It was time to do a little bit of shopping downtown. We headed out a bit after noontime and worked our way through the shops. At 16.00 we were ready for a pause and there is a shop in town that has a "4 o'clock special". This consists of a cuppa tea or coffee and a little slice of cake or some other goodie...all for 2 euro's. What a deal this is. The Bride headed for the queue and I went to fight for a window seat. We both had success. Afterwards we did a bit more shopping and then went to a café to see what their "Day Bite". The Day Bite is a simple little meal with meat, veg and starch...with a drink of cola, tea, or a glass of wine even. They had a chicken, pasta and spinach with a drizzling of pesto. It was yum. Afterwards we strolled down the street to see if our favourite ice cream parlour had opened for the season yet. It was open, and diagonally across the street was one of the butchers shops. What caught our attention was the remarkable barking and yelping noises that two doggies were making. At that time of day the city was emptying out and so their cacophony literally echoed through the streets. Boy, was that loud! Those two dogs were tied-up just outside the butcher's door and clearly wanted their master or was it the merchandise? They were barking in a sort of frenzied way as if they had treed a cat or something--sort of hysterical-sounding. The owner was apparently alarmed herself and stuck her head out the doorway of the Butchers' and called them down in a less than friendly tone...and you should have seen those dog's reaction: The black and white one stopped barking immediately and looked innocently away as if to say, "Who me? What barking? Why, I am just sat here patiently waiting for you and watching the peeps walk along the side-walk over there". The brown and white one hid his head and pretended to be focused on something very interesting there on the side-walk. My bride saw the scene and thought that it was interesting, so she took a foto. I mean tying up dogs outside a butcher's shop, with the smells coming out of that place, and them not being able to get to the meats--it must have been sort of like torture for them. Their reaction was hilarious though. We did have an iceie then headed back home--a good day all round.
When we leave our dog outside the butchers he doesn't make a single sound but stares fixedly at the door. When we go to untie him there's always a puddle of drool at his feet. Our butcher always saves him the little offcuts from the meat slicer so he knows to behave but can't stop his mouth watering in anticipation.
Our Golden Retriever used to wait patiently for me to finish (almost) my lunch sandwich. He knew he'd get the last bite. Our Collie mix expected the crust from our pizza. He would sniff (you never know when your humans may try to slip a shoddy pizza past you) and then eat it. He only refused pizza crust once, and that was from a local pizza shop that we never patronized again. If a dog won't eat it, why should we?
Great photo. All I ever had to do with the last dog was say "Did you do that?" (even in a nice voice) and he'd immediately have ears back and look away with a 'nope not me' attitude.
Dogs are so entertaining,..i can imagine the scent of goodies wafting out through the butchers shop,..it would be like us standing outside a fish and chip shop,..when hungry. Hey that is a good attraction with the slice of cake and a coffee for 2 euro's,..very reasonable indeed,..hope you both enjoyed the break
Thanks for your note, Philip. We sure did enjoy the break. A small thing like an inexpensive piece of cake and a cuppa in the afternoon is so nice. You are right about how entertaining dogs can be.
