I’ve started the book and it confirms the warm and endearing nature of the Portuguese. Our Portuguese friends had already told us so but I put it down to ‘parochial culture bias’ but I was wrong. A popular song here is called “The Portuguese Home’ which sings of their heart warming generosity, while a British travel writer described someone as ‘obliging as a Portuguese’. I walked past one of those ‘menu waving orators’ the other day and I asked her directions to a bookshop. We spent five minutes not talking about the menu, we were back to eat that night
Today we were treated like royalty by our breakfast host in a simple little cafe before our further exploration of this vast city. On the way we came across our young Social Worker graduate friend from New York whom we met at Villafranca where our poles stayed out overnight. She was making use of pre career time to travel to lots of places as well as the Camino.
We then had a pre-arranged lunch with our lovely good humoured Canadian friend who is also taking time out. We laughed as we exchanged experiences and imbibed in ‘way too silly things’. A great day with time spent with people who were as ‘obliging as a Portuguese’ with that same generosity of spirit. I imagine that will continue with our Portuguese friends tonight.
Our two double doors and clothes dryer
The tram and the cathedral
