We had read that the nearby town of Santarem was quite interesting but hadn’t thought we’d got time for a visit. We’ve got to know it quite well over the last few days – it has a Volvo dealership, a Europcar office, a lovely cafe called Bijou and a little shopping centre with a food court and loos. These have been our haunts for the last couple of days as we try to get the Volvo going again after its failure to start on Saturday morning. To add to our woes, rain has arrived – two days of it.

By now we should be back in Spain having a glass of wine with Bob and Gay having visited Seville for the day en route and Derek should be off to London in the morning. Ah, the best laid plans!

The good men at Volvo have ordered a new ignition part for the car which they hope to fit tomorrow morning so the ‘fingers crossed’ plan is to be on the road tomorrow afternoon, staying in Seville tomorrow night. We’re still at the villa in Azambuja at the moment – Anna, the owner, phoned to say we could stay on, no charge. Nice people the Portuguese.