I guess I’m going to have to do some internet research but it’s pretty darn hilly in Coimbra. At least in the part I’m in (the old town near the university). It’s way smaller here than in Lisbon though Coimbra was the capital of Portugal in the medieval days. It took me another day but I think I’m almost fully recovered from my stomach bug and so while I am still taking it relatively easy, I did walk around a bit after I arrived via train from Lisbon yesterday.

I started across the Rio Mondego from where I’m staying. There are a ton of churches of course and several nice parks on the river. I thought I had enough time to see one more site so I promptly walked the wrong and long way to get to Quinta das Lagrimas. I misunderstood the nice woman at the tourist info ctr, thinking she said this was a good historical representation of a Portuguese village (which I thought would’ve been very interesting) but I realized after I got there that she must’ve said villa (which I was less interested in). After walking 20 minutes (instead of 10), I felt committed even though I realized I would see only the grounds of the original palace. (The palace was turned into a fancy hotel and spa with small golf area — we had to walk by a driving range and small golf course to see the gardens, which was rather bizarre. You can see a flag in one of my photos below.) But there were actually several groups going there — because it has a weird Portuguese historical significance. Turns out, there’s a well known love story of Prince Pedro, who fell in love with Ines de Castro, his wife’s lady in waiting. When his wife died, the King forbid their marriage and tried to marry the Prince to someone else but Pedro refused. Fearing her family would gain too much power, the King had Ines killed. And where she was killed was at the fountain below — the fountain of tears (fonte das Lágrimas). Supposedly a rock in the fountain is permanently red because of her blood (it’s actually red algae). There’s a lot more blood, gore, revenge, and love in the story but I’ll leave you to google it.

So it’s apparently a famous place. Though the gardens weren’t amazing they had (later) planted a lot of exotic trees including a sequoia, bamboo, and others brought in from Asia and elsewhere. I think I liked it better after I read up about the history….

Meantime Coimbra is best known for its university. Its one of the oldest in Europe (founded 1290). The original buildings were once a royal palace (in the 1100s, although it was built in the 10th century). A pretty nice set up. I love my Illini Quad but this gives a whole new feeling to the word. Oh and not for nothing but it took a lot of steps to get up there and where I’m staying is already halfway up from the river. Since it started as a residential citadel, it was built at the top of the hill (Palace of Alcacova). In fact here’s the view down to the river from the Paco das Escolas (what I’m calling their Quad). The university tour focused on showing the old — a chapel, library, and the rooms of the royal palace that were converted for academic use. There’s even an academic prison.

We couldn’t take photos in the library, which is famous, but I have to say I liked the Long Room at Trinity College better. A total non comparison because Trinity is relatively new, quite large, not overly ornate, and still in use. Coimbra’s Joanine library is only three rooms, totally baroque style so really gilded and with painted ceilings, and the books are no longer used from what I was told. I’m not into all the gold ornate stuff so it’s no wonder I didn’t love it. I did find the rooms in the palace interesting (not that I took many photos) because of the gravity with which they take their studies. There’s a formal room where they defend their dissertations and where they are ultimately given their doctoral hoods. It was serious stuff. I think students are still required to wear robes and caps while at school. I also visited their science museum and a natural history and physics museum. But they’re all just a few rooms with old tools or in the case of natural history, lots of stuffed and jarred animals, skeletons, insects and other stuff that creep me out. And everything was kept dark and your time in the rooms (from the chapel and library to these rooms) is monitored and limited. The science museum actually wasn’t like that and had interactive exhibits, but it’s new and not historic.

After the university, it started pouring so I looked for another museum and came upon the Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro (no relation to Ines — I don’t think?!– he’s a famous sculptor and it’s an art museum mostly). It was really cool. The space it is around was originally the old Roman town of Aeminium’s Forum and they have a patio that’s still exactly the size of the forum. Their basement is the cryptoporticus of the forum, built because Coimbra/Aeminium is hilly. I must say I’m a sucker for sculpture … and these ones were mostly pulled from local churches and monasteries. It was cool to see things close up and at eye level which is impossible in most churches. They even relocated the apse of a demolished church. Again I may be an atheist but I’m intrigued by churches and their contents because (like libraries) I’m amazed by the amount of excellent work people put into them and the institutions ultimately offer their services for free. I took a few photos of sculptures but their paintings and tapestries (and even the gold chalices and stuff) weren’t that exciting to me so none of those. The building also had amazing picture windows with great views over the city. After being the Roman forum, it was the house of a bishop. The first two were taken through a rain-covered window but it finally stopped when I was leaving so I got onto the patio to take more photos.

I’ve realized that one big downside to staying near the university is that while I’m in a touristy area, there’s apparently a large and very loud student party going on directly across the narrow (pedestrian) street. Their windows are open and all night I’ve heard them singing increasingly louder to quite the panoply of songs. Queen really got them going (and many thought they were opera singers with Bohemian Rhapsody). Bon Jovi was a big hit. Beatles. And more Bon Jovi. Then a few Portuguese songs. Actually now that I look at that list I realize they must not be current students!! Maybe alumni back to party. In any case don’t they realize it’s Sunday night??!! Last night I had the sound of the local restaurants until 2 am but tonight it’s all the party singers. It’s only 10:30 so hopefully they don’t go on until 2?!

With that pleasant thought, I think I’ll post this. It’s quite long enough as it is and thankfully I can often sleep through a lot of noise.