I am a Dutch woman, born in the 60’s, into a shipbuilder’s family near Rotterdam. My husband (Ronny) and I have five grown-up kids, living in Holland (The Hague & Amsterdam) and France (Lyon) and we are blessed being happy grandparents of Badu (February 2018), Tom (August 2019) and beautiful Ziggy (March 2020)!

As true lovers of nature and sports, we decided to move from the Netherlands to the beautiful surroundings of Sintra Natural Park in Portugal in 2016. The house that caught our eye in Assafora offered such opportunities, that the decision to accommodate guests was easily made.

After my studies (in Switzerland) in the 1980’s, I was in the lucky circumstance to travel to all continents in our world, encountering amazing and great people triggering my ever existing interest in meeting people. That is one of the main reasons I am looking forward to welcome you at our new place in this beautiful country and to warmly receive you in either English, French, Dutch, German and by now also in the Portuguese language!

I am interested in people, in music and design/architecture because my work is also my hobby. Our second daughter Giulia is Product Designer and she helped me enormously with the creation and design of our Joāo Jungle website, our logo and the layout of our units. Our eldest daughter Hannah is a Chef, so we all have a fantastic knowledge and desire for beautiful healthy and special dishes. My second love (besides my family) is sport, including the ocean, swimming, surfing, sailing, hiking and riding a bike. Our sons and sons-in-law are fanatic cyclists! I feel like I lose when I don't ride at least 100 km a week. So, I am happy to recommend some trips and I can even give you prepared itineraries if you also like hiking and cycling.