Windy Day & Your Most Asked Question

The wind picked up today, and I hope it dries my laundry quickly.  The path in front of my place is formally known as Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos or the Seven Hanging Valley Trail.  It's 6 kilometers long and goes along the cliffs up and down above the spectacular beaches down below.  Today, in addition to beach view, people who have taken the walk have noted the drying rack of laundry as part of the scenery.  Really.  More than one passerby has pointed and laughed, maybe at my flowered pajamas or my colorful Bombas Sesame Street socks.

It's hard to paint when the wind is gusting up to 20 mph, easels blow over, paper flies and -- my favorite -- a palette of paint goes airborne and lands either on your clothes somewhere or on the dirt.  So I'm inside, doing laundry, sweeping the floor and ... answering your questions!

Most of what I've been asked so far has been about food.  I have eaten only a few restaurant meals, since I'm dining alone and trying not to spend all my money in the first weeks of a two-month-long trip.  Those meals, though, were exactly the wonderful seafood you'd expect along the ocean.  I'm told by locals that the Portuguese smaller fishing operations prioritize providing seafood to nearby restaurants and it certainly tastes that way.

In Benagil, I ate at O Pescador and near Ferragudo, at Rei das Praias.  I love a view of the ocean anytime, but especially when I'm eating food that came fresh from it!

I've been cooking a little, not too much. Part of the reason is that my place, while nice enough, has the usual vacation place assortment of dull knives and scratched nonstick skillets.  (For those of you who never heard my rant on the subject, I wanted to start a business called "Vacation Kitchen" and I'm sure it's still needed and still impractical as a business venture.  Oh well.) I am making do with the knives but will not cook in a nonstick skillet, so I've boiled pasta and made an omelet (with eggs that had deep orange yolks and of course were, European-style unrefrigerated) and assembled salads.  

There are a number of Indian restaurants that get good write-ups and I plan to try some of those soon for lunches.

And I haven't done any shopping in stores or gone to any art galleries. Part of that is just logistics, since I'm not in a town near those things.  And part of is knowing that I've got weeks ahead and no suitcase space, so I'm in no rush to acquire anything.

From my walk this morning, here's one of those hanging valleys and the ocean as the waves were getting bigger.