Just as well we decided against the trip to Coimbra that I had been toying with as an excursion for yesterday. The storms have caused much devastation, and an emergency has been declared. The same weather system has flooded Lagrasse again, and caused some 13 deaths in the region. The water didn’t reach the height it did in 1999, so I’m hoping the chap who bought my house has dry feet.
Here, the weather was breezy and showery, and we contented ourselves with views of the river from the train to Campanhã, from the funicular and the Ponte Luiz I, and from a restaurant on the water at Ribeira. It being called Chez Lapin, I had a rabbit dish for the first time in decades, and the others had chicken. Not bad, vast portions, and not deadly expensive.
On the bus back home, we spotted a hot chestnut stand at the roadside, just one stop on from our usual one, so treated ourselves to a poke thereof. A first for Martyn and me, and we weren’t wildly impressed, but Annie reckoned the dry weather may not have helped them. Still, Annie prepared a tasty pasta supper for us later, so all in all we were pretty well nourished.
My coughs and sniffles gave me a rather trying evening, and a worse night, so I dipped out of today’s tourism, and settled for some minor housework instead. Annie and Martyn set off sharpish for town this morning, and were thwarted by crowds and unhelpful schedules at the Lello bookshop and the Palácio da Bolsa respectively, so visited neither, and were already back at the flat - and changed into dry clothes - by the time I returned from the recycling bin and the shop. My suggestion of lunch at the Pizza Hut across the road turned into a learning experience: I learned to avoid it in future. The good news is that there is some of Annie’s delicious pasta sauce left for supper.
No comments:
Post a Comment