Madeleine – Luz Tour 4 results

Luz Tour #4 has now been completed, with very mixed results, due to the variable weather.

On the first day, my guest wanted to spend the time with a friend, at a market in a town several miles north of Luz. This was a wise choice as the weather turned out to be particularly good that day.

The following day the weather forecast was 92% chance of rain, and I pulled out of a Luz Tour on the basis that when it rains here, it is not gentle rain as per the UK. The norm is as close to a monsoon as Europe gets. As it turned out, the weather forecast was basically wrong, and it was a fine, bright day, only turning to rain after dusk.

On the next day, the forecast was again strongly predicting rain, but after the good weather of the day gone by, I decided to risk it. And of course, that was a mistake. It started to monsoon it down, and on a very short walk from my car to my guest’s accommodation in Burgau, I got completely drenched. I tried towelling some of the water off, but basically my clothes were still wet through.

As the storm was continuing, we decided to call off our planned trip to Lagos, and instead headed across the road in Burgau to the nearest café for a coffee and a pastel de nata (custard tart). And there we sat outside but sheltered, as the rain slowly lightened up.

We were talking for close on 3 hours, with less than an hour on the Madeleine McCann case and the rest on other topics. As per usual with interesting conversation, I lost track of what was happening to me until I reached the stage I was so cold I could not stop my teeth chattering. When I got home I put on dry clothes and a warm winter fleece, but it took over an hour and a hot meal before I reached something close to normal temperature.

The following day the weather improved, but my guest wanted to spend some time with a friend during the day, then meet up with acquaintances in Lagos in the evening.

That left the final day before my guest departed and we decided if it was to be a Luz Tour, then we would tour Luz.

We started off at the top end (the NW end) of Rua Vinte Cinco de Abril to check out a couple of reasons why the June 2014 Operation Grange dig of the mound made little sense. Then we strolled closer to the centre of Luz, to pass some of the STOP signs that had been graffitied in July 2014 to read STOP mccann circus. All of the signs we saw have now had the graffiti painted over, to simply read STOP.

My guest had not eaten breakfast and was feeling peckish. Luz has a wide choice of cafés and restaurants, but most are intended for tourists and charge tourist prices. I had a bit of a think as to where we could get something more typically Portuguese, and we headed to LuzTur, where the choice was Dom Doce at the entrance or Polly’s a little farther in. Polly’s was a little less exposed so we sat outside that and had a chat about the Madeleine McCann incident in pleasant sunshine.

LuzTur features in the case as it was where one of the 4 people made arguidos in July 2014 was living at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007. I have visited LuzTur on a previous tour, to see if it could be used as a control point in a planned exercise against apartment 5A. You can get a good view of the Tapas zone, the sole entrance to the zone, and the rear of block 5. However, the Tapas restaurant has a solid south wall which would block all observation of the Tapas 9 at their dinner table. You would only see parents checking once they had exited the Tapas restaurant, giving little time for communication and action. It is only my opinion, but there were much better places to observe the Tapas 9 and control any planned raid on apartment 5A, so I doubt LuzTur was used.

My guest and I headed out towards Baptista past the probable site of the missing manhole cover, then up to the Ocean Club to check out a couple of points to do with the statement of Neil Berry.

We headed back to the centre of Luz, which is when we saw the tuk tuk on its tour of Luz, near the church and the ice cream factory. As I said, I did not have a camera with me, but my guest got several photos of the tourist ensemble.

Time was now running out and my guest wanted to check on an idea suggested by a friend. So we headed past the Bull, Kelly’s and Fernando’s to get to just south of the Smith sighting. Assuming Smithman did not head to the beach but instead went down the steps Aoife Smith had just come up, we checked out the route west along Rua das Salgadeiras, then south down Travessa das Fontainhas to get to the rocks beside the sea where the fishermen keep their small boats.

On a bench in the small square on the front a young Portuguese woman was enjoying the pleasant weather and the tranquillity. Beside her, she had a double buggy with very young twin babies, who were taking advantage of the warmth and quiet to have a nap.

My guest and I headed to the boats. Most were keel up to keep out the rain. A couple had not bothered with this, and contained many gallons of water from the two rainy days earlier that week.

However, the thing that really surprised me was a security aspect. I had assumed the boats were secured by the simple device of removing the oars, and in most cases this was true. But at least two had the oars inside the boat, meaning anyone could use them.

Mark Harrison concluded that if Madeleine was dead, one method of body disposal was via the sea. I had never thought much of this, given the incoming tide that night and the need to get far out to sea, but now a viable transport mechanism was in front of us.

To use this method, a person would need to know the boats were kept there, have access to oars, and have the time to row out a considerable distance before returning.

The evidence of the Tapas 9 about what happened that night rules Gerry out as Smithman. Whilst this method might have been used by Smithman for body disposal, the operational characteristics further rule out Gerry.

It was now time to return to my guest’s base in Burgau, leaving ample time to prepare for the long, arduous journey home.

Luz Tour 4 was over.

Euro 2016 – England v Portugal

If you read my blog, you will know that I like cooking. I am not fast enough to survive in a restaurant, and I certainly wouldn’t make it to the finals of Masterchef, but I do like a good dinner, with good company, in a better than average ambiance.

We are heading into Euro 2016, and that gives me an opportunity for a bit of fun. How do you construct a decent meal to accompany the highlight game of the evening?

Last night was the starter. England v Portugal in a friendly. So I wanted something very English and something very Portuguese combined in one dinner. The Portuguese bit was easy, but trying to get something English was tough.

I eventually settled on a simple dish of clams in a garlic, chilli, onion and white wine jus (posh name for cooking liquid) with the good old English filler commonly called chips. I did the chips Italian style, as per Nigella Lawson, and served the dish with Portuguese bread.

It wasn’t my best effort ever, a bit like the game, where I believe England huffed and puffed and managed to scrape through. Consider it a pre-tournament friendly.

Let me pick up some of the forthcoming highlights, dinner-wise, bearing in mind that I live in Portugal so my views are not entirely impartial.

11 Jun 2016. England v Russia. Hmmm. I wonder if our cleaner will be back from Russia early enough to supply an authentic Russian recipe?

14 Jun 2016. Portugal v Iceland. Is there food from Iceland? Luckily, the Iceland chain operates here on the Algarve. But does the food from Iceland have anything whatsoever to do with Icelandic food? Probably not.

16 Jun 2016. England v Wales. Fish and chips v leg of lamb? At the moment, I am thinking of pies. Traditional country pies.

18 Jun 2016. Portugal v Austria. The best I can propose at the moment is some sort of Austrian pastry with a cup of coffee for afters.

20 Jun 2016. Slovakia v England. I’m sure Slovakia must have signature dishes, but at this point in time I am clueless.

22 Hungary v Portugal. At least that is one evening that is easy.

If you are wondering what this has to do with Madeleine McCann, then let me spell it out for you.

It explains the Smithman sighting, the location, the timing, the motivation.

It explains the 74,104 calls going through Luz on 2-4 May 2007.

It explains the bar bill in Kelly’s.

It explains the statements of Neil Berry and Raj Balu.

Madeleine – May 2016

The ShiningInLuz blog has been trundling along for a while averaging 50 to 60 views per day. Do the arithmetic and you should get 1,500 to 1,800 as the expected total views for May 2016.

The actual total was over 6,200, or about 200/day.

Here is the map of where those visits came from.

In the main it is from the UK, but there appears to be fairly global interest.

And someone is obviously spreading something about the blog on Facebook. The current total for today, roughly half-way through 1 June 2016, is over 1,200.

These peaks seem to be mainly back catalogue effects, with 2 myths rising to the surface.

The first is whether the McCanns visited Chaplins. There is nothing whatsoever to support this.

The second is whether the CEOP site reported Madeleine’s disappearance before 3 May 2007, as it looked like this on the Wayback Machine. CEOP did not report Madeleine’s disappearance prior to 3 May 2007. The Wayback Machine records were corrupted months after the event, leading to a false impression.

The main ‘current’ posts to be viewed concerned the 9^th anniversary, and that can largely be summarised as not a lot happened in the media, and whether Neil Berry and Raj Balu could see much of significance from the balcony of apartment 606, which they couldn’t.

All in all, rather an odd month, though I did pick up quite a bit of information from my second visitor to Luz.

Madeleine – a new record

I am interested in looking at the reasons people view this blog. I can understand why the 9^th anniversary could have generated a lot of interest but…

Normally the blog gets 50 to 60 views per day. On the 3^rd, the blog got a spike of 377 views.

Such spikes are normally caused by someone on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, alerting their followers. I’m not on Facebook or Twitter, so I can’t find out who or what seems to be so interesting.

The blog has gone bananas over the last couple of days, so I’m trying to work out why. On 9^th May, there were 629 views, about 10 times more than normal.

The previous record viewing total was something like 934 views in one day. On 10 May 2016, that record was broken, with 1,084 views.

The top searches I have explained already – scandal at Chaplins – Sergey Malinka.

However, the clear leader in terms of posts viewed is what the Berry party and the Balu party could see on 3 May 2007, currently standing at 1,225 hits.

I find this perplexing. For me, it was a very small point. I simply wanted to get a handle on whether the good folks on the balcony of apartment 606 could possibly see anything of relevance that evening. For me, the answer is no. Quite why it took off like wildfire is still beyond me.

If the weather improves a bit, I intend to get out more and grab some more photos where Google does not go. I have a couple of such places lined up that are pertinent to the events that evening.

And if you have an idea for others, please get your request in ASAP. I’m beginning to get clogged up with our house move to just north of Lagos. It is only about 15mins away by car from Luz, and my ‘Luz tours’ offer will remain open to visitors. But it is simply easier to nip into Luz from here and get on with some photos than to do it from Portelas.

Madeleine – undying myths

WordPress gives me basic information about how people are finding this blog. It used to tell me which sources were referring search queries to me, but that information has now been removed.

Yesterday, there was a large spike in views of this blog. Rather than the usual 60, the total was over 600. And at half past 7, the total is sitting at 400 this morning.

This type of spike normally means social media has been active, but sadly, I can no longer be certain of that..

The two top queries were Sergey Malinka and the McCanns at Chaplins, so let me give you an update on both.

Mr Malinka has been a peripheral figure in our lives recently. He is working from a base near Lagos, with his girlfriend, in a upmarket estate agency that he owns. The average property he deals in is perhaps €3 million, and Mr Malinka appears to be doing well. The property market seems to be recovering here in general. The government has an incentive scheme in place for anyone spending €500,000 plus. So the top end of the market is doing particularly well again.

We happened to be in touch with a group of foreign investors who want enough land to build an entire urbanisation, and Mr Malinka was able to come up with a suitable large plot of land instantly. These type of deals seldom go through straightforwardly. The investors have the whole world to pick from, so whether they choose Portugal is anyone’s guess.

In brief, Mr Malinka appears to be well-established in a well-paid line of work, and is getting on with his life without concerning himself with Madeleine.

Now to the McCanns at Chaplins. I do not have anything fresh to offer on this, because nothing fresh has emerged. The myth is that the McCanns went to Chaplins on Tuesday 1 May 2007. That would be after a quiz conducted in the Tapas restaurant, which the Tapas 9 won. And supposedly, some or all of the Tapas 9 quiz participants then dashed to Chaplin’s, where it was quiz night. And that was the night Kate McCann was busy on her phone.

I have an idea as to how this myth started, but the law of libel prevents me from publishing it.

So, Mr Malinka appears to be an honest character with no connection to the Madeleine McCann case beyond being in Luz at the time of the incident.

And the McCanns never went to Chaplins. It is a scurrilous myth that refuses to die.

The third post that has been particularly active was the photos I posted yesterday about trying to work out what the Berry/Balu party could see from their balcony. It was just a small point that interested me, but it seems to have taken off with a very large number of views.

Do you chaps realise that I’m happy to take photo requests for the bits of Luz that Google doesn’t cover well?

Madeleine – the Berry-Balu view

Here’s some photos, taken on 3 May 2016, to illustrate what the Berry and Balu parties would have been able to see from the balcony of apartment 606, on the evening that Madeleine disappeared.

First of all, this is facing the Tapas reception, to make it clear where the photos were taken from. I took the first where the curved step in the top of the wall is on the, the second where the rectangular step in the top of the wall is, and the third from the dead centre of the Tapas entrance.

First of all, here is the nearest view I could dig out of Google StreetView, dated Aug 2009, to get a better idea of the size of the trees back then.

Here is the view from a few metres south of the Tapas entrance. The balcony of 606 is the middle level at the far end of the block. The street light nearer to the balcony is going to become an obstacle, as you would have to see through a bright light to a dimmer locale at the Tapas entrance.

I have now moved north a couple of steps to where the rectangular step in the wall is. At least part of the balcony would be able to see this location.

Finally, this is from the centre of the Tapas entrance. Now the 2 trees are blocking any view of the balcony of apartment 606. This was taken at eye level whereas StreetView is from a camera mounted a few feet above the roof of a car. The vegetation to the left of the trees would prevent any decent view further north.

The Berry and Balu party was not acting as a neighbourhood watch. They were socialising, eating and drinking. The photos make clear their view is obstructed until someone enters the car park behind Block 6 or goes some metres to the south of the Tapas reception.

Perhaps they saw other people that evening, before Madeleine disappeared e.g. Jes Wilkins on his walk, but they didn’t see any of the key actions involving the Tapas 9.

Madeleine – short route from the crèche pt2

It has been pointed out to me that Kate McCann may have been using an alternative to this route, one that cuts through the Palm buildings to the north of the Ocean Club 24hr reception. I will need to do a bit of work on checking out the source, and then assessing whether it is a better route for nannies taking several children to High Tea.

Until then, let me continue with this route, which applies to Steve and Carolyn Carpenter on the evening of 3 May 2007.

Photo 14. The building on the left is Fuji Palms. The building to the right is Block 1. Straight ahead is the large grassy area with a palm tree in the middle. Now if I turn right, you can see that we are at …

Photo 15. … the south end of the road that runs between Block 1 (to the left) and Casa Liliana (to the right). The worst thing about this photo is it makes the road look like as wide as a highway, when it is not.

Photo 16. Continuing on, this is the large grassy area south of Block 1 where the kids probably played Olympic sports. It is also the route described by Stephen Carpenter as the one the family used to get home on 3 May 2007 (only going the opposite way).

 

Photo 17. This is a particularly poor photo of the rear of Block 1, but I don’t have anything better. Stephen Carpenter describes the semi-circular route on the way back to his apartment, and this is it.

Photo 18. Again pretty poor. Just moving on round south of Block 1.

Photo 19. This is nearly at the west end of Block 1 and it is time to jink between buildings.

Photo 20. Looking north at the gap between Block 1 on the right and Block 6 on the left. You can use this to get to the front of Block1 and Block 6 and out onto Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, but I want the path to the south of Block 6, which you can just see on the left. These steps are the only steps on this route, and there is a light on the right.

Photo 21. Looking west along the path running along the south end of Block 6 to the street light in the car park. Apartment 606, where the Berry and Balu parties ate dinner together on the balcony on 3 May 2007, is the one sticking out at the top right.

Photo 22. This is a clearer view of the balcony of apartment 606. If you look at the other end of Block 6, it juts out to obscure most or all of the events occurring until searching started on 3 May 2007.

Photo 23. The view across the Tapas area to the car park.

Photo 24. From the path in the car park across to what the local reception looks like today.

At some point I need to go into Luz again and check whether you can see the balcony of apartment 606 from the entrance to the Tapas area, which will give me an idea of the potential field of vision of Neil Berry and Rajinder Balu.

I’m off on an adventure with a visitor this evening to see if we can bag a journalist or two, then it is probably going to be a look at the Smith sighting. But I hope to be around block 5 tomorrow to see what the media are up to on the 9^th anniversary, so I should be able to check what can be seen from the balcony of apartment 606 at that time. The only issue I can foresee is that the forecast is very hot and sunny, which is not my idea of being good for trekking around Luz.

Madeleine – Michael Green

The penultimate interviewee in December 2014 is quite uncertain according to the media, so I need to make it clear at the start that I am into the land of speculation.

Michael Anthony Green is named in the summary report which led to the closing of the PJ Files. The gist of it is that Tasmin Sillence saw a man twice observing apartment 5A, and she helped to draw up an e-fit.

The report says that after performing due diligence, Michael Green was cleared of involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The sections of the PJ Files relevant to how Michael Green was first suspected, then tracked, then cleared, have been expunged. They form part of the files not made public.

So, a brief summary. 1) Michael Green might or might not have been interviewed in December 2014. 2) A Michael Anthony Green was investigated by the PJ, but was noted as cleared in the summary report. 3) The diligences with respect to Michael Green were long, around 90+ pages of the files, according to the summary report.

Their is nothing to suggest that anyone was made an arguido in December 2014, so if Michael Green was interviewed, one assumes his status was witness.

Tasminman has turned up already in the list of witnesses. He is a potential connection between laundry worker Mário Marreiros and Neil Berry. This is the sighting of a man with sunglasses in the stairwell of block 5 on 3 May 2007. He is not a very good connection, as Tasmin made the e-fit person one of slim build, whilst Mário went for stocky.

If Michael Green was on the list of those interviewed as witnesses in Dec 2014 it is further evidence that Scotland Yard was still trying to cover every available option.

Madeleine – Mário Marreiros Dec 14

Mário Marreiros is another of those questioned as witnesses in Dec 2014, so what, if anything, can be gleaned from this?

Mário Marreiros was employed as a laundry worker by the Ocean Club when Madeleine disappeared. I have covered his story before, but there are a couple of points that need to be polished.

Mário has a single statement in the PJ Files, despite the fact that he clearly spoke to them at least twice.

His statement is bland. He appears to have worked within the laundry, as well as picking up and delivering laundry around the Ocean Club. He says his work on 3 May was as per his normal routine, stating at 10am, a break of an hour and a half for lunch, and ending at 6pm. He then went home and stayed with his wife. He went out around 9:30pm to Barão de São João to pick up his step son, returned home and stayed in thereafter. His statement, dated 8 May 2007, says he saw nothing suspicious that could be related to the disappearance.

The ‘nothing suspicious’ is the part that would change.

On 29 Sep 2007 the Mirror published a more interesting tale. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/new-madeleine-suspect-seen-in-stairwell-509604

An Ocean Club worker, who did not want to be named, was picking up linen at around 6pm on 3 May 2007. This was from a stairwell 12m from apartment 5A when he nearly bumped into a British person who appeared to be monitoring the car park, stairs and elevator. The man was stocky, round-faced, wearing two-tone sunglasses and light clothes.

This worker said he had talked of this in the first round of interviews, but the young officer taking the statement seemed uninterested.

The worker further said that detectives had gone to his home, insisted he be interviewed again, that he had gone to Portimão, and that he had picked out one person from photographs he had been shown.

This 29 Sep 2007 article is interesting, particularly as versions dating around 2013 would have morphed.

It has a stairwell 12m from 5A, with an elevator. There is a stairwell around 12m from 5A in block 6, but block 6 does not have elevators. That leaves the block 5 stairwell, and this was confirmed in later versions of the encounter.

Although unnamed at the time, the worker turned out to be Mário Marreiros. There is probably enough in the PJ Files to pick him out using the 29 Sep article, but I don’t see the point.

The person who took Mário’s first statement was Inspector C Domingos. Inspector Domingos took more than one statement in the Madeleine case. Other than that, I cannot find anything about him.

The method by which detectives would have requested a second interview eludes me, unless Mário’s story was already in circulation i.e. they worked out who he was from that. His original statement doesn’t mention block 5 or a suspicious man. If there was something in the Portuguese press at the time, I have not found it.

The method by which the Mirror was able to find Mário also eludes me. It makes no reference to a Portuguese article. However, it is difficult to see how a British newspaper managed to deduce Mário was significant, unless the story was already in circulation.

The second statement, if it was a formal statement, is missing from the published PJ Files.

The only other piece of information in the PJ Files that might relate to Mário, is that someone had seen a laundry van parked near to Fuji Palms, which is part of the Ocean Club.

Whatever the connection to Mário, Neil Berry was interviewed by UK police. Neil mentions two previous statements, neither of them in the PJ Files, while the one in question is dated 23 Apr 2008, so it is part of the review of the case by Paulo Rebelo.

In that statement, Neil Berry is asked is he was in the stairwell of block 5 at 6pm on 3 May 2007, and nearly bumped into a laundry worker, by the stairs and lift. Neil could not remember precisely where he was, but did not remember an encounter with a laundry worker. Further, he could not remember a lift. Neil was in block 6, which does not have lifts.

The PJ requested a DNA swab and a hair sample. It was noted in the April 2008 interview that Neil had already provided these.

By this point, it is likely that Mário Marreiros had picked out Neil Berry as the man seen in block 5 at 6pm on 3 May 2007.

Now it is time to ponder why Mário was interviewed in Dec 2014.

First, the laundry van was seen outside Fuji Palms more than once. As Fuji Palms is part of the Ocean Club, the logical place to pick up or deliver laundry in this part is beside Fuji Palms. This makes perfect sense and is totally innocuous.

Second, the newspaper tales of Mario’s encounter had morphed into anything but 6pm on 3 May 2008. I cannot see such newspaper reports as sufficient to haul Mário to Faro for an interview.

Third, the core of Mário’s tale is that he saw a man with two-tone sunglasses in the block 5 stairwell at 6pm on 3 May 2007. Presumably, the PJ used this to pick out Neil Berry from TV footage that was broadcast at the time.

The PJ had on file by 9 May 2007 the statement of Tasmin Sillence, a young resident of Luz. Tasmin’s grandmother had lived in apartment 5A until 2002. On two occasions in the days before Madeleine disappeared, Tasmin saw a man who appeared to be observing 5A.

If this is the connection, there is an issue. Tasmin described a man of lean build (see above the e-fit). Mário described a man with a round face and stocky build.

If Mario’s second statement is not in the file to which Scotland Yard has access, it makes sense to ask Mário to provide further information on the man, such as age and height.

Fourth, Mário’s statement is that he went out alone at 9:30pm on 3 May 2007, to pick up his step son from Barão de São João. One analyst has pointed out that the distance from Mário’s home to apartment 5A is one quarter of the distance from his home to Barão de São João. This puts Mário, who knew the Ocean Club layout, alone in a car, only a couple of minutes away from 5A, around the time Madeleine disappeared.

Unless Mário’s statement has been verified in some way, we only have Mario’s word as to his whereabouts from 6pm on. Verification would require a statement by his wife, or proof via phone records.

As Mario was interviewed as a witness, it does not appear that Scotland Yard was in pursuit of any information that might incriminate him.

This leaves clarifying re the man in the stairwell and trying to get a more accurate description of him.

If so, it suggests that Scotland Yard is significantly closer to the start of the investigation than it is to the end.

Madeleine – was Luz quiet – final picture

The attached graphic should be very near to the final picture of how quiet, or otherwise, Luz was around the time that Madeleine McCann disappeared on 3^rd May 2007.

The major items added are 3 points by Estrela da Luz.

The first is the Hugo Beattie restaurant and bar. This was popular with the journalists during the mid-2014 dig of Luz, presumably as it is so close to the mound.

The second is the reception area for Estrela da Luz. To be accurate, I don’t know the working hours that were in place in May 2007. However, Estrela da Luz is completely fenced off, and you cannot get in without a code or an electronic key, which you get from reception. Early and late arrivals mean it would have to work outside normal office hours, and 10 PM does not sound unreasonable.

The third is the Calabaza restaurant.

All are in amber. The importance of this trio is that they block the easy route west for Smithman.

Heading further west, 2 green dots have been added to the St James complex. The first is O Cestinho, a small convenience store intended to service the St James set-up. That closed at 7 PM, hence it had no impact. The second is the Eclipse restaurant. Rather curiously, this was positioned on the inside of the complex, and so had a truly awful location. It is unlikely any criminal would choose to wander through St James carrying a child, so the Eclipse is green. And not surprisingly given its poor location, it went out of business.

At the extreme RHS of the graphic, about half-way up is the Alloro Italian restaurant. While I have shown it as amber, I could equally have used green. That big car park in front is the end of a cul-de-sac, and the whole lot is completely fenced off i.e. you can walk into the area, but you would have to climb a fence to get out.

To the left and a little down is the Luz Bay Hotel, actually a restaurant on the Luz Bay complex. Again, this is amber.

The Bar Carib (pub and restaurant) is in the north west of Luz, roughly between 27 Rua das Flores and the water tower. It happens to be down a side road, so although it was popular with the locals, it would be more accurate to make it green rather than amber. Anyway, it is off the graphic, to the top left of what is shown here.

Val Verde restaurant gets a mention in the PJ files. The GNR car which first responded to the incident was near the Val Verde when it got the second call to hurry it up. The Val Verde was on the old road from Rua Direita to Lagos, near to a large tourist camping site. These are quite posh in Portugal, with lots of facilities. The Val Verde itself would be green if it was on the graphic. However, the camping site is possibly more important.

And the Val Verde is around 20 to 25 minutes walking distance from 5A. At that radius, I would have to include the establishments in Espiche, so things would be getting a bit crazy. Mind you, the gardener of rain-soaked note fame lived in Espiche, so who knows.

What, if anything, is missing from the graphic?

I have one named establishment that was located somewhere on Rua 25 de Abril, but no information on precisely where or opening hours.

Two of the CCTV cameras in Estrela da Luz pick up part of the street to the north, Rua de Cemitério. It looks like they pick up the south side of the street, but not the north. So I doubt that these are important.

Neil Berry and Rajinder Balu, plus wives, were on the balcony of 606, overlooking the entrance to the Tapas restaurant. Whilst this is a good position for a view, they were having a meal, a drink and a social evening, not monitoring the comings and goings. So I have left them off.

Quite a few of the complexes have receptions that, presumably, work long hours, otherwise there is little point in having them. I am probably missing around half a dozen of these.

My sources in this jolly effort were two folks documenting the facilities in and around Luz at the time. The information is contemporaneous, or near contemporaneous. Although that sounds great, the only way to build up an accurate picture of menu, facilities, days off and hours was to trot into each and every one. For this reason, I may be missing some that were around at the time.

Equally, I may have the odd one or two designated as open that were not. Consider the Cave Bar on Rua Primeiro de Maio, which was a bar/restaurant run as a family business. The opening hours noted indicate the Cave Bar should have been open on the evening of 3 May 2007, but it is still a should have, not a definitely was. The family could have had a night off.

Therefore, although a considerable amount of care has gone into the graphic, it should be treated with caution, as a work in progress that may be refined as more information comes to light.