Pneus Tyres

Today the weather has been glorious sunshine. Not sure what has happened to the forecast. Last night the forecast for today was mostly rain, and this morning it had changed to say it would be cloudy mainly. And yet, it must be 15 degrees Celsius or more. It feels like a beautiful May Day in the UK. Our washing that only went out at about 10.30 this morning was bone dry by 13.30 hours.

We had to get a couple of new tyres for the car. We tried a place just off the N17 down a side street, opposite the main turn off for Oliveira do Hospital. The garage had been recommended to us by a friend.

They were already busy with changing tyres on another car when we arrived, so we just loitered in the entrance way until someone came over to see what we needed. The lady spoke a smattering of English, and with our smattering of Portugese we managed to understand one another. We had been told by someone that it comes a bit of a shock to them if you walk straight up to them and begin explaining what you want. Play it cool, be patient, and when they can they will see to you.

She asked us if we wanted new or remoulds. We explained that we wanted new, mid range cost-wise. Then she checked the tyre size, went off for a few minutes, came back and had written down the options. We could go for an Asphalt at 39.50 per tyre, or for another make, for 50.00 euros per tyre. We chose the 39.50 ones. In the UK we usually pay about £30 per tyre so we were quite content.

They instructed us to pull the car in, put it up on a ramp, and within 20 minutes we had paid up and with a friendly goodbye, we were on our way. All in all, a very painless experience.

One thing to take into account is that most of these places seem to shut down entirely over lunch. So we knew that we would either have to hit them mid morning or sometime after 1430 hours to be on the safe side.

We had been procrastinating about changing our tyres because we were a bit worried how we would get on without speaking fluent Portugese. But judging from some of the used tyres discarded at the side of the garage, ours could have lasted another 12 months! Some of them were really bald. And considering the way some people drive over here it's worrying.

While we were driving up the N17 we spotted an Express coach heading in the opposite direction, towards Lisbon. This was just after 11.00 hours. We think they were just about to do a pick up at the next village on the N17 where quite a crowd was gathered (Beira, by the turn off for Galizes). We don't know whether this is a weekly trip, or a daily one, but thought we would record it here for future reference.