My dear loyal Blog Readers, I fear we may have come to a point in our story where the blog gets kinda boring. If you’re still with me that is. We did not lock foot onto pedal today. Gabriel is definitely down for the count. We think it may be some kind of cumulative heat exhaustion. The good news is, the train was easy to take here to Coimbra and our hotel is magnificent. Quinta Das Lagrimas. It was the estate of a 14th Century Prince Pedro who had a forbidden love affair. He was married off to a Spanish Princess but fell in love with one of her ladies-in-waiting and there are supposedly all of these secret passages where the lovers met. Its all very romantic up until the part where his father had her killed in the palace garden and then Pedro dug up her carcass, had her crowned queen anyway, and made everyone kiss her decomposing hand. But…the grounds are beautiful endless gardens. There are also plenty of woods surrounding it with hiking trails. Also a 9 hole golf course believe it or not. (Added later we’ll assume). I took a walk while Gabriel was napping and I still haven’t even covered it all. There is even the remains of an amphitheater. Then I sat in the restaurant by myself and when I asked for the check I could hear the waiter gently coaching the new young waitress on how to say “Here you are” in English. They thought I was out of earshot. He had her repeat it several times back to him. “Here you are.” Then when he thought she was ready, he sent her to me with the check. I actually heard her take a deep breath and walk over to me: “Here you is.” Is what it sounded like. It was very sweet. I can only imagine what I would sound like trying to say the same thing in Portuguese.

If Gabriel weren’t sick, this would be like a real vacation where you just lay around and enjoy a beautiful place. So that’s what we’re doing today.Tomorrow we have a planned train ride anyway, so another day of non-biking rest.