Quite the adventurous day… makes for interesting reading. I was thinking the other day what great weather you are have had with all those blue skies. Maybe those thoughts jinxed you.

Glad you made it in safely. Your experience mirrors ours from 25 years ago. Those miles along the Mondego were our best experience in Portugal. The miles to the north of it were the worst.

We biked this road in to Coimbra back in 1997: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/lisbon1997/to-coimbra/. It was amazing then - women walking in the middle of the road with loads balance on their heads, folks leading oxen pulling carts. It felt like we’d stepped back a century.

Beautiful! I wonder how old it it?

Wow - check out the pipes on that organ!

Coimbra’s a special place, alright. If we ever make it back to this part of Portugal this would be top on the list.

Ugh!

It is to link the two sides of the "interstate" road over the gorge. It illustrates how far down, and up, we had to go to get over the darn thing.

We think of you and Portuguese custard tarts in Toronto every time we see them. Mom also thinks of broken jars of marmalade all over the suitcase contents at random moments!

These were famous (to me) from the Portuguese bakery down the street from my apartment in Toronto!! Used to see people buying flats of them (24 at a go) on sundays…

That new bridge is inexcusably high!

Holy schist!

We are amazed to hear that some Mexican mail arrived! We had decided that they had been eaten in some back office and were never going to even leave Mexico. Only three months transit time is not bad, eh?

I am amused to report that no less than TWO envelopes of post cards showed up yesterday, mailed from Mexico in **January** - along with a third set from Portugal.

And no children or pets.