Tuesday, July 31, 2007 On the Road Again

It is 11:00 AM and we are sitting in an air-conditioned, but smoke-filled train station in the tiny town of Entroncamento. After a surprisingly sound sleep with the fan aimed at our bed all night we woke at our routine 7:00 AM and had our routine hotel breakfast of crusty white roll accompanied by a slice each of ham and cheese. Our breakfast was sitting on a table in the dining room today rather than served at a buffet table, further confirming our belief that we were virtually the only guests of this hard-to-reach and very warm lodge. We had an tough logistics issue at breakfast: how do you eat the corn flakes that are sitting on the table in a small imitation cut glass jar with a small plastic serving spoon when there are no bowls on the table? Mike opted for pouring some of the warm milk served beside the coffee into the serving bowl and eating it with the yogurt spoon he didn’t need (he is not a yogurt eater). Solved. Three bites later the corn flakes, which may have been meant as a crunchy accompaniment for the yogurt was gone. One breakfast surprise this morning was the fresh orange juice, served in a small 4 oz cup each, but nevertheless a first in Portugal.

After breakfast we checked out and drove over to the train station to figure out our plans for trying to get somewhere closer to the coast and hopefully cooler. Feeling quite proud of our train schedule skills we determined that we had about an hour to return the car and get back to the train station for the 10:10 to Lisbon (the only destination for trains from Tomar) where we could change trains to go northbound instead. Hence, our location in the train station where we await the 12:33 train to Porto, a coastal city and the second largest town in Portugal. We are hoping to beat the heat, which yesterday reached a blazing 42 degrees centigrade in Tomar and made sightseeing virtually impossible. So, we leave behind the castle headquarters of the Knights of Templar sight unseen. Maybe next trip.

Last night, at about 8:00 PM it was cool enough for Mike to take a walk. We strolled over to the internet café only to be told that they close at 8:00 – exactly as we arrived. The young store manager conferred with the three teenage patrons of the store in response to our request for a recommendation on a place to eat and a block away we were sitting in the air conditioned PIC NIC restaurant eating a grilled cheese sandwich (Deanne) and a ham and cheese served on two six inch baguettes (Mike). Our waitress, a sweet young girl with strong English skills took great care in making sure we had a perfect meal…. Coming out from the kitchen several times to ask about various ingredients…tomato? Butter? Salad (lettuce)? We made that meal last an hour and a half as we enjoyed a multi-course meal (counting drinks, coffee, dessert, etc.) and relished every minute of the cool air. We were sitting below the flat screen TV tuned, without sound, to Portuguese news which we watched as diligently as someone who knew what it was telling us. Walking back to our hotel confirmed our previous observation that the people hide out during the afternoons, but come alive at night. The streets were filled with families out dining and window shopping at the closed store windows.

Mike is reading and I am working on the blog, hoping that in the large city of Porto we will have: 1) cooler weather, 2) a bookstore, 3) internet access. Susan, thank you again for the cool neck scarves. They rank right up there on our list of travel necessities along with our Osprey bags. If any of you ever try a trip like this in hot weather you must have these neck bands that cool you off when you get them wet. I haven’t taken mine off since I got it wet yesterday except to get it wet over again.

Deanne