Ola!
I find that in every blogger’s life, there occasionally comes a day when you just need to get back to the hotel and to bed; that was me last night! We had such a lovely, full day, and I opted for a short nap in the afternoon when I should have been writing. So – hope no one was concerned! All is definitely well and we’re looking forward to another busy day today!
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| Christ the King statue in Lisboa |
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| At museum under an orange tree! |
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| Ruins of Coimbriga |
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| Beautiful mosaics! |
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| Huge town wall hulking over houses and squares |
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| Always more mosaics! |
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| Loved the arch! |
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| In a few weeks, the peristyle will be stunning! |
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| And I found a lion! |
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| View looking up from hotel terrace |
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| Great handicrafts! |
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| And a very ancient city! |
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| Coimbra Guitar! |
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| And the man playing it! |
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| First singer with musicians |
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| Both singers with musicians |
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| Lovely at night! |
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| R's shrimp with garlic and toasts |
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| Excellent salad caprese |
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| R's bacala (cod fish) |
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| My ravioli with truffles! |
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| Dessert... |
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| Lovely lady making pasta right there! |
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| And their pizza oven was continually busy! |
So! Up about 7 yesterday morning, and down to breakfast around 8 am. I do have to say that neither of us feels any regrets at all about leaving the DoubleTree Lisboa, but I will miss the city a bit! SO much to see there; definitely need a return trip at some point to try to see more of it!
We were in the car about 9:30 am and on the highway heading north to our next stop, Coimbra!
We took the toll road, as it appears here that there are toll roads and then there are toll roads. To explain: some toll roads are electronic only, and we don’t have the sensor (as we picked up the car in Spain), and some roads you pick up a ticket when you get on, and then pay a real live person when you get off! (What a concept!) That was the road we took. I believe from Lisboa to the Coimbra off-ramp was about 14€for the ride. Lovely driving, although as Robert says, it seems that the locals don’t pay a lot of attention to the speed limit!
Across a bridge and into Coimbra. Our hotel (as it seems most of the hotels in town) is on the road next to the river and before anything starts to climb. It is quite a city, with both very old and very new parts, but the old is the area we are most interested in for this trip. Coimbra is a very old University town, with of course the school at the very top of the hill!
Our hotel, Hotel Oslo (which I continue to think is a very odd name for a hotel in Portugal!) was very easy to find, and we were here about noon. Our particular room wasn’t ready yet, but they did have a nice quiet room (402) on the fourth floor that we decided to take. Very good to get things unloaded from the car! The wonderful man at reception was able to make advance reservations for us for the University tour this morning (9:30 am timed ticket) as well as two tickets to the local Fado show at 6 pm last night!
Once the car was unloaded and the computer set up, we headed back downstairs to pick up the car and head quickly out of town to Conimbriga, located about 9 km outside of town. The ancient city of Conimbriga is the largest Roman settlement in Portugal and is classified as a National Monument. Like many archaeological sites, Conimbrigawas built in layers. Some of the earliest layers date back to the first Iron Age in the 9th Century B.C. The Romans arrived in the 2nd Century A.D., conquering the Celtic inhabitants and establishing a city that grew, flourished, and then fell victim to barbarian invasions until Conimbriga's residents fled to nearby Coimbra in 468.
The ruins and the museum were very easy to find, and amazingly, while there were many cars in the parking lot, we almost had the place all to ourselves! (They do have a restaurant that appeared to be doing a brisk business, so maybe that’s where everybody was!) We wandered first through the ruins, much of which is still under investigation. The mosaics, which were everywhere, were just fabulous. (And I love mosaics!) Turns out that there were several very large houses that were beautifully decorated and restored. Those Romans who were lucky enough to be wealthy sure knew how to live! One particular peristyle was under a very large cover, and it was full to bursting with iris leaves – in a week or two, it is going to be just gorgeous with purple iris’! Robert did wonder if the old Romans ever used the water for a quick dip as in a swimming pool, but I’m thinking that they probably could wait for their next visit to the public baths. Would be tempting, though…
From the ruins to the museum, where we discovered I had stepped in something resembling pine pitch, as it seemed that I brought back a full load of tiny pebbles into the museum with me on my shoe. (Unfortunately, nothing resembling mosaics, though…) LOL
Interesting museum, as they divided things up in areas rather than by time. There was an area for house building, an area for weaving, an area for foods, etc. Very well done. All the signage was done in both Portuguese and English, and the translations were really excellent!
Got back to Coimbra about 4:30 pm and decided that short naps sounded better than more sights, as we needed to be in town before 6 pm for the fado. Worked out perfectly, and we left the hotel about 5:30 pm to make our way UP into town.
Well – turns out there was a handicraft fair going on in the city, and while I was able to pick up a few things on our way up, I really wished I had had more time to browse! (Robert disagrees, of course…) We got to the Fado ao Centro a bit before 6, and were able (thanks to our hotel’s advance reservation) to walk right in! Small place, maybe holding 60 people, and every seat was taken. (Tickets were only 10€each.)
Right at 6, a young man in a cape (university students all wear caps when they go out; we saw several groups of students, some carrying instruments, walking along the street.) came out to explain, first in Portuguese and then in excellent English, what we would be seeing. Then, two musicians came out, one to play a regular guitar, and one to play something called a Coimbra guitar which was developed and perfected over the years right here in Coimbra! Truly an unusual looking instrument. But first, a word about fado.
Probably the most famous is Fado from Lisboa, which is sung usually by older, deep-voiced women. The songs they sing are usually very sad and about lost romances and other such things. Fado in Coimbra was started along different lines. The singers are all men, from the university. The songs they sing are all rather romantic and about either the girls they like or the town of Coimbra itself. There are also some “going away” songs that actually are rather sad.
Joining the guitar players first was the young man who spoke. He had a truly beautiful voice! The second singer was good, but not up to the first singer, but they sang together quite well.
They performed songs from the 1980’s, the 1800’s and the 1960’s. We also heard several instrumental songs as well, which were exquisite! I have always loved the Spanish guitar, but truly, the Fado Coimbraguitar was exceptional, as well as the man playing it! The Fado ao Centro has been dedicated to strengthening and expanding the Coimbra Fado tradition, and it looks like they are doing a very good job! There is another performance tonight (if they play on Sunday, which I have to conform) at 9:30 pm but we’re wondering if that might be a little late. You know we are such night owls!!
After the performance, we were treated to small glasses of port, which was very good. (I’m not yet much of a port fan!) We were also able to buy two CD’s of fado music, one mostly instrumental, and are looking forward to playing them on the car’s CD player.
From there, we needed to find dinner. Walking down the street and turning the corner, we came upon an Italian Portuguese restaurant called Tartufo (Truffle!!!) which looked nice, so in we went! I think we must have been the second customers of the evening, but truly, by the time we left the place had filled up and was a mob scene! Obviously, we picked a great place!
I started with a glass of Prosecco, while Robert ordered a bottle of truly outstanding red Portuguese wine. (It cost all of 20.50€and was amazing!) For starters, I had the ensalada caprese and Robert had the garlic shrimp. He won; the shrimp were fabulous! Then for entrees, I had the ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach in a wonderful cream sauce with truffles (!!!). Robert ordered the Portuguese Bacala, which is Portuguese for codfish. I won that round! Then for dessert (which we don’t always have room for…) Robert had a dish of strawberries, and I had something with ice cream and whipped cream and some sort of cherry sauce. It all disappeared!
From dinner, it was only a 10-minute walk back to Hotel Oslo, and voila, here we are! I had had such a lovely evening that any ambition that I might have had totally relaxed and disappeared, so I went to bed!
m
xxx
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