Yesterday we went out to lunch with a chess-playing friend who has come from the USA to play in the tournament here in Silves. Walking into town we saw storks.
I was reminded of an Easter years ago when we travelled from Salamanca to Cadiz, spotting storks wherever we went. There was one in the hotel garden this morning but he flew off before I could snap him.
We lunched at a place called Taberna Portuguesa: grilled robalo (sea bream I think) for Phil and me and a kebab for our friend.
The kebab arrived flaming! Quite impressive!
After lunch we walked up to the castle on the top of the hill. We would have liked to go in but it was closed because of a municipal workers strike! How inconsiderate! Interestingly the Portuguese for strike seems to be borrowed from French - greve, without the accent the French put on it.
King Sancho looked impressive standing guard outside the castle.
After our friend had departed (he’s staying in a place on the coast) we went looking for the venue for the chess tournament, a big exhibition centre on the edge of town, wanting to work out how long it would take to walk there from our hotel. About 20 -25 minutes - not bad.
On the way back we popped into Lidl to buy a few essentials such as toothpaste and tissues. Lidls seem to be the same wherever you are: large, unadorned, functional, efficient. The same cannot be s aid for the cash machine by the exit, where I tried unsuccessfully to take out euros. It kept demanding information my debit card could not supply. I still have euros, probably enough for our stay here but I’ll see if ai can try a different ATM, assuming I find one.
Out in the wider world, Zelenskyy and Trump seem to have had a rather undiplomatic meeting with quite a lot of shouting. And Netanyahu appears to be stalling on the cease-fire front. We’ll have to wait and see where those things go!
But in the meanwhile, here I am in Portugal where the sun is shining, at least at the moment.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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