Lovely Loule

Loule is a delightful little city. In spite of any of our errors entering address information in the GPS, we found the hotel with little delay.

When we arrived, since the hotel clerk informed us a buffet breakfast as part of the room charge would be available the next morning and with our own fruit, cheese, and bread in the cold car, we decided we didn’t need to shop for any groceries but were hungry.
We found an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks down from the hotel. Typically, Marlene was not happy with the food but I enjoyed it. We then walked further and found a castle. The castle now houses an archeological museum. The museum entrance was locked. We then walked around the perimeter of the castle where we found written descriptions on plaques for some early buildings. One described the Convent and a second described a Moorish bathhouse. Next to the bathhouse was a fountain, which was once used by the locals for their water. We then walked back to the hotel.

On returning from our little adventure, Marlene realized she could not find her manilla folder, phone book, or phone. She searched everywhere, but could not find them. One drawer was jammed and could not be opened. After searching around for a while and noticing a window would not completely lock, she decided the most likely case was someone climbed into the window from the outside. I tried to explain to her that with all our hardware, meaning our computers and cameras that it did not make much sense for some burglar once in the room to only steal her cellphone. However, she was not listening to me. She was convinced the stuff was stolen.

By evening, she worked herself up so that she became frightened because she felt unsafe in the room. A light near the front of room several times turned off and on. Marlene became more frightened and I called the night clerk. He came to the room but had no explanation about the lights or the missing items. She got more frightened and asked me to hold her. I did.

In the morning after breakfast, she complained again to the morning hotel clerk and decided to file a police report. To Marlene’s credit, she was careful not to accuse anyone. The day clerk explained to her the existence of the second light switch on the head board, which the pillows covered. While the riddle of the light flashing off and all was solved, her things were still missing.

After breakfast, we walked to the police station to file the report. We arrived about noon. The police station only had one person who spoke English well enough for Marlene to give the report to and he was busy with someone else. We waited about an hour and he was still not available but then he walked into the waiting room, where we asked him when he thought he could see us. He told us 2:30 p.m. We decided to walk around a little while and then return to meet with the officer. We decided to go back to the castle, to its little archeological museum. We walked through the museum and around the castle turrets. We then walked up the street to the market. This was about halfway up the town according to our little, free map. About 2 p.m., we found a snack bar, where we ate. By the time the food was served and was eaten, it was approaching 3 p.m. We decided not to return to the police station but to leave and file the police report in Lisbon. On returning to the hotel, I noticed a car was parked behind us, which would have made it more difficult for us to leave.

When we got back to the hotel, hotel personnel asked Marlene to follow them back to the room. They then opened the jammed drawer. Marlene’s things were all there. She thanked everyone profusely and we left easily because the unknown parked car was gone. Everything was resolved. We were headed back to Lisbon and the tow roads approaching it.