Zoe goes to Portugal: Around Lapa No 82

Monday, 17th June, 2013.

 

Here is Lapa No 82.  It is the pink building, joined onto the other buildings on either side.  The only sign for it is the small white sign in the middle, which made it hard to find when coming from the airport in the taxi.  The doorway at the right hand end is a very narrow driveway which leads past the front door to an underground car park for the building.  Once there was a car parked in the driveway near the front door, and there was no room either side for Zoe’s pram to come in.  Luckily, Zoe woke up, so Mummy could take Zoe out, fold up the pram and squeeze past to the door that way.

There are nine guest rooms in Lapa No 82, including two which have just opened, and haven’t been let yet.  One of the proprietors, Luiz, lives upstairs, while Joachim lives somewhere else.  The B&B has only been operating for three months, and we haven’t seen any signs of Portugal’s recession here, with high-quality expansion and lots of guests.

Mummy and Zoe are standing outside the window of Mummy’s room, (near the pile of paving stones) while the window of Gran’s room is next to it.  Zoe sleeps in the hallway outside the two rooms, which leads to their bathroom. 

You can see that the footpath is very narrow, with lots of obstacles, which makes pramming very exciting for the pusher and the pushee.

 

On their walk, they meet a little Portuguese girl and her Granny.

 

The little girl says ola to Zoe.

 

“Can I pat her toes?”

 

“Yes, you can.”

 

The shop Mummy and Gran have come to see is closed, for some reason, and it starts to rain a little bit, so they are forced to go into a cafe for a coffee.  Mummy has a little Portuguese custard tart, and likes it so much that she has another one!