CASA DO VALLE

Summer is here. We have temperatures of nearly 30 daily, and have had a few thunderstorms, which is great to get rid of the heavy humidity we have had. Plus it is giving extra water to the garden! It has been very busy here in many ways. The rooms have been quite full, and we have people from all over the world: from Australia to America, Belgium to Holland, Norway to Singapore. We start having 'regulars', people who come every year, and it is very nice to see their faces time after time! We are busy 'up-keeping': several of the rooms have gotten a cote of paint - there are always marks from the suitcases on the walls and stains that do not come off. This has been quite a challenge, to find a day when the rooms are empty and the painter has time, at the same time! Mainly we have been busy in the garden. We have planted 60 new fruit trees: apricots, peaches, lemons, passion fruits, apples, pears, grapes, oranges... (...

When I was studying speech communication at OSU, we were taught that when at the end of the speech you are answering the questions raised, the first thing to do is to repeat the question to make sure you got it right - and to make sure that everyone else in the audience heard it. Otherwise they will just hear an answer without knowing what the question was. Then you answer the question; and finally you summarize the question and the answer to the benefit of all. Recently I have been asked several questions repeatedly, and as the 'audience' (read: the clients) are normally with me one at a time, there is no benefit of hearing others' questions. So, I have decided to answer some of them here, so that more of you can benefit, and do so before arriving to be better prepared... (sorry, no repetition of question here, as you can all read it...) Where can I exchange money in Sintra? There is a money exchange bureau inside the tourism office that is open during the weekday...