Coimbra – July 16th

Some sisterly love in Lisbon's Barrio Alto!

The "quad" at Coimbra University!

Some extremely steep stairs....

Tom checking out the arch of the lookout tower.

The welcoming view from the window of our Porto Apartment of the Rio Douro.

After navigating Lisbon via public transportation, Tom nabbed our rental car and made his way back to the hilly streets of Alfama to pick the rest of us up in order to make our way to Coimbra.  Without GPS I was a bit nervous about following the map as the streets are not very well marked, but we made it to the highway and to Coimbra within a couple of hours.

Coimbra, nestled in a very hilly area, is home to Portugal’s oldest university.  The university itself is situated at the top of the largest hill, with a commanding view of the surrounding town and river.  The buildings date back to the 16^th century and are quite impressive, though the upkeep of the grounds was less so.  The students, following tradition, are clad in black suits and wear a robe when in the presence of their fellow students and professors.  Since school was not in session, we only saw 1 or 2 students and I was not quick enough with my camera to capture them.  Ryan indicated that this was NOT the kind of place he would be interested in attending college!

The town of Coimbra was quant, with old buildings situated on narrow, winding, hilly streets.  There still remains, the last vestiges of the once important lookout tower.  Today it acts as a kind of gateway into the old town.  Portugal temperatures so far have been in the mid to high 70’s but the sun makes it much warmer, so climbing those hills was a sweaty affair!

From Coimbra a wrong turn took us on the back road to Porto, our next stop.  This was a happy accident as it gave us a much better feel for what life is like outside of the cities.  Similar to the states with single family housing (lots of townhouses too), cute little burgs and some lovely vistas that would have been missed traveling on the main highway.

Another wrong turn or two landed us who knows where in Porto, which is a rather large city and between my detail lacking map and the weak English directions of the apartment owner, we were very turned around.  Couple that with the fact that our apartment was in the Ribaira (river) district and Friday night is a happening night (read: traffic jam), and suffice it to say that we arrived, quite harried!  Fernando, our host, was a delight and greeted us with chilled bottles of water and port (for which Porto is known) as well as some yummy fresh bread and a well appointed apartment.

Cathy