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It seems amazing that I’ve been here almost a month. Time just keeps passing so quickly. Even this morning I was awakened at 6 AM with a text from a friend who’s arriving here next Sunday. I must’ve fallen back asleep and the next thing it was after 9 AM.

BC was outside the door, waiting for his food; he also went in to visit the neighbours; as usual he just walked into the house wandered around came out and came over here talk to me and then he was gone, after he’d eaten of course.
My Sim card minutes are about to run out. I had a message from Vodafone saying to contact them. It’s not as easy as you think. I actually have to go into an actual shop either in Lisbon or down in the Algarve. That won’t happen for sure!
When you contact Vodaphone on the mobile or online, all the messages are in Portuguese,which I don’t understand and, of course there doesn’t seem to be any options for, English speakers.
I finally did get an agent who could speak some English. What’s funny is that while waiting on the phone, as with all these big companies at home, for a real person to answer, they play loud annoying music. The the music is in English not Portuguese!
They do have a great phone system over here in Europe. If you’re part of the EU, and you were on the phone here, there are no roaming charges by law. You can take your phone anywhere, to any different country in the EU. That’s something Canada and the US should adopt!

It’s just before noon on Sunday and I’m now sitting here in restaurant Rita. I am eating an omelette and enjoying an abatanado; It’s my large coffee. I could sit here all day. I’m just inside from the wind and the sun is beaming down and it’s beautiful. I could have made the omelette at home- I have the ingredients- but it’s Sunday and people watching in the sun is an ideal activity.
I do have to get over to Sao Teotonio and top up my phone and get some fuel but this is such a pleasurable moment.
I had no luck getting a top up to my phone. I came back to town and tried again on the phone. Two hours later I’m still without a top up. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Maybe in the long run it would have been better to pay for international to Koodo, my home phone system.
I spent the rest of the day sitting in the sun reading. Not a very exciting day, but it was still lovely.

BC came back to sit with me at the end of the day and to try and get some food from the ingredients of my dinner. I was combining my leftover Indian food from last night and some chicken that I had to cook from the fridge. The little monkey actually jumped onto the top of the stove while I was cooking my chicken. Glad it’s an induction stove. I gave him a light smack and said no. I think he learned that pretty fast. I did feed him a couple of pieces of raw chicken. He liked that. He hung around until around 7 o’clock and then I showed him the way out.
I have noticed that he’s a little heavier than when I first met him. Regular meals are making a change.

BC was back this morning, sitting by the other door, wondering where I was and where is
his food. When he saw me peep out of my new door ,he spent a lot of time chattering before even looking at his food. I was so glad he was back.

It is supposed to rain today and it is quite a bit cooler; I think the high will be 14°.

I hopped in the shower, got ready, and decided to take a trip inland to the city of Beja. It’s got a castle and a cathedral and I thought it could be an interesting drive. It’s probably 2/3 across the country almost into Spain. It was a longer drive than I expected because you’re winding around back-and-forth around hairpin bends. When I got there I parked and I realized I was really hungry. The art gallery wasn’t open at the time, it was just a couple of minutes before two and I know they open at two for their afternoon session. I looked up restaurants and wandered around looking for one that looked really good. and never found one of interest. A lot were closed. I found fast food and sushi. Nothing really interested me so I went back to the car and thought to drive around and see where the castle is and what the town looks like. I will be back here with my American friends in March, I know, because we’re going do some touring around.

After driving around and around and looking at stuff I decided to go back a different way so that’s what I did. I kept passing little villages with outdoor/ indoor cafés but, I just wasn’t in the mood to be a stranger in another town. I was hungry though. Up-and-down hills, around bends, lots of sheep and then I was thinking I wouldn’t mind lamb curry, so, guess where I ended up?-back in my favourite Indian restaurant, and I had lamb curry . There’s leftovers for tomorrow or if you feel like dropping by, I might let you have a taste. The time I got home was just right. I caught the sunset opposite the driveway to my house. Wow it was stunning.
It wasn’t a terribly exciting day but it was interesting to see the countryside and the different villages and the names of the places . I’m not happy with a Lonely Planet guide book on Portugal because a lot of the small villages aren’t even made note of, and they do look interesting. Obviously they have a history.
Just another day in my adventures.

Have a good night everyone.

My new digs. I am not meaning to complain but you know what happens when you’re happy in one spot and something changes!
The plus side first: The bathroom has a tub as well as the shower and a bidet! And the washing machine is in the bathroom. Though the kitchen is much smaller, it has a dishwasher, an unnecessary addition for the size of the kitchen. That’s it for pluses!
I find this place dark in comparison to the other side. The loft compresses the ceiling space on the lower level adding to the loss of light. Sitting in the living room last night I was imagining installing a huge skylight into the roof so that light could pour in, in the daytime.
When I said something to Luìs, he said he can’t add a window because the house is actually on the property line. Amazing eh? But he did talk to someone about a skylight.

The front door is solid wood with a small glazed window insert and the entire wall has no windows, enhancing the tomb like feeling when the door is closed at night. During the day with the door open, it does not feel so dark.
All the lights hanging from the walls are just that, hanging as if the place is under construction. Why aren’t they finished so that the place appears “in a better light” if you’ll excuse the pun? Luìs said the electrician did the work of wiring but no more than that.

No, I don’t like this side of the house for those reasons . Hopefully in a week, I can go back to my happy place next door.
Next year if I come back, I will insist on the side with the fireplace and I will come in March and April.
I know that this is an expensive area to be in. I got a good deal for this house for the two months but there’s certain things that one expects and when you start looking around, you realize that there are some things that could easily be improved. Most of the apartments are at least 35 to 50 % higher in cost than I am paying and not as spacious.
This afternoon I went to Vila Nova De Milfontes and wandered around and into a few shops. It is a nice larger town on the coast about 25 minutes north of here.

When I came back, my new neighbours had arrived, a German couple here for a week. They seem very nice. The wife has a chronic cough like an ex smoker. It is quite noticeable but Luis told me that they both had the flu and are over it now.
None of the cats has appeared since yesterday morning. One ate the food last night because the dish was empty in the morning. I guess there’s too much activity for now.
I miss BC. I hope he comes back and doesn’t just wait a week until it’s quiet again.
I just got exciting news that two friends from Toronto are coming in through Dublin on March 5 just for a very short time but they’re always so much fun, so it’ll be great.
It’s going to be a gathering! And then my American friends arrive not long after.

I’ve been sitting out here this morning for over an hour, drinking tea, just looking out. The sun is warm; there’s a blue sky, with a few streamers of clouds.

BC was late coming today. I expected him at 9 o’clock, had his food ready and he just meandered down the driveway at 10 o’clock. I saw him crossing the field from the farmer’s field south of me; over there he’s got chickens, and a Merrema dog. BC regulates my day. It’s nice to see him. I do miss my dog, so it’s always nice to have an animal to pay attention to.

Today is moving day. I have to be out of this side of the house by tomorrow to allow Luis to get it cleaned. Not that I’ve made a mess because I clean up myself, so maybe I’ll move my things over now and then this afternoon go up up to Porto Nova. I want to get down into the water as the waves come in and photograph them. I’m not going get into the water, I’d be too cold. But I do want to photograph the waves up closer, at their level.
The next few days over here in Portugal, the weather is going to be cooler by about 4 or 5°. So it’s not going be the 19 and 20 degrees as I was expecting, only 14-Brrrr. When sun is out, it just makes everything feel better. There must be storms somewhere around Europe or maybe out in the Atlantic that are affecting the change. I actually haven’t heard news at all. Maybe that’s a good thing; while I was eating dinner yesterday I did see on the screen, Biden over in Ukraine, and then they flip to Putin, but I didn’t understand it because it was in Portuguese. I don’t suppose anything has changed. It’s not such a bad thing to miss the news. It seems to lower your stress level when you don’t know anything. Basically, my electronic devices are being used for the purpose that they were built for or should be used, as tools for me to dictate my blog, catalogue my photographs and edit my writing. I’m pretty happy with that. Oh, and of course I do watch a movie a night on my laptop. That’s fun; sorry for recommending all those movies because you can’t get them over in Canada. I guess I’m just getting the Netflix streaming that’s open to Portugal.
My God it’s windy down at the water today. The waves are huge and they’re just rolling in. I’m going to get closer because I want to get some shots. When you’re shooting and thinking about composition one tends to forget that this is an incoming tide and all of a sudden I realized it was upon me. I backed away quickly before I was carried away!

I came back to my new digs and Luis and his mom were still cleaning the house I was in. The couple that are coming for a week are using the front room which I didn’t use. So they take the mattresses out and disinfect them and put fresh bed linens on them and do a full cleaning of the house. It took them all day and they are not quite finished.

I have no fireplace tonight. I am missing that and BC didn’t come back for his evening chat or food. Too much activity around here for him. Hopefully he comes by tomorrow morning. I had to move his food dishes.

The new digs are OK but all in all feels a little darker than the other side. The walls are white but there’s big pine beams across and a loft bedroom upstairs. The loft makes the ceiling of the half of the house too low. There are no windows to the front of this living room. I am glad the bedroom I will sleep in has a large window. If I owned this house I would add a skylight to the front part. And I would paint the wooden ceiling white. And the walls of both houses need artwork on them.

The other thing I did today was travel a bit south of town to look at something I was curious about. The other day when I was driving I thought I saw a buffalo but I was trying to pay attention to the road and I didn’t want to drive off a cliff while gawking at everything around me. Well I was right. I drove past the beach and up and down few hills and on my left there were springboks!! I thought I was back in Africa. And then on my right in behind a high electrified fence 3 ostriches were chasing each other while some young buffaloes grazed quietly in between. No I wasn’t drinking beer or wine yet. I can’t seem to find any information about this “zoo” but I need to drop in to the tourist bureau again.

I woke up this morning and it was supposed to be cooler today, not more than 16 but I’m sure it will be lovely out with the sun out.By 11:20 am there’s a huge storm cloud crossing over but I don’t know whether it’s going to rain.

Of course first thing this morning, I check the cat food, had to fill it up again. By about 9 o’clock BC came trotting down the driveway to say hello and have his food; he didn’t eat much today and then went out to the field, roamed around a bit and then disappeared. I was sitting working at the computer and I noticed another crunching sound, so I thought, maybe the birds are eating it because I do have two black crow like birds that like to fight over the food and leave their mess around the dish. But when I came around the corner, there was a white cat with gray spots who scooted away, frightened up the stairs to the side, so that’s cat number four that I’ve spied . I think I am feeding the neighbourhood.

After a shower and getting dressed, I decided I was going to run into the bakery in town. I know Trip Advisor said it’s one of the best bakeries around. Luís said make sure you go in the morning. I headed down there for 10:30. There are only two loaves of bread left; the owner made me understand that I need to be there at eight in the morning. I bought the smaller of the two loaves. It was the size of a small football, outside was hard as a rock and I wondered what it was going to be like.

Back home Luís was working on the attached house, cleaning it up. I think he’s rented it for a couple of nights. I decided I was diving into the bread just to taste it. It took a really sharp blade to cut through it. I took off a small piece. It was brown bread inside , like a whole wheat, I buttered it and bit in. It was unbelievable- the taste of the bread was so- I don’t know how to describe it. It was so natural. I know I’m not supposed to eat too many carbs with bread things like that but my blood sugars have been good here so I’m going to taste the stuff I want to taste.
At the restaurant yesterday I noticed on the menu, barnacles again; they’re on every seafaring menu here. I asked the waiter about them. I asked what do they taste like- he said they taste like the sea! OK. They are very expensive about €200 for 2 pounds so the waiter suggested, I get 100 g the next time I’m in and try them. Barnacles live on the rocks and boats and whales in tidal areas. I didn’t realize that they were actual shellfish of sorts, much like shrimp and crab and lobster. But they cling to rocks using some thing that they secrete and it’s like concrete glue. Even scientists are trying to reproduce this glue, it is so strong. When the tide comes in, they open their shells and take in what organisms they can, and when the tide goes out, they close up their shells to protect themselves. In order to get them, and the reason they are so expensive is you have to scrape them off whatever they are attached to. Apparently that’s really heavy work.
I decided to take a drive inland. One of the other ways of getting from Lisbon to to Zambujeira Do Mar is by train -the train arrives at Santa Clara Saboia, so I wanted to see what that place looked like. It would be a lovely train ride but a long journey to my village on the coast.

I’m here at the train station now and there’s about 8 vehicles around. I don’t know how you actually get on the train from here. Everything is closed up. It’s 1:30 in the afternoon; it’s not a lively station. I thought there were three or four trains a day but there’s nothing going on. It’s like I’m in in the middle of a deserted town.

I turned back a couple of kilometres and drove into the town of Saboìa. That’s the town that’s associated with the train station but you’d have to hike a couple of kilometers to get the train or find a taxi. I came in to town, through the winding narrow streets, parked the car, but it almost felt like -you know when you ride into the western towns(with Clint Eastwood) on your horse and its noticed that there is a stranger in town. That’s what I feel like. I am at the center; I found the church and I’m going to go and photograph it.

Back in Zambujeira after an interesting journey through the hills and valleys in the interior along winding roads, back to the coast, I couldn’t help but stop in to Estrela Do Mar, Mr Bean’s restaurant. Luís told me he is a neighbour of mine on this little roadway. He’s not the owner of the black cat. He is a farmer with about 40 head of cattle, and he grows his own crops and feed for the cattle and takes care of the daily farm chores and manages a fabulous restaurant with his wife in town. Work work work. Wow! I had another meal of his wife’s special octopus with white beans in tomato sauce and brought half of it home. There’s no way I could eat all of that in one sitting. I had a glass of good wine to and Mr Bean said it’s not expensive wine but it’s from the region. I could only find it in a big carton. I don’t know how many litres – it is probably 4 L – I didn’t buy it but maybe I will when my company comes.

Another interesting day has passed. It’s a tough life!!!

I’ve been here three weeks now and I feel so much at home. It is really comfortable. 
I’ve done nothing much this morning. Other than two more really poor water colours. I’m getting quite good at doing awful watercolours. I am learning though. I’ve been watching YouTube videos and I’m paying attention but I really do like my photographs much better than anything. I notice I’m really focusing with the camera on the waves, the water coming in, ignoring the sky, and just looking at the way the power comes through as the tide comes in. 
Anyway, I am practising with the watercolours and learning. But I have been doing painting with oils since I was 16 years old and you know I’m 39 right now , so I’ve had a lot of experience with the medium of oil and cold wax.
The cat was back like clockwork this morning. I had to fill up the dish when I first woke up and then he arrived. Last night when he was here, before it got dark, there was another cat, a calico. Black cat had gone I thought. I call him BC now, but as soon as the other cat came back to eat, black cat was here so he must be paying attention. The other cat is a calico cat. I’ll name him,CC; he is not the one that walked through the field the one day that look pregnant; that one’s a white with , very pale orange big spots. 
I am at the Restaurante Rocamar in Carvaleiro for a daily meal. Luis recommended it and it was only 14 minutes away! I ordered octopus. Looking forward to this meal. 

It was totally different than I expected. It was all octopus, tender, fried with onions, and it came with french fries. I wish it was regular potatoes ( or even rice!)and not French fries. I ate all the octopus. The waiter said that was the big dish and I was thinking I’d take some home, but I was really hungry. Painting gave me an appetite!

Not many pictures for you today. I just spent my hours experimenting with the watercolours.

Even though it was an interesting experience, I’m still feeling a bit deflated about my mistake on Saturday in the gasoline issue, however, I’ve written a letter to the rental company in the UK and will see if they will cover my expensive mistake. They answered immediately and they won’t cover. So tomorrow I will contact my credit card company, CIBC.
Today, I’m heading off to a coastal beach that Luís suggested I go to to see- it’s just close to Zambujeira Do Mar, about 12 minutes south by car, so I will have a look. It is called Azenha Do Mar. Then I’m going to go to Almograve, which was where I was intending to go yesterday when the car fiasco happened.
Again, it’s a really nice day; it started out being a little overcast – actually it is still a little overcast but the sun is peeking out occasionally and it’s going up to 19°. I think it’s around 16 or 17 right now
At the end of this week I have to move to the other side of the house ( the one I originally booked) because this side is rented for a week. Those of you know me, know I don’t like change; once I settle in, however, I will adjust. I must!!!

I’ve arrived in Almograve now. The town is interesting to look at. I thought it was supposed to be smaller, but it actually looks almost as big a Zambujeira! The beach is fabulous enough for anybody. Want to just lie around, it’s great ! And it certainly has different coves to paint in. I’m looking at several right now. I still get intimidated by the cliffs though and in my aim to compose shots I get awfully close to the edge.
I didn’t think I’d find another beach better than what I have already seen but this is so incredible. Each one is better and better. This one’s beautiful and it’s not even very far from Zambujeira Do Mar, less than 25 minutes and there’s restaurants in this town as well.

On the way home I decided I’d stop at Shaan Restaurant again in Zambujeira and try the Lamb Marsala. I wasn’t disappointed and I have leftover dinner for tomorrow too.

Home again, it wasn’t long before my feline friend came back. We toured the garden together. Last night Luis said he had to bring cabbage leaves back to his mum, because she was making cabbage soup. I hadn’t seen cabbage in the field , only what I thought was kale. So kitty and I went looking. Portuguese cabbage seems to be a cross between kale and cabbage. It is different growing. I had a great cabbage soup a couple of weeks ago in one of the restaurants. Apparently it is a Portuguese staple. So I might make soup this week!

Today’s an overcast grey day; tomorrow’s is going to be the same. It’s already 16° but it feels cooler. I think it’s going up to 19 or 20. Since it’s Sunday, not much will be open other than restaurants of course, so I think I’ll take a run up to Almograve. It’s another coastal town that I found is quite close to here and have a look at the little village. 
Yes, my black cat did come by again this morning. Alerting me that he was here,he had a little bit of food. Again, the dish was empty this morning and I filled it up. I don’t think he is eating it in the night. I think it’s another cat because the black cat seems to eat a little bit in the morning and then he came in and had a little milk- he knows when I pour my tea that I’ve got to have milk. He’s already got me figured out! Then he was off for his day of adventures as am I.
I’m just heading off to Almograve, but it’s raining as I get into the car. That kind of shocked me. We haven’t had much rain here, although everything is green, I suppose because of the proximity of the ocean.
I tried to start the car but, the engine would start and it wouldn’t keep running. I put it in neutral did everything right, and It just kept kept quitting. It didn’t appear to be the battery. 

I called the rental company in Lisbon, and told him what happened and he called the service man they use. About an hour and a half later, a big truck trailer came down the long driveway. The driver tried to start the car. Of course it didn’t maintain the start. Then he came out, sniffed the opening where the gasoline goes in. He didn’t speak any English so I didn’t know what he was going do! Then I realized he was going to put the car on the trailer and take it, so I called Luís and Luís talked to him. It was suggested that I go down to Albufeira in the Algarve and I could get the ride with this driver. Then I would get another car. It seemed like quite an adventure to be driven down to the Algarve.

The driver didn’t speak English and I don’t speak any Portuguese, other than, I know words like, good morning , thank you, Cerveza and Vino. The important things.

It took about an hour and a half or more to get there, but it was a really interesting ride, and even though we didn’t understand each other, the driver would point out things out that I needed to pay attention to. It was kind of fun. When we got to the visa car rental the man working there,named Marco, said that I put diesel in the engine. I argued with him- no I didn’t!! I even have the receipt. I wanted the cheaper gasoline and he said how do you say it at the gas station. I said well, we call it regular gasoline at home , so I asked him for regular simple gasoline. Marco said that’s called diesel here! What!!!!How did I know? In fact, I even asked somebody at the gas station which one I should put in because I wanted the cheaper one. That’s what he pointed me to. It was only half a tank. I shouldn’t use the word only because it doesn’t matter how much you put in, it ruins the tank. So it’s my fault, but really when you look at the list there is two kinds of simple gasoline. In Portugal it’s confusing: Unleaded petrol is called gasolina sem chumbo and has an octane rating of 95 or 98. Diesel is called gasóleo. I should have taken the gasolina and not the gasoleo! So confusing. One is cheap gasoline and the other is diesel. All semantics, but a costly lesson.
Anyway, I have a new car- it’s like an upgrade. It’s a Volkswagen and it’s comfortable and sturdy and drives much better. It’s a little classy VW polo. I have had 3 VW’s before and I loved them. I like this one. Yes, the lesson cost me money but apparently my credit card or the rental company will cover that mistake I hope. That’s according to Marco.

I am home now and glad of it. I am so happy I chose to be in this area and not down south as I had originally chosen. The Algarve is like a Portuguese version of Florida, much too crowded with retirees from upper Europe and North America. It maybe a nice place to tour in a day or two, but the rest of the the country calls.

I wonder what other adventures are in store for me. I haven’t even been here more than 19 days!!!

This is going to be another lovely day. It’s already about 14° and it’s supposed to go up to 20. I’m sitting on the front porch. I guess you would call it that; it’s a long veranda! 
I was watching the cat eat its food. When I got up this morning, the dish was empty – I had filled it up last night, so I filled it again and then while making my tea I felt this soft little black cat rubbing against my legs. He was happy to eat most of the food in the dish that I put out this morning. And then he came in as I was pouring milk into my tea and I gave him a little bit.  I know he’s probably too old to have milk, but it was just something that I used to do when I was a kid. Now he’s wandering around the house miaoing. I don’t know but maybe there was somebody here before that he liked as well.  

It would be easy to get used to this life so relaxing.

 I had another visitor this morning in the kitchen sink, a rather large spider. I swiftly got him/her? into a cup and took it out the door put it in the driveway. I told him to go find somebody else to visit. I did post a picture on Facebook and it’s a natural size picture-he was big. I didn’t want to kill him because I don’t know what his purpose was and really he wasn’t harming me.

The cat ran up the stairs to the side of the house and I thought, oh, what’s up there? I haven’t been up there. I don’t know why – I mean I come out the front door and look to the right- the stairs are right there as I walk out the front door, so I went up. There’s a lovely tiled deck with a wall around it and you can see over the top of the roof and actually, quite a nice view of the property around it. The owner told me that’s where his storage is so I wasn’t expecting that.  The other side of the house that he rents out has a cathedral ceiling and then an upper loft with a bedroom so there’s one bedroom down below. That’s the house I was supposed to have and apparently,  I’m to move in there sometime at the end of this month and then if I like, I can come back to this one. I rented the other house originally. I didn’t know that but Luis just felt , because it was cool at night, I would be better with the fireplace . 

I was going to tell you about the storks that I saw yesterday, although I wasn’t able to get any photos because there was nowhere to pull off the side of the road safely. One flew directly in front of my car. It of shocked me. It was huge – I can’t believe the wingspan. In fact, in the distance I had first thought it was a small plane – that’s how big it looked. 
I watched another pair flying. They were ahead of me, and then I saw them land in a nest already full with what I thought were two parents. It is kind of like kids coming home to mom and dad’s to stay. Maybe storks have problems too and they’ve got kids staying with their parents longer!  Anyway all four in a huge nest.!  Kind of overwhelming. I will get some pictures at some point. Maybe I’ll park in the farmers driveway and take a chance that he’s not coming out until I’m gone. 

I drove into Odemira today, stopping by a little store on the way, which was interesting, but I forgot to look for my tea so, I have to do that another day. Odemira is a little inland. It’s time I started exploring inland Portugal instead of just the coastal areas. It’s a town on a hill and that’s putting it mildly. I was driving. Of course I turn into the town and then I’m going on a grade that would make me want to think about driving in San Francisco. The roads are really narrow here and it reminded me of the time I was in  Spain with Audra driving; she was so close to the walls of the house. She actually smashed the car on the passenger side that I was sitting in. We laughed about after but I was so worried that it was going to cost a fortune to have the car repaired because it was a rental. Thankfully her credit card covered the insurance. 


My lesson today was that I must be a more aggressive driver. This Mitsubishi car doesn’t have a lot of guts. First of all I don’t slam the doors & they don’t close properly unless you slam them, so when you think you locked your door,it’s not! Twice now I’ve gone back and it’s been open because I only closed doors gently. I’m lucky this doesn’t appear to be an unsafe area!

I really wanted to get a picture of Odemira for the blog and I couldn’t find a safe spot to do that to give you the idea of the height coming back out of town. I saw a pull off, a driveway and I veered in off the road because it’s a well travelled road. I put the four-way flashers on. Just using my iPhone, I went over to the gate to the property and took a couple of shots then came back into the car. I wanted to get a good turnaround so I backed up a bit and in my usual non-aggressive way, I tried to go forward. No luck. I thought what am I caught on so,  I started again no matter what happened in first gear I couldn’t get the car to move forward and I was slowly rolling back-I had to keep pulling on the handbrake. Getting into a bit of a panic, I went around to have a look and yes, the wheel, the rear hind wheel , (a horse it is not), the rear back wheel was caught at the edge of the ditch just low enough that I couldn’t get it out. Now what? I got out waved at the first car that went by. They just went sailing on – second car same thing . After a few cars went by a van stopped; I asked if he could speak English and he did. I asked him for a push. As he was going to the back of the car ,a walker came by and I asked him to help. Oh my God, I’m so thankful that I did ask for help. I got out quite embarrassed , the van driver, waited until I followed him out under the road and up ahead and then I waved, saying I’m OK. As I realized when he was pushing, I wasn’t accelerating enough in first gear. I was being a wimp. My drive home was much more aggressive , I don’t think the car likes me and I’m not too happy with myself either!

Porto Covo is my town for the day. It was about a half hour drive north of Zambujeira. I realized I was already here twice on the bus. It is the town that I mentioned, when I was coming down, that has all the solar panels on the roofs of the houses, and as you drive down to it, you can see the wind turbines on the hills. It’s north of beach Malbao that I was at the other day, the one that was so empty. I said the beach went as far as the eye could see and I think where am now is that distance. 
Porto Covo is supposed to be a small little fishing village. Out in the ocean I can see ocean freighters – they’re probably coming into the city of the port of Lisbon. I’m not sure about that- I’ll have to look that up on the map.

The landscape here is interesting because it’s a cove and another cove and another and the way the water comes up and the spray is really fascinating. 
I know why the surfers don’t come here for surfing – the waves are really really high but there’s too many rocks and that would be dangerous.

This is a lovely clean town but so have all that I’ve been in. Enough shops, and restaurants. It may be called a sleepy town but I quite like it. Of course, I’ve just had a beer. I’m always mellow after a beer.
The fishermen must go out at low tide. I can’t imagine going out this cove any other time. It would be an extremely rolling ride, getting over some of these waves, from where the fisherman dock their boats.

I hope you are not bored from all my wave shots because that’s pretty well all I did today. And now I understand the phrase”the seas are boiling.”

After stopping for a beer in a local restaurant, I went back to the car to drive home. I went to open the passenger door and looked at the damage that had happened to my rear passenger window. OMG I thought, what’s that going to cost me? Then I wondered why the window was covered in black material! Wrong car! Mine was the next car over, all windows OK! Nor do I have roof racks on my rental car.

Once I got back to Zambujeira, I tried to buy some black tea at the supermarket. I had about 30 bags I brought with me but I can’t seem to replace it. They drink herbal teas here but mostly coffee. Ahhh!!!

What did I eat today? Well with the number of Indian immigrants here I thought an Indian restaurant would be appropriate. I went to the Shaan Restaurant and had Chicken Tikka . It was fabulous and I have leftovers for tomorrow!

Until tomorrow!