Maria, my Friend

At the end of the day, we went off to Granja (another town in our municipality) to give photos of the group on Saturday to the ladies there. I knew Maria had a shop, so we asked around and walked in to this gorgeous old-fashioned general store, which sold everything; of course, didn't have my wide angle, so you get just a taste... behind the counter was an array of fresh produce, behind me every sort of household item, shelves of fabric, bottles of gas, and so on. She was thrilled to see us, and talked and talked, love that woman. And then proceeded to wrap up cheeses and a black pig sausage and a jar of local honey to give us. And then one of the other women walked in, and insisted on gifting me one of the shop's embroidered tea towels. Not to be outdone, Maria then gave me another. Thought we'd better go before they emptied the shop for us...

On the way back, drove under the bridge, and ended up stripping off and going swimming in our underwear, it was wonderful, can't believe this is our first swim of the year.

And then drove to Spain for a coffee so Elliott could try out his Spanish. The sky as we drove back was a deep watercolour orange, with Mourão silhouetted and Monsaraz's lights twinkling up on its hill, beauty that makes you catch your breath in awe.