Castles in the Air

The past few days have been overcast but very humid. Today we are back to glorious sunshine again. The clocks went back on Saturday night, like in the UK, and this will mean that by 6.15ish it is dark. We awoke to find the valley in mist, but by 10ish this morning it had already almost disappeared. However, we drove up and out of the valley and could see it was still lingering in some areas. In fact, as we drove up towards Lourosa, we could see the mountains standing proud of the lower cloud forming a temperature inversion. What a great way to start a trip to Lidl!



Our mission today was to get an electric blanket from Lidl. It only took one properly cold night, a week or two back, for us to decide that we would get one when Lidl stocked them this week. Hopefully, we won't need it for a while yet, but it's there just in case. Mind you, there's something a bit special about getting into a cold bed and snuggling close to your loved one.

After our shopping trip we went to Avo. We first visited Avo in June 2008 when we spent a fortnight in a yurt near Tabua. The place looked different this time with the autumnal colours, and the water in the bathing pools had been drained. This time we also ventured to find the castle. On the way up we spotted a man harvesting watercress from the stream. The final climb to the castle was up through a narrow passage between the houses that felt quite mediaeval. We wondered, would it only be in Portugal that last week's washing finds itself on display outside a historical monument? These are earthy folk, seeming to have little or no pretension. Our fondness keeps on growing.



Views from the castle were wonderful. What our pictures don't encapsulate is the peacefulness of the place with the smell of woodsmoke hanging in the air, the distant crowing of cockerels, jangling goat bells, birdsong, and the hiss of the rivers converging below.