Read "Journey to Portugal" by José Saramago online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The traveller did not stop between Alenquer and Caldas da Rainha. Apart from Ota, Cereal and Sancheira Grande, it seemed the road itself was deliberately avoiding human habitation: a rough-and-ready road, a road of few words, like a woodland animal. But this suited the traveller, who spent the entire journey thinking of Brother António das Chagas and Damião de Góis, in other words, thinking about Portugal.
Mornings in Caldas are for going to the market. The traveller went, but did not buy anything. The market in Caldas is for domestic goods, that's its only attraction. The tourists who come here so excitedly, camera at the ready, are mistaken if they think the bustle of the stallholders is going to offer them any rare curio or collector's item. More often than not, they move on disappointed. There's no need for them to travel so far to see people buying and selling.