According to our waitress last night, the trains in this part of Portugal are hopeless. She said that, if you have an exam to attend, you are more likely to miss it if you rely on a train to get you there on time. She said that everyone drives everywhere. She also said she could ride a bike to Lisbon. She wouldn’t ride a bike to Lisbon because it would take her three hours, but she could. She did admit she was lazy as well.
The love of cars seems to be very much the case here. Sitting on the porch at our accommodation, in what appears to be the quiet countryside, you are actually in the middle of the thrum and growl of engines.
There is a motorway not far away but even so. The traffic doesn’t stop.
And there are no paths to speak of. If you wanted to walk anywhere…well, you can’t, basically. Most roads outside of towns and cities have no footpaths, forcing anyone who wants to go a few metres outside their house, to walk on the road. Cars, of course, do not like this and will endeavour to run them over.
Even when there is a footpath in a town, it is invariably a small, skinny space up against the buildings. Just room enough for the foolish pedestrian to hug the wall when a massive vehicle rumbles down the narrow street. The same narrow streets also hang on to the obnoxious and noxious fumes, which are then sucked into your lungs. It’s seriously awful.
Paths in the countryside are another non-existent thing. All land appears to be owned by someone, and that someone does not want you on their land. Fences are everywhere, delineating the boundaries of ownership. There doesn’t seem to be anything like the British public footpaths or the Swedish right to roam.
To be fair, Portugal is pretty small. For comparison, Sweden has a population of 10,540,886 and is 450,295 km2 while little Portugal has a similar population of 10,639,726 but is only 92,230 km2. And, if you think about it, a lot of that space is needed for roads for the cars to drive on.
Anyway, that sounds like I don’t like Portugal very much. That’s not exactly true. I don’t like the constant traffic and the dangers associated with walking anywhere. I also don’t like the bad public transport.
But, and it’s a big but, I really like the food, the wine and, most importantly, all the people I’ve met either socially or just in passing. They seem very nice, welcoming and happy.
The reason I’m writing this almost diatribe is because Mirinda has come down with a cold, and we spent the day at the house. She has an important meeting tomorrow so it was all soup, sleep and hot drinks.
I sat on the porch and listened to the traffic.
I may also have snoozed a bit.
