To our eyes, long accustomed to urban landscape, the valley appeared an oasis. Girdled by fir-treed hills, the plain was sheltered from the violent winds and favoured by the power of the hills to draw rain from the clouds, so that summer storms, though brief, were frequent. An American diplomat is sometimes like a bull who carries his own china shop around with him. It is much easier to write a solemn book than a funny book. It's harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry.
People are always on the verge of tears.
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. To see the world and leave out Sintra is to go blind about. It's all the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. A good holiday is one that is spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.