Portuguese summer

We have come to the conclusion that the Portuguese do summers well. During the grey days of winter, everyone seems to keep their heads down, and get on with life and work in a kind of semi hibernation mode. But summers are different. People even dress better. And by June in Lisbon with the Festa de Santo Antonio lasting up to three days it becomes one long party, full of sardines, sangria and sunshine.

Yesterday being officially the first day of summer, and the current heatwave set to continue a few more days, and not having church till the evening, Anna and I thought we would be smart and beat the traffic and the midday heat by heading out to the coast first thing. By “first thing” I mean 08:30 when conventional wisdom says most people are still in their beds on a June Sunday morning. Wrong! How come ten thousand other Lisboetas in their cars had exactly the same thought. Beat the traffic. Beat the heat. Find a good parking spot by the beach. And all converge on the narrow strip of Avenida Marginal to crawl along beside crystal waters with one hand on the gear stick and the other on the horn. I guess we must be starting to "think Portuguese" which can only be a good thing.

Anyway down on the narrow strip of sand it was good to watch the boats in the bay, to see the sunlight glistening on the clear water and to know that

“God has made everything beautiful for its own time, and planted eternity in the human heart, even though people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 4:11).