Blogs from Central, Portugal, Europe - page 5

31 August 2016, Wednesday A wonderful day to sleep in. August 31 Wednesday. Exploring Tomar--synagogue and Knights Templar If one is a romantic and grows up, as a child, in a little ranching town in eastern Oregon, you are prone to dreams of far-away, exotic places. Tomar is the answer with its knights and castle. However, hopefully the first picture up will be that of 'Our Lady of Fatima.' I reread the last blog and realized we had not even put in a picture of her! But first we have breakfast and meet a gentleman from Washington state who is traveling with his wife and 91 year old mother-in-law. Pretty soon the mother-in-law comes in, all ready to walk. They had planned to have a walking vacation but, since the Camino is not well marked and ... read more

Italian-born Christopher Columbus got the gong in 1492 for scoring the first goal in the exploration game. But as he was financed by the Spanish crown, his actions were on behalf of Spain. Portugal’s Vasco de Gama succeeded in something different when he found a sea route to the riches of India and beyond in 1498. Then Spain and Portugal began a series of colonial conquests that fetched riches in proportions never before dreamt of. (Note to classmates from U3A – sentence ending in a preposition. But as Winston Churchill noted – “that is a rule up with which I will not put”) Anyhow Spain and Portugal became super powers, selected citizens became filthy rich, and a whole new world opened up. Some rich merchants from Italy realised they had been left behind at the starting ... read more

We drove to Coimbra but you can also get here by train or bus. Our hotel Coimbra Vintage Lofts used to be a factory and had a parking garage across the street. We did not move our car until it was time to leave because you can walk all over this city and you do not need a car, bus or taxie. This is a college town and it was Portugals capital for 100 years. The Romans and Moors were also here. In the Roman times Coimbra was called Aeminium. A river runs through the city and you can walk along the river and stop to visit shops. The old town is up from the river about five blocks. There is a pedestrian only street that runs parallel to the river in old town with lots ... read more

Il y a une semaine déjà... voila où nous étions... Grand soleil et grands sourires... Nous quittons Costa Nova et prenons la route vers Nazaré mais celle-ci nous montrera encore des choses intéressantes. Nous trouverons en effet des forêts de pins plantés pour la récolte de la sève. D'autres villages nous offriront de beaux paysages aussi. Nazaré, petite qui est devenue grande ville que nous avons appréciée déjà lors de passages précédents. Le tourisme s'y est drôlement installé et il est même parfois gênant de n'entendre parler que le français... Dès notre arrivée nous n'avons heureusement pas de peine à trouver un parking, car des terrains ont été aménagés et l'on y trouve des dizaines de camping-cars qui semblent aussi y passer la nuit. Pas pour nous car nous préférons le camping. Dans le temps les ... read more

Coimbra, Portugal is the third largest city in this country of 11.2 million people and has the oldest University in Europe, established in the 13th Century. We walked up the hill to the University yesterday afternoon and had coffee in School of Letters building, and did a self guided tour of the oldest buildings. The library is the main tourist draw but we decided not to spend 14 euros on tickets, and instead just walked around campus, stopping at our way down the hill to duck in to a student bar for a late afternoon SuperBock, one of two ubiquitous beers. The bar itself had furniture settings made of driftwood and was pretty unique. The weather is supposed to be a mix of sun and rain today but so far the rain only fell last night ... read more