It is September! And every day we have pilgrims. The sun shines strongly, and the pilgrims leave early to arrive at the next destination before it really gets too hot. We have pilgrims from Finland, Sweden, Belgium, France, Germany, America, Canada and Australia. And of course there were two Dutch pilgrims. It looks like the Dutch are everywhere.
In Portugal the children still have school holidays, but finally Portugal goes to school, 14 September, after at least 2,5 months of holiday!
Weekend Out
Start of September we went out for two days. sorry pilgrims. We visited the Art Nouveau in Aveiro. It is a nice city to visit, the houses are colourful, neat architecture, there are a lot of shops, cafes, and restaurants. the boats trips are full of tourists. It looks like the Venice of Portugal! We went to cool down in the sea nearby in Costa Nova. There is a ferry to the other side. We wanted to do a walk, but the ferry just went and it is only once every hour, so we went back to Costa Nova. We found a mini golf place, where we had fun. Together with the four days beach visit in August, we didn’t leave Casa da Lima too long. Read more about Portugal visit to Aveiro, Ovar, Espinho and Esmoriz later.
Pilgrims Lunch?!
The nice thing in September is that we had pilgrims over who wanted to have lunch here. Because we had school holidays, we were at home and Cinta made pancakes every other day, and so it happens, that the pilgrims got a star breakfast or lunch with eggs, pancakes, juice. The Canadian woman who met the other pilgrim from Seattle, was so relieved that she found Casa da Lima because she had some strict dietary restrictions and couldn’t eat nicely during the pilgrimage. I had one little bun of carob bread. It is very dark bread made of carob tree. She was happy to eat this.
The home made yoghurts are still going strong. Obviously there is a need for fresh natural yoghurt! The home made limanada are also a hit in the Portuguese heat. The fresh grape juice are refilled this month. We picked grapes and we will have one more planned this week. They will make wine, but I make fresh juice. Mixing the sweet juice with sparkling water, makes is a real treat too.
American Pilgrim with Souvenir
Two women from America reserved, their names were Amanda and April. They walked in nice colourful clothes. The older lady was 76 years old, what a accomplishment to walk from Lisbon to Casa da Lima in the heat! The other one, nicknamed Rainbow because her colourful outfit, made souvenirs at home. Cinta had painted small Santiago shells and April said she like to trade… She made keychains; blue and yellow felt, the Santiago colours, in the form of a shell. There were funny eyes and happy face on it and there was cotton wool in it. Cinta was happy and April too.
Burned Finn Man
Around 15:00 Konsta comes in. A man from Finland arrives, red hair, fair to white skin but with red burned spots on it. It is hot, more than 30 degrees today, and yesterday too. He is not used to a burning sun and tells me:
“the burn is not from today but the first day I forgot to put sunscreen on.”
So it was already from more than a week ago. Poor Finn.
We couldn’t eat outside anymore, the sun goes down earlier and earlier. But today, we are late. The school started again, August holiday also for the swimming pool is over. Monday is our swimming evening.
