The police officer on my side of the street is still busy with his last client. The young, blond officer on the other side walks a few steps in my direction, but doesn’t look at me and doesn’t signal me to stop.
So I calmly drive to the stop sign to turn right, and have to wait there for a roaring rusty sports car, with a young man with a cap and sunglasses behind the wheel, who wants to come into my street. He sees the police, turns off his indicator, and roars off.
Afraid of a fine
Now that was a real LOL moment – I burst out laughing. I was lucky because I was already driving carefully and slowly, because there’s a bucket of paint in the trunk next to Mira, and if I drive like I normally do, she might end up with that heavy bucket on her.
I’d already had a funny traffic incident before that. With two little boys. They were crossing the street, saw me coming, and fled into the middle of the roundabout. I was already driving with that bucket, but of course they didn’t know that. I let them go first, and they thanked me with a friendly wave. “You’re welcome, boys,” I said, looking after them with a touch of affection.
One of them had very red cheeks and floppy ears. Very charming; I have a weak spot for floppy ears.
First year of middle school, already carrying a heavy backpack, and still having good manners in traffic. Immediately after, I’m given the right of way by a laughing woman in a Fiat. “Obrigada!” I wave back. They’ve apparently opened a can of Fiats, because you see a lot of them in Figueira these days.
They’re nice city cars, of course, and they don’t have such a grumpy face like the new Mini. Those are actually quite large, too, not at all mini. I recently saw a real old one – they’re so cute! Like a laughing, running toddler who’s only been walking for a few months. But I digress.
We just barely escaped a fine, Mira and I
Mira should really be crammed into one of those special crates, or with a harness attached to the seat belt. I always put her harness on, but she’s not strapped in. We pretend, with the belt hanging from the backseat headrest. She understands, because she always ducks under it, so it hangs over her. She’s in the trunk, with all the headrests up, I don’t see her crashing through the windshield anytime soon in an accident …
So a fine wouldn’t be fine at all
A handsome police officer who’d notice that as (s)he drives by. We don’t see many police here anyway. A GNR car sometimes drives by – the Guarda Nacional Republicana – but normally they’re ust on their way to somewhere.
Nothing ever happens here, so yeah, no reason to have a lot of police on the streets. The other day, in Soure, very special, police on horseback.
It’s the same in the city, although you do see a bit more police there. But sometimes you can be really unlucky! The last time was around Christmas 13 years ago, but the scar still hurts, so to speak. We walked into a trap at the entrance roundabout of Figueira, and because there were no other candidates, I was stopped. Just when I had a new car and had forgotten to get it inspected on time.
That wasn’t in my system yet, and it had been only a week overdue . He wasn’t very talkative, the cartoonish policeman with the mustache and sunglasses, took my driver’s license and papers, and came back with an extra piece of paper. A fine of 250 euros. The best part: I was the last customer of the day. It was five to five, they packed up and left, leaving me gasping for breath.
Thanks, sweetie. A fine Christmas present!
We escaped that same fate today
Just like that roaring sports car.
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#fine #police #mountedpolice )
Wemoved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa. You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere. Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.