With God's help we continued our journey.

In September 2023, my wife and I were on a tour of Portugal and the Duoro Valley by train.  We had reached Lisbon and after a guided tour on the morning, we decided to visit the castle on the afternoon. It was beautiful sunny day with the temperatures around 35C. We spent a few hours at this castle.

We caught the tram back into the main square and then walked back to the hotel with two others from the same tour.  When we reached the hotel, I told my wife how tired I felt and had a lie down for an hour or so. After this, we went to a local cafe for tea and it was on the way back to our hotel, a walk of about 200 metres, I started to shiver and could not stop. My wife asked me if I was ok and I said yes because apart from the shivering, I did feel ok.

When we got back to the hotel my wife told me to go to bed which I did and I fell asleep. When I woke some time later, I was sweating and felt very hot. My wife was concerned and asked if she should ask the hotel reception for a doctor but I said I would probably be ok the next morning. I stayed in bed and drifted in and out of sleep. I found it difficult to sit up in bed and going to the toilet was a major operation as I needed to rock myself to the edge of the bed and then, with my wife's assistance, I managed to get to the toilet.

Come the next morning I was not much better and fortunately it was a free day but we both knew that the following day we were leaving Lisbon and travelling by coach to Valladolid in Spain. Our tour manager had been made aware of my illness and had said that if we could not make it to the coach then we could stay at the hotel and arrangements would be made for us to fly home. I do not like flying. We had already been praying to God for his help and hearing that we may need to fly, made my prayer efforts even greater and I asked God to make me welll enough to catch that coach.

I eventually agreed for the reception to call a doctor for me and a Portugese lady doctor arrived within an hour. She examined me but as she spoke very little English, understanding what she thought was wrong with me was difficult to find out. She gave me a prescription for three items and then left after we had paid her. My wife went to the reception and they arranged for a taxi to take her to and from the nearest pharmacy and so she was able to get the medication the doctor had prescribed. I prayed all the time she was out for her safety.

Once I started to take the medication I started to feel less hot and the shivering had stopped. Whether we would catch the coach was still uncertain and it became more uncertain when the anti-biotic had an adverse effect on me. We prayed and did all we could with the intention of being on that coach the following morning. My wife did all the packing and she was magnificent.

The following morning, we woke at the time we had set on the alarm and I was well enough to put the cases outside the door, go down to breakfast where I ate some toast and we went on the coach to Vallodolid. How I recovered in such a quick time I know was all down to God and I kept thanking him all the rest of the holiday.

When we reached home, I Googled my symptoms and the medication I had been given, and found that I had been affected by heat exhaustion which normally takes 3-4 days to recover from: I recovered in 38 hours. That was my God at work.

Thank you God.

Bob

October 2023