retiredmartin

March 2024. Setubal. Portugal.

Our hotel “6/4” for the night was bang central,

cost £32 a night, and gave Mrs RM free bottles of the local fortified wine,

AND a history lesson which I failed to pay proper attention to. I just wanted to get out and take in that view across the rooftops.

Mrs RM had picked Setubal, another Portuguese town of Mansfield size, slightly edging out North Notts finest on the seafood stakes. The main draw was a chance to meet Nadia, one of her international IT colleagues and give her toddler a slice of Peru England to look after. We will, however, expect regular updates from Paddington over the years.

Even without the Choco Fritos, Setubal was sensational. It helps if you like endless little lanes packed with ladies hosiery dangling from the balconies,

and that sense of faded grandeur you get in Naples and Norwich.

Mrs RM loved that house above. “LOOK ! There’s a garage we can put the campervan in !“.

And I can see the appeal of a place high on weird art,

frescoes,

and high quality floristry,

and of course as we approach middle-age we gravitate towards the sea.

But the rail link to Lisbon takes forever, we’d seen the unreliability of the bus across the bridge, and 3 hours in we’d failed to see a single Chinese takeaway. What sort of city is this ?