Of park walks and heat waves and icecream sandwiches

I'm quite lucky to live in a place that happens to be a hand's throw from the beach - I actually have a choice between two beaches! - and a complex of parks. There's one quite close to my son's school that we happen to visit more often, especially during the Summer months as it is a secluded park, filled with huge trees, that make it quite fresh and cool, with lots of shades where one can hide from the sun and take respite from the heat.

But we also live near this complex of parks that consists of three phases, with phase two being at walking distance from our home. These parks were created as homage to some of Portugal's biggest poets, and are filled with statues inspired by their work and bits and pieces of their poetry scattered around, which makes it fun to go walking and reading, as I am reminded of my Portuguese Lit. classes back when I was a teen. 

This past weekend phase three of this complex was finally inaugurated, and so, yesterday, my boy and I took advantage of the sunny weather and decided to visit it. To get to that final park, we have to cross phase two, which, being the smallest one - but the prettiest one, for me, as it has a stream running through the grass that ends in a pond with frogs and all!! - can be easily achieved in ten minutes, if we don't stop at our usual haunts. As you get to the top of this phase all you have to do is cross the road and you're in phase three.

Now, we took off about half past nine, thinking we'd be able to avoid most of the heat, but as it happens, we were sorely wrong. By ten it was scorching, under the blazing sun. These parks have a characteristic about them, which is they are very sunny. There's hardly any shades in them, although there are trees, but those are still mostly small and very sparce in between. The workmanship when it comes to landscaping is exquisite, trust me, it is a thing of beauty, but when it comes to avoiding the heat... well, you just have to bare with it.

On top of it all, we had no idea how gigantic phase three would be! It is enormous, and beautiful as well, being uphill the view one has is beyond spectacular, embracing the river Tagus where it reaches the sea, and with clear sights of the beaches on the other margin, as if they were at hand's reach. It's quite windy as well, which was actually good due to the extreme heat but I can imagine it in the Fall and in Winter, and I guess it will be mighty cold. Still, the view from up there on a grey, foggy day is something to look forward to, while I nibble on an icecream sandwich, made from homebaked butter cookies and homemade toffee icecream. Good enough to put away the heat!!