I decided to hire a car this weekend. My plan was to head up to Aveiro for the simple reason that I have never been there before. Anyway, I hired a VW Golf, because there was a special offer: 2 days for €35 - which I thought was reasonable. This morning I went up to the airport to pick the car up, only to be told that all the Golfs and other models in the same group had been hired out, and asked me if I would mind being upgraded to a VW EOS at no extra cost. I thought about it for all of a nanosecond. The first thing I did was take the roof down and drive about Lisbon for a while before putting the roof back up to drive up to Săo Martinho to meet Pedro, Helena and Lucas, who have very kindly invited me to stay the night at their house rather than drive back to Lisbon. Lucas is an absolute joy who, at age three, can count to ten in English! It is nice seeing Pedro and Helena again. I did meet up with them when I was on holiday in Óbidos last October, but it was a short visit. This time Pedro and I took some time out to go to Nazaré, where I finally managed to make a trip up the ascensor for the first time in 18 years, which we followed with a stroll along the esplanade -- all the way back to "my" VW convertible!