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| Coimbra, Portugal |
The university town of Coimbra is worth a day visit when traveling in central Portugal. We visited this past weekend and, despite its steep hills, found it to be a wonderfully walkable town. Coimbra–once even the capital of Portugal–clings to a hillside overlooking the Rio (River) Mondego and offers sweeping views of the neighboring valleys.
We parked across the river, and the walk across the Ponte (bridge) de Santa Clara gives a hint of the views once you reach the top. After a quick stop in the Tourismo office, we headed through the main square and up the picturesque main street. We stopped and picked up some postcards, and only moments later we came across some locals peddling their wares.
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| University Students |
Now, often when you’re stopped in a strange city by locals peddling something, it’s somewhere between an annoying and uncomfortable experience. Not this time. They were two university students, in their second year, wearing their traditional university capes, selling postcards to help make money. It seems a universal truth that college students are always in need of money. Their postcards were wonderful little pen and ink cards, and though we had just purchased some postcards in a shop, we bought some more from them. They didn’t even request a specific price, inviting us to pay them whatever we liked. We paid them a few times more than what we had paid the shop keeper.
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| Nun and Man Leaving Mass |
At the top of the street we found a square and the Church of Santa Cruz. We had felt a few raindrops so we stepped inside. It was precisely 11:00 and mass was just beginning. Good Catholics that we are, we took a seat. Mass is easy to follow in a foreign language and affords a time to be contemplative and peacefully admire the church as it was intended to be used. As in so many churches of Europe, this one had an impressive altar, organ, and pulpit (lectern). But what made this church so unique was it’s blue tiled walls, the left side telling the story of St. Helen’s discovery of the Holy Cross, the right side telling the life story of St. Augustine.
After mass we explored the church some more, and at the urging of a kneeling Portuguese lady who spoke no more English than we spoke Portuguese, we proceeded up onto and behind the altar. There we found the impressive tombs of the first two kings of Portugal and one of the most unique altar pieces we’ve seen anywhere in Europe. Obrigado senhora!
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| Coimbra, Portugal |
From the church we proceeded around the corner, climbing up through Coimbra’s windy streets, and through the local market. We love popping into local markets, especially on busy days. It was an amazing blend of sights, sounds, and smells. We debated on buying some cheese, but with a long day ahead of us and no way to keep it cool, we opted for a loaf of bread and a half kilo of (what we think were) plums. From there we took an elevator and funicular toward the top of the hill, saving our knees and energy, and proceeded to the university perched on the hill overlooking the valley.
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| University |
The university at Coimbra is compact, a halo at the very top of the hill. It’s surrounded by narrow cobblestone streets going up and down at all angles, with shops and cafes and churches and republicas (sort of like fraternity houses) all around. We had planned to visit the university’s famed library, but it and the chapel were closed. There was a wedding going on. Such things happen and plans don’t always work out, but you have to assume you’ll return one day. We did get to see the bride and much of the wedding party, which was as much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as seeing the fabled library. Besides, the views of the countryside were enough to make us forget that we had come mainly to see the library.
After a cafe lunch near the top of the town, we headed down the hill just in time for the rain to come. We donned our rain gear, walked under storefront awnings, and ducked into another church when it got bad (and happened to come across vespers in progress; Portuguese Catholics are very active in their faith). After some patience and some time spent in a cafe sipping coffee and nibbling a pastry, the rain subsided and we were off to our next visit of the day, the Roman ruins of Conimbriga (blog soon to come).
