Read "Journey to Portugal" by José Saramago online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Without meaning any disrespect to Fornos de Algodres or Mangualde, the day leading to Viseu was uneventful. If he can, the traveller will return one day to these and other doors he has left unopened by the wayside. He can only hope they don't call him to account for today's lack of interest.
He had a long-held memory of a special rice dish of the region that stirred his appetite, especially as he was due to arrive just in time to eat. Which in the end he did, but only to find something unmemorable in a place he would prefer not to mention. Mishaps like this are bound to happen to those who travel, and are no reason for taking a dislike to the places they occur in. But it seemed he was tempting fate when he got to the Grão Vasco Museum and found it alternately lit then plunged into darkness, because of problems with the electricity. There was work, alterations, repairs, being carried out on the first floor and, despite everything, he had to be grateful for the attendant who went with him, switching the light on in front of him and off behind him, so that there would not be an overload and the whole system blow the fuses, which did in fact happen once or twice despite all the precautions. Eating badly and then seeing badly.