago, we saw a tern diving for fish in our natural swimming pool. We could not identify it (it was not a Little Tern), but as it was diving from at least 5m in the shallow part we almost worried if it would hurt itself. Apparently not, as we saw it repeating the dive a couple of minutes later.
