We headed south on the tollway out of Porto, this time enjoying the scenery we missed 3 days ago due to fog. The countryside is pretty, and the weather was pleasant. Coimbra is THE university town of Portugal, housing many old buildings on the hill rising above the river Mondego. After checking into our hotel in the city center, we stopped at one of the ubiquitous cafes for a cup of coffee and a pastry, then wandered up the hill, through and around the campus, and back down the city streets. It’s a small-ish town (160,000 residents), and on a Sunday no students were visible, so the campus was quiet.
The University and town are an interesting architectural mix. Much of the old city, built on a hill, is made up of centuries-old buildings placed erratically leaving cobblestone “streets”, many no more than 5 feet wide, to find their way between the buildings. On the University campus at the top of the hill, some of the older buildings are former palaces from the days when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal, when the Moors ruled the south of the country, including Lisbon. Other buildings are legacies of the Salazar dictatorship, built to reflect the facist monumentalism of the Italian dictator Mussolini – some even designed by the same architect.
Given the nice weather, Cathryn decided to go for a run along the river (her first in almost 4 weeks since leaving home) while Bob explored the city some more and had another cup of coffee at a sidewalk cafe.
No comments:
Post a Comment