Praia da Luz - April 2019

by Doug D 13.04.19 18:41

Quick trip around what is a lovely little village, much smaller than I envisaged. Baptista & Spar supermarkets are the centre of the village, the only 'real' shops and pretty much next to each other, so it would be pretty hard for any permanent expat's not to bump into each other on a fairly regular basis.

Sunday 7th.

Tuesday 9th.

Wed.

View from Paraiso. Just starting to put the hats on the umbrellas.

Re-vamped Paraiso:

Most of the signs have been painted over, but they missed a few:

Mirage (Millenium) hasn't found a buyer yet.

Sign for the Pizza place in the old Tapas has been taken down.

by OddBod 13.04.19 19:18

How interesting. How hot/cold is it out there and how advanced is the bougainvillea?

(My first post and I'm demanding answers - apologies for my presumptuousness and thank you in advance, Doug!)

by Doug D 13.04.19 19:21

Garden & pools not yet open, but bougainvillea blooming well.

Main pool half full, kids pool still empty.

Tennis courts looking a bit sad.

Completely clear view from bottom of steps right up and down 'Smithman Alley". Always got the impression there was more of a stagger, but a 'Smithman' allegedly coming down the hill, not wanting to be seen, would have had oodles of time to hang a left and avoid a crowd, unless tight up on right hand wall (which he supposedly wasn't, but then again may or may not have been, MS supposedly on left looking up the hill, AS on left & PS on right, so who knows).

Weather this afternoon was showing as 22 on the Pharmacia clock, 28 in the shade on our pool thermometer. Sea bloody cold, but had to be done, but the pool was pleasant enough to go in a couple of times. Plenty of sunburn to be had.

PS

Surprise, surprise, not seen even one 'Tannerman carry', but plenty of 'Smithman shoulder' carries, although it is pretty quiet and not yet 'in season'. Maybe next week?

by OddBod 13.04.19 19:37

Absolutely fascinating - thank you so much. Pictures paint trillions of words, of course!

Hope you're making sure to have a thoroughly good time, as well big grin

by Verdi 13.04.19 21:32

Thank you for the photographs Doug D.

Are you on hols or on a mission big grin

? Whatever, it all looks very quiet off-peak.

Let us know if you come across Robert Murat....

by skyrocket 14.04.19 15:48

@DougD - good photos, thanks. Not sure if you're still in Luz or not but your photo north up the steps is interesting - the PJ photos seemed to show that the steps and road Smithman came down were less of a dog-leg than I had assumed as well, but your photos give a much clearer picture. One question - in your opinion, would there be any reason that Smithman would cross over to Aoife's side of the road, 2 metres to her left? Wouldn't anyone turn left if he were going left along the road or cross straight to the top of the steps if he were descending? What do you think? This point has been bugging me for a while. Cheers.

by sar 14.04.19 15:56

Doug D wrote:Quick trip around what is a lovely little village, much smaller than I envisaged. Baptista & Spar supermarkets are the centre of the village, the only 'real' shops and pretty much next to each other, so it would be pretty hard for any permanent expat's not to bump into each other on a fairly regular basis.

Sunday 7th.

Tuesday 9th.

Wed.

View from Paraiso. Just starting to put the hats on the umbrellas.

Re-vamped Paraiso:

Most of the signs have been painted over, but they missed a few:

Mirage (Millenium) hasn't found a buyer yet.

Sign for the Pizza place in the old Tapas has been taken down.

Brilliant Doug D! Thank you so much. Really captures the flavour. Changeable weather etc . Really appreciated.

by sar 14.04.19 15:57

...is that Neil Berry standing in the pool?

by Doug D 14.04.19 18:41

Skyrocket @ #6.

Basic answer – NO!

But then the statements don’t make much sense anyway.

PJ’s graphic:

Praia da Luz - April 2019 Smith3

https://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/smith3.jpg

shows PS on the right hand side looking up the hill, with his statement saying:

PS:

Immediately at the beginning of this road he saw an individual carrying a child, who walked normally, with a fairly quick step because he was coming downhill. It appeared normal to him, like father and daughter. He adds that this individual was coming down the street, opposite to the direction of the deponent and his family. He does not know what direction the individual took as he only saw him as they passed each other.

He states that [the man] carried the child on his arms, with the head resting on the left shoulder, as such on the right of the deponent, appearing to him in a natural manner.

States further that when he passed the individual, the individual was coming down to his right, going around the deponent in the middle of the street. At that time the traffic was minimal or non-existent.

Therefore PS must surely have been on the left hand side of the street, not the rhs, unless he is saying that Smithman was walking down same pavement on the right and stepped into middle of road to go round him.

MS:

He states that the individual carried the child in his arms, with her head laying on the individual's left shoulder, that being to the right of the deponent.

States also that when he passed this individual he was coming down the middle of the road, in the street, also that at that time traffic is minimal or non-existent.

— He adds that the group walked some metres apart from each other so they would have seen the individual in different positions.

So Smithman still in middle of road, with most of straggled out party seemingly to the left hand side.

But then AS suddenly has him almost turning right, having crossed the road (R. 25 April), and then coming back towards her on her left, to either go down the steps or continue towards the church.

AS:

The deponent remembers that upon reaching the top of the stairs, she looked to her left and saw a man (1) with a female child (2) in his arms, walking along the pavement of Rua 25 de Abril. He was walking in her direction at a distance of, give or take, two metres.
— The deponent crossed to the other side of Rua 25 de Abril and began walking up Rua da Escola Primária in the direction of the Estrela da Luz apartment complex.
— She did not see if the referenced individual with the child descended Rua das Escadinhas or if he continued along Rua 25 de Abril.

Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s worth worrying about, as it’s all meaningless nonsense anyway.

by **sharonl** 14.04.19 21:25

Thank you for sharing the photographs Doug

Hope you had a good time out there. Did you see or hear anything of interest?

Has the area recovered from the McCann visit yet?

by skyrocket 15.04.19 7:54

@DougD - thanks for confirming that, and I completely agree. The positions in the statements don't make any sense - it seems the more 'witnesses', the more complicated it is to get things 'right'. Glad you had good weather - it's been damn cold over here (UK)!

by Doug D 16.04.19 18:43

Breaking News! (but of no relevance whatsoever unfortunately)

Tuesday 15th April. Garden & pools still not open, but they've cut down GM's 'last photo' tree.

by **Jill Havern** 16.04.19 18:54

How long are you going to be there Doug?

by Doug D 16.04.19 19:12

Home tomorrow afternoon (17th).

Pool and gardens open today, but still no water in kids pool. Asked woman in reception about Pizza place and she said 'no, just pools'.

by willowthewisp 16.04.19 19:46

Doug D wrote:Home tomorrow afternoon (17th).

Pool and gardens open today, but still no water in kids pool. Asked woman in reception about Pizza place and she said 'no, just pools'.

Hi DougD, So your Not expecting Kate,Gerry and Tapas 7/9 to be in Portugal, April 28th- 5 May 2019?

Twelve years after the disappearance, but they are sure Madeleine McCann has come to No Harm?

by VictoriaEmu 17.04.19 23:02

Hey. Very beautiful photos, I tell you as a professional photographer.

by Doug D 21.04.19 15:53

This is the gardens behind the old Ocean Club Main reception, which I think is where the Netflix 'parachute' photo comes from.

My photo, looking roughly east, with the corner of the apartments upstairs above MM's kids club to the very right hand side.

The shadows cast in the Netflix photo look about right for between 10 & 11 on the Sunday morning.

Main reception was by the big white van in the car park marked as Palm Bay. MM's Kid's Club was on the first floor above reception. On the google satellite picture, I think you can even see a round 'crop-mark' just below and to the right of the tree, which looked to be a slab just behind MM in the photo.