Wednesday 30th April - Portugal

Now Lady Sevilla that was very petulant of you. My comment about your make up was intended to be an act of kindness .. it did not justify you being such an unkind hostess as your friends departed you for Portugal. I think it was really very unfair of you not to provide us with an escort out of the lanes and alleys ways of your city centre to the magnificent motorways of the Spanish countryside.

30 kilometres out of Sevilla and two hours later we met John and Merie for a cup of excellent coffee. The poor old GPS system has not coped with Lady Sevilla’s tricks.





We head on through rolling hills and lush country side and enter Portugal.






















The country side remains green but becomes stonier.

The housing clusters become less frequent and the housing style changes immediately to display pretty white walled and orange tiled stately homes.












We pull off the motor way into a small Portuguese beachside town …….

Oh chaos why have you deserted me? There are car parking spaces marked on the road pavement and cars are actually neatly parked within them. The streets are mostly more than two cars wide and many of them are two way. The town is neat and clean … the people we speak to can respond in English with some fluency and the population that inhabit the town seem much more casual and relaxed. Amazingly no one seems to see the need to fold in the side mirrors of their car when they park. This cannot be true ……

Another 30 kilometres see us arrive in the small town of Loule. Oh chaos perhaps you really have deserted me! This is a beautiful clean modern little town … the receptionist at the nice hotel speaks fluent English, the streets are wide and clean by the standards of Spanish cities and there is an air calmness and quietness that invades the town. This is a town that is clearly interested in acquiring some British and US money … the stand outside the local real estate office display property brochures in English.

Michael my son ….. Perhaps, like Spain, Portugal is going to scald you for your Australian arrogance and your preconception of it as being somewhat backward compared to our great environment!.

I wonder if they have visa restrictions on hammer head cranes … they seem to be absent from this part of Portugal … I have not seen more than three of four since we departed the environs of Sevilla.

Portugal you are looking inviting … first a test … we dine tonight at what our receptionist describes as a good Portuguese restaurant.