A Month in Porto and a Road Trip Along Portugal's Coast

(This post was created in partnership with @homeexchangecom. All opinions are my own.)

Nature is where my art starts. I edit at my desk in Berlin, but the pictures themselves come from outside. When I spend too long in the city, my creativity suffers, because I simply stop taking photographs. I need landscapes for inspiration and as the raw material for my work, so travel is not a luxury for me. It feeds my heart and my creativity. If you are thinking about a home exchange, this is what one month looked like for me.

A request from Porto

Last year, a request came in through HomeExchange from someone in Porto. She wanted to swap homes for a month and stay in Berlin. I had wanted to visit Portugal for years and had never been. Because I work remotely, I could say yes, and suddenly I had a month in Porto, without accommodation costs, to live, work and make art.

A month in Porto

Living somewhere for a month is different from travelling through it. The swap gave me a whole flat for myself, with a study of my own, so I could work from home properly. For two weeks I worked from there, and after work the city was waiting. I walked down to the Ribeira along the Douro, sat by the water to read, or sat in a café in the evening. In my lunch break I explored my neighbourhood in Bonfim, which is quiet, beautifully located and easy to get to know. Home exchange was exactly what this trip needed: a quiet home, a study, and a national park within reach.

I walk a lot wherever I go, and in Porto I often walked all the way to the coast, sometimes several kilometres in a day. Once I got so close to the sea that the waves came up over the rocks. I took this photo there.

Down the coast in a rental car

After two weeks of work, I rented a car and drove south along the coast on my own. I went through Aveiro and stopped in Costa Nova, where the sunset light lay across the water.

This is one of the two photographs behind Dancing Light, available as a Hahnemühle Photo Rag Print or as a Framed Canvas.

Next was Peniche, with its view from the cliffs over the Atlantic.

In Nazaré, I had come straight from Peniche on a day that was already grey. It started raining on the way, and then it rained hard. It was my last evening, and I had not yet been up the hill above the town to look down over it. I wanted to make it there for the sunset, but I was not sure I still had time. When I arrived, the sun broke through. After the storm, the sunset was the most beautiful of the whole trip, and then the rainbow appeared. The light was golden and magical, and I was very grateful. It was one of those days.

An enchanted forest on the way back north

On the way back north I stopped at the Buçaco forest. I love forests and nature, and I also love old palaces and castles. Before the trip I had looked at places along the route on Google Maps, and that is how I found the palace in the forest. The photos made me think: I have to stop there.

It was a wonderful place with a strong atmosphere. The gardens around the palace are neat and beautifully kept, and then the forest begins, with small paths winding through it that look overgrown and wild. On one side everything is tidy, on the other it is wild, and I walked there for a long time. It was a very magical place.

Everything is lush and green here. I read that the forest has more than 250 tree and shrub species, and that it was certified as a healing forest in 2026, the fourth in the world. I cannot judge the healing part, but walking there, the green and the calm felt good.

Peneda-Gerês National Park

After the forest I went on to Peneda-Gerês National Park. I set off without much planning and I late in the day. Several trails run through the park, and I did not know whether I would manage the big one in the time I had. For a moment I was afraid I had lost my way. In the end everything worked out. 

On the walk I met a horse. I have always had respect for horses, and this one was roaming freely. Then it came up to me, and it was a truly lovely moment. I walked on, and a few more came my way.

The last week with a friend

After the road trip, a friend came to visit for a week. She stayed a few days in the flat with me and worked from there too, and we explored the Douro Valley together. So the month was full: two weeks of work and exploring Porto, one week on the road on my own, and one week with a friend.

Creative work on the road

Evenings were for creative work. The trip inspired me so much that I kept making work while I was away, without knowing yet that it would become part of my exhibitions. The time in Porto and on the road became the basis for works in Between Realities and Body of Nature. That month in Portugal was an important creative journey for me.

Why I keep swapping homes

I have been an active HomeExchange member for three years. I get plenty of requests in Berlin, but the best part is what a swap gives back: a place I had never and a reason to get out and explore. Swapping homes is a slower, more personal way to travel. You live among local routines instead of in a hotel lobby, and you share your own home in return. It brought me so many beautiful memories already.

If you want to try it

Set up a complete profile, tell people who you are and why you want to visit, and add photos of your home. Be patient: a good swap can take a few messages before it works out.

My HomeExchange referral link:
https://upf.ai/r1iakdus

If this makes you want to travel a little slower and a little greener, and to explore the world, or simply the area around your own home, with curiosity, then this post has done its job. I think a home exchange can be a real enrichment for that.