Michael Bach, who is 56, has been the German Consul for Faro, Beja, Évora, Portalegre and Setúbal districts since 2002.
He has lived in the country since 1999 but started visiting Portugal after marrying a Portuguese citizen in 1979.
With two grown up sons, one of them also living in Portugal, the German Consul is proud to say that he knows “Portugal from the north to the South”.
As with many foreign residents, he loves the country for “its climate, friendly people and safety”. Despite its size, he told The Resident, “Portugal has a tremendous variety of people, landscape, dialects, food. It’s all so interesting here”.
Unfortunately, according to the German consul, “the majority of the foreign residents, including the German community, are retired people who travel to the Algarve to relax and, due to the language barrier the farthest they go is usually, Lisbon”.
With an estimated 20,000 Germans living in the southern region of Portugal, the German consul agrees that like other foreign communities, the German residents also tend to stay amongst their own country fellows, although “they like to know and mix with the Portuguese community”.
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