We found a beautiful place to stay on Sunday night last. It was a big surprise to realise we had been here before. If you’ve been reading for years you may remember the last time we stayed the police came to tell us the river was running high and there was a possibility it would break its banks and we should move from our river view.

We did move but I have often thought about that time… in hindsight we didn’t move far enough away. Of course nothing bad happened it didn’t burst it’s banks and we didn’t get submerged. But it’s one of the biggest rivers in Portugal, the Tagus! It flows into Lisbon! I bet it would be a big flood!

One of the best things about this parking space on Sunday, was that it was in the overflow field. Not overflow for the river but overflow parking when the regular parking spaces are filled. And the best thing about the field… it had been a corn field and now it was cut… and the smell was absolutely magnificent. It reminded me of childhood summers in permanent sunshine.

Isn’t it funny how my mind was still playing with the thought of what might have happened years ago in this place? Nothing happened. But if I had realised we were coming back here I might have said, no I don’t want to go there, the river might flood. And I’d have missed the smell of that field and a return journey to childhood.

Yes, everything is okay.