Friday 20 September

Friday is the penultimate day of our "Amazing Spain & Portugal" tour, and most of it will be spent driving from Lisbon, back over the border to Salamanca in Spain. It is a distance of 290km on the E1, E801 AND E80 highways but we break it up by taking a short detour to Fatima, a city of Catholic pilgrimage. The story goes that in 1917, 3 children looking after sheep had several visions of Mary over a period of 5 months. The story got out and snowballed in this prominently Catholic country, so that what once was a hamlet, is now a city. The tour included a walk around the pilgrimage site but we and a few others gave it a miss and just have coffee and a walk around the town. In fact Tony had 2 coffees, one where the bus stopped for a toilet break (in Emma-speak a "Technical Pause") which cost €2.50, and a second in a small cafe in town at €1.20. Somone is making some money from the coach passengers, not very holy!

Lunch was at a shopping centre food hall in Castelo Franco, Porto. The trip back across the border into Spain was uneventful. We arrive in Salamanca just as a series of heavy showers hit. The centre of town is once again listed by UNESCO so we stop by the River Tomes to take photos of the Roman bridge and Cathedral with rainbows over the top. The rain didn't abate but came down even harder as we arrived at the Hotel Alameda Palace, a somewhat dated but quite plush establishment with chandeliers and lots of marble. The room was very spacious, all good we thought.

We had around 45 minutes in the hotel until Emma wanted us in the lobby at 7.00pm. The rain had stopped and the sky cleared for a short walk to the Placa Mayor and our destination, the Cafe Real (which oddly enough translates as Real Coffee). Pity the poor locals already in the cafe, they progressively deserted the place after nearly 40 tourists invaded. Insight bought the first round of drinks, which each came with a tapas (mainly pinchos actually). We bought a second round ourselves for €3 each, really good. Then we walked around the streets surrounding the square, and deciding that we didn't need any more food, we walked back to the hotel.

A nightcap with some of our new friends completed the evening, or so we thought. Returning to our room Tony sat on a corner of the bed to find that it rocked alarmingly due to a missing castor. Kathy decided that she could not sleep on it in this condition, so a hotel staff member was sent for. The guy from the bar appeared and assessed the situation. He was most apologetic, and left to sort out a solution. We were asked if we would like to change rooms? Not at 11.00pm at night , thank you. Eventually another man appeared with a portable bed base that had all its legs. The offending base was dragged away, never to be seen again, Hurray!