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 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 Belem… - but now it is time for dinner… updates to follow
No comments:
Post a Comment