TE19 Iberian Adventure

Passing Time in Portugal

skateboards or electric guitars, was just a phase.

Errands completed, Judy and Grandad found shelter, enticed into a café attached to a patisserie lined with the region’s blue and white tiles.

Forabackwatertown,Messineslaidclaimtoaresidentwatchmaker with a thick black moustache, working away in a side street cellar.

“He’s good – cheap too.” Grandad confirmed, readjusting his timepiece.

Otherwise, there was not much to explore, save for a backstreet Aladdin’s cave brimming with Chinese plastic. Cries of “Passa, Passa” escape the football park, where the kids prove why the Portuguese punched above their weight on the world stage. Off the square, a single-roomed museum celebrates Messines’ famous son João de Deus, the flawed poet who stole the heart of a nation. Despite years of failure at university, the magnanimous de Deus won much admiration for his character as well as his prose. After a stint as a newspaper editor, his friends persuaded him to enter politics and de Deus was elected to Parliament by narrowest of margins.

“De Deus was mayor of Silves.” The attended noted, “but he resigned over a matter of principle.”

Turning his attention to education he devised a new method of teaching reading that was adopted in the schools.

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