on Ajuelos, raids and gates

Coimbra continues…

We had 1 hour to get ready. I didn't think twice and went out for a walk on the bank of the wide river which name escapes me. There are gardens here with unusual trees, African trees I think; I enjoy a short walk amongst the trees and a little bit in the town itself. Coimbra is a pretty city, dominated by the university on the hill. The streets are cobblestones but wide cobbles so it's not ankle disaster.

I got back to the room and got ready shower included in record time.

Later we all go and explore the main streets and looking for a specific restaurant. When we finely reached it, the place was closed. This is the day after Easter with some closed restaurants. We found something recommended nearby Solar de bakalahu where Bakala fish is on display as it is dried and salted. For some reason I ordered Bakala with some breading, one of their popular dishes. After the lunch fish, I had high expectations, but the bakala tastes like the sea, some fish have that, so no, this fish did not meet expectations. Afterwards I went on a solo tour of Coimbra, heading up the steep hill to the old campus area. Most of the streets were deserted and not an ice cream in sight to undo the Bakala sea taste. An hour later I returned to the hotel, brushed off the taste of the sea and went to sleep.

 

Come morning, we had breakfast with great view of the city then took a taxi up the hill to visit the university. The university is from the 13^th century but decently maintained. Many sculptures outside that could use some cleaning but still maintain quality.  We stopped by the medicine building where a smoker was standing right by the door, I think it was the dean, setting poor example.

We entered the main squares with a sculpture of king don something. There are many dons here on sculptures. Here, I enjoy the gates of these ancient building, very fancy, decorated and impressively large. We entered a room after some class just finished. The chairs are wooden and seem the kind that force you to stay awake and the cabinet held ancient books of law that were huge. We toured a few more buildings and churches and more gates of various sorts than made our way down to the main shopping street where we sampled a Portuguese delicacy once more. Pastais belem – some call it nata, it was creamy and delicious. We returned to the hotel and took off. At some other city, so called the Venice of Portugal, it rained and we skipped it and headed for Porto. After settling in, we went to a specific place, and our fierce navigator shay had the name of the place, but there was some electronics store with the same name… this is at almost three pm where everyone was starving. Just next to this electronics store, I saw a restaurant. I showed it to shay and he becomes speechless. Oh the look on his face was priceless. The other place was s. jose. Reminiscing when he flew to the wrong san jose, this will be forever remembered and I was laughing my A$$ off when I saw that name.

 

Lunch was fried fish and potatoes. Not bad and I also had another pastais/nata/Belem…  - but now it is time for dinner… updates to follow.

It was a partially rainy afternoon. We went to the main square with a typical European municipal building and a large statue in front with a wide street leading to it with more sculptures in the middle. We enjoy this fancy elongated square. It starts to pour short lasting heavy rain just as we reach the train station.

All over Portugal, you will fine art made of tiles. They are everywhere. Some small some large, some simplistic and some elaborate. Here the indoor of the train station are covered with impressive tile work (Ajulejos they are called). There is a large battle scene in one when the Moorish army surrenders to king so and so with very fine detail on these blue tiles. I snap every one of these works of art and we head for the cathedral nearby, when it rains harder for a minute or two and then we split. Some go shopping and the rest (which is I) go exploring in the rain. I reach the cathedral and go inside for heavenly shelter; it is less impressive than the one in Coimbra. Two minutes inside and the rain stopped, sun is out and I venture out to explore the city. I pass most of the main sites, large sculptures mostly, but also some large churches and palace looking buildings. I reach the river and head west along the river Riviera with shops and tourist spots on the one end and the wineries on the other bank. At some point, I decide to go up again. The main city is up on the hill, and it is a steep climb, a few minutes of going up and I reach the crystal palace, which is a greenish metallic dome with lots of glass windows all over it. There are gardens all around. I am here just in time for a quality Pokémon raid with some locals, there are about 8-10 of us and they decide to go as a private group, there is a code you share verbally. I am surprised a bit since you do that only if there are larger groups wanting to split and raid at the same time. But they show me what happens when you go public as it is called. Suddenly there are 15 extra people who are invisible. Spoofers. These people sit at home, or wherever and somehow change they gps location to be here, there are apps that can do that, and join raids. This raid location is special. Called an Ex-raid, that gives you invites for special ones. The last thing I want it getting an invite here since it will be a month from now. Something tells me I will. In the many months I am playing I received 2 such invites, one near home, the other in Minnesota where I raided one time in the right place. Ok, back to the real world.

These crystal gardens have many peacocks, I take some photos of them and with them and of trees in partial or full bloom and continue my exploration. I reach a garden with interesting art. 2 sculptures of stands with people on it and one of them is falling from laughing with legs up, they stole my concept. So I climbed on this sculptures and posed with them. There are a few art students here, they go around with large arts pad from drawing, one of them stared at me with wonder.

 

Afterwards I found a nice ice cream place and sample Portuguese hazel nuts and kept walking for another hour or so, seeing various sculptures and pokemon. Porto is nice to walk around with most building being older. It is like walking in Paris just not as grand, there is lots to see on many unknown buildings, little statues and different ajuelos. The city feels safe and clean.

After a shower and feet resting , we Ubered to the harbor to terminal 44-50 restaurant. The steak was pretty good but the sweet potatoes were impossibly soft and yummy.

on Belem , gates and San Jose

DHF150350_LocalizationTPROC_Rev03

Coimbra continues…

We had 1 hour to get ready. I didn't think twice and went out for a walk on the bank of the wide river which name escapes me. There are gardens here with unusual trees, African trees I think, I enjoy a short walk amongst the trees and a little bit in the town itself. Coimbra is a pretty city, dominated by the university on the hill. The streets are cobblestones but wide cobbles so it's not ankle disaster.

I got back to the room and got ready shower included in record time.

Later we all went and explored the main streets and looking for a specific restaurant. When we finely reached it, the place was closed. This is the day after Easter with some closed restaurants. We found something recommended nearby Solar de bakalahu where Bakala fish is on display as it is dried and salted. For some reason I ordered Bakala with some breading, one of their popular dishes. After the lunch fish, I had high expectations, but the bakala tastes like the sea, some fish have that, so no, this fish did not meet expectations. Afterwards I went on a solo tour of Coimbra, heading up the steep hill to the old campus area. Most of the streets were deserted and not an ice cream in sight to undo the Bakala sea taste. An hour later I returned to the hotel and  brushed off the taste of the sea and went to sleep.

 

Come morning, we had breakfast with great view of the city then took a taxi up the hill to visit the university. The university is from the 13^th century but decently maintained. Many sculptures outside that could use some cleaning but still maintain quality.  We stopped by the medicine building where a smoker was standing right by the door, I think it was the dean , setting poor example.

We entered the main squares with a sculpture of king don something. There are many dons here on sculptures. Here, I enjoy the gates of these ancient building, very fancy, decorated and impressively large. We entered a room after some class just finished. The chairs are wooden and seem the kind that force you to stay awake and the cabinet held ancient books of law that were huge. We toured a few more buildings and churches and more gates of various sorts than made our way down to the main shopping street where we sampled a Portuguese delicacy once more. Pastais belem – some call it nata, it was creamy and delicious. We returned to the hotel and took off. At some other city, so called the Venice of Portugal, it rained and we skipped it and headed for Porto. After settling in, we went to a specific place, and our fierce navigator shay had the name of the place, but there was some electronics store with the same name… this is at almost three pm where everyone was starving. Just next to this electronics store, I saw a restaurant. I showed it to shay and he becomes speechless. Oh the look on his face was priceless. The other place was s. jose. Reminiscing when he flew to the wrong san jose, this will be forever remembered and I was laughing my A$$ off when I saw that name.

 

Lunch was fried fish and potatoes. not bad and I also had another Belem…  - but now it is time for dinner… updates to follow

on Fish, cliffs and the fog

I woke early on the 2^nd day in Cascais and after a breakfast of eggs and feta cheese sandwich (it is not really feta, this is goat cheese I think and softer then feta, more like tzfatit cheese) I took a little stroll in the gardens and witnessed the roosters trying to wake up the neighborhood. Then we headed for Boca de roca which is the most western point in continental Europe. This place has a little passport to say you were there and is supposed to be very windy. The pretty green roads pass by the shore and was foggy at times but soon, we reached the spot and took some photos of the cliffs and the land marker there. There was no passport since the store was closed and the wind was not as strong as I was told. Still, added to the list of irregular points.

We drove to sintra and its magnificent palace but the palace was replaced! Instead was a mountain of fog. We stopped at a super market for supplies and a local pastry called bedlam, it is kind of like crème Brule but not exactly, a lot creamier and very tasty, we would eat few more of those in days to come.

We moved on to ovidos, which is a medieval town.

This used to be a city I am sure on medieval standards. The old town has a well intact aqueducts and impressive city walls that are well maintained. Inside there are only a few streets with shops, souvenirs and restaurants.

 This place annoys me, the country as a whole. They serve hot chocolate in the street! Instead of hot cider, they have hot chocolate!! Which is something I stopped drinking (including milk shakes). I finally get to a place that has hot chocolate as a common thing and I cant have it.

We walked to the cathedral on the far side and climbed on the walls for a view then settled down in some pub for very fresh orange juice. This mediaeval little town was perfect for my kinds of souvenirs.

We drove on and reached Nazare which is a fishing village , or was, and now tourism took over, but still a great place for fish. Nazare has a magnificent beach, both very long and very wide white sandy beach with lots of restaurants and cliffs behind. We stopped at a little place away from the promenade called rosa dos ventos on gil vicente street. Gil vicente happens to be a famous playwright in the 15^th century and I learned that the Portuguese pronounce my name as jill.

 

In rosa dos ventos they show the fish before and you pay by weight, we got a red snapper and some kind of other snapper, weighted 1.9 kg total and I loved it from first bite. I gave a review of "probably the best fish in the world" it was that good.

From the promenade, there is a train/cable car thingy that takes you to the top of the cliff. I walked it up, not that bad, but up hill is tiring, lucky the car waited at the top with some sugared almonds ready. The cliffs offer views of nazare and its magnificent beaches.

We reached Coimbra in the late afternoon. Coimbra is the Cambridge of Portugal. A large ancient university on the hill, by a wide river  , more on that tomorrow.. its night night time

on waiting , santini and hell's mouth

DHF150350_LocalizationTPROC_Rev03

Come on, come on come, come on , where are you???  I deplaned , got on the transport bus that seemed to drive around the terminal much longer than it should and was lucky to be by the door that opened first. I rushed up the stairs, did not use the escalator and still made it to immigration first. After hours on the plane all I want to do is walk. After the shortest immigration line ever in recorded history I reached my luggage carousel 1 minute after and now I am waiting… I hate waiting. Have I ever mentioned that?

Luggage after luggage…. … … …  for forty minutes!!!

 

At long last, and soon I am walking again, ordered my uber and after a few minutes of miscommunication, Carlos picked me up and we were on our way.

 

The outskirts of Lisbon from the air are lovely. Lush green hills with lots of agriculture surrounding little towns with red tiled roofs. But as Lisbon grew nearer, I got the feel of some of the cities outside Jerusalem. The same happened on the ground, while distinctly different, I do recognize some similarities with Israel. Portugal is by far greener.

Carlos my uberist asked if I want to take the faster highway or the prettier coastal road and soon on the coast, we were. We past the major soccer stadiums, he is a Benefica fan and he shared the names and interesting aspects of some of the towns we past.

Soon, we reached the hotel. To a non- ready room, I changed and began to finally walk.

The sky is blue and sunny today, though windy and not hot. As I was walking on the boardwalk by the Atlantic Ocean. The boardwalk is  made of small square rocks, decent to walk on but still some ankle warning every now and then. The coast itself is impossibly rugged. The rock is chiseled and broken by the winds and tides that walking there requires extreme care. Few minutes later I reached Boca de inferno (hell mouth). I purchased some water, as I was super parched.

I descended near the abyss of hell mouth for nice views of coastal Portugal with its many cliffs and waves crashing on them. The waves created a tunnel  and behind it is a deep chasm, hence the mouth part. The sounds of the waves crashing is one reason for the hellish name, the other you need to get closer. There are crevices in the rocks and when the waves are just right, they hiss, I say the name is fitting.

I walked back down and started exploring the city of Cascais itself, but I was get hungry by now as all I ate was some lame air plane cake and it was almost 2 pm.

Finally, my dad arrived at the hotel, I returned to pick him up then we headed for the city after a little tour in the art district and at long last we stopped at a little café in the square for a Feta sandwich. We toured the small and pretty city center and walked back up to hell mouth. Meanwhile other travelers had troubles of their own. Late luggage as well, car not being there in the rental place and later in the day we all met and walked back to town for dinner.

I ordered fish and shrimp, which were good, and lemon cake for desert was especially yummy.  Later we walked the now mostly empty shopping street but I did sample Santini's, which is rumored (by Carlos, the uberist) to be one of the best ice creams in Portugal. I did not try the competition, but the lemon was sour and the nata which is cream was divine. I concur with the assessment.

 

For those who know my ice cream flavors may be surprised by today's choice. The lack of chocolate.

Two and a half months ago, I decided to give up chocolate for good. I was somewhat of an addict to some kinds of chocolates including: Hershey, Nutella,   shachar spread, krembo, chocolate ice cream, kinder eggs, kinder Bueno, milka, chocolate cake , argaliot(with chocolate) , cariot cereal. Elit choclate, pesek zman, egozi, tim tams, mekupelet. Chocolate kisses , random cookies, brownies and custard (chocolate) . These are sadly some of the things I am saying good by to.. very sad.

All other sweets combined are perhaps 20% of my sweets consumption but now I need to find replacements, hence trying lemon ice cream perhaps for the first time.

After walking 12 miles today, I crashed … thus ends 1^st night in Cascais.