Ticket booking shop in the old town to book a coach tour to Lisbon for Wednesday. Shop has closed for lunch, so we head to the square to sit in the sun and enjoy a beer. Large is €2.50 during Happy Hour, which would appear to be any time before 5 PM, and small €2, so there’s not much point in going light.
Amusing ourselves by people watching when a man at the table behind says that I’ve dropped some money. Turns out to be a 50 cent coin, and probably not mine, so I say I’ll leave it for the waiter. The man asks if we’re English and on hearing we’re Canadian, and from northern Ontario, the man and his wife say they’re from Parry Sound. Admit, without prompting, that this is not really northern Ontario, but they have also lived in Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie. Kenora is the coldest place he’s been. He remembers - 45, which I have to admit is unusually cold even for our part of the world. First time in Europe, and liking Portugal. In Albufeira for the day. So happy chat until the beer is gone, the sun is gone and a couple of rain drops fall.
Then back to the ticket shop. €27 ($41 CAD, £24) each for a full day trip to Lisbon, which seems pretty reasonable. two hundred fifty-six km each way. J asks the young woman where the tourists in Albufeira are from. Mostly England, and some from France. Interestingly Portuguese is enough like French that it’s often easy to read words.
Home eating supper when flashing lights alert us to ambulance and “emergencia medico” car outside, parked outside the house next door so as to block the road, causing unsuspecting drivers coming along the road to back up quite a distance in the dusk and light rain.Various uniformed men. Large kits carried inside. Goes on for some time, and while we are naturally curious, it seems more than indecent to stand at the window eating sandwiches and watching the neighbours’ drama. So turn out the lights in the flat. And, no doubt happily for all, the drama fizzles out slowly. Great deal of standing about, and some repositioning of vehicles so that the road is open again, and eventually everyone drives off. So presuming no disaster.
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