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 13th 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.
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