North to Porto

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The surf is flat, and we're driving almost the entire length of Portugal today to stay with friends in Porto and explore some of the North.

We want to take the fastest route, so we enter our destination into the GPS Jose has lent us. After the car, this has got to be our most valuable asset on this trip. Once we manage to switch it to English instead of Portuguese there is no looking back. The calm voice of Simon leads us along country roads and motorways, talks us through thousands of intersections, spaghetti junctions and labyrinths of steep narrow cobbled one way streets in cities and villages. If we take a wrong turn he doesn't shout or swear, he simply adjusts the route plan in an instant and calmly states the next directions. We love Simon.

The most direct route takes us on major highways. The speed limit on these is 120 kph with a bit of Portuguese leeway, so you can cover the country fairly quickly. Many of these are toll roads and are very well engineered and easy to use.

We only make two stops, the first for lunch when we pull off the highway at a random location and discover the beautiful Fonte da Santa Marta on a country road. The local community has obviously been using this spring for many years and the traditional country scenes around the spring are depicted on the blue and white painted tiles. We enjoy the calm after the bustle of the roads and Simon probably needs the rest too.

Our second stop is at Coimbra, a city famous for its very old and well respected university. We park in the town, buy freshly roasted chestnuts in the square and meander up the hill, guessing our way in the maze of narrow cobbled streets. On the way we discover numerous grand old churches which we duck into for a peek.

Eventually at the top of the hill we stumble upon the university proper, with its beautifully sculpted buildings and statues of learned scholars and country leaders. Inside normal student activity and chatter is mixed with tiling and well worn steps that suggest its impressive history.

The sun sets as we amble back down the hill past walls creatively emblazoned with political graffiti, the sound of violin music flowing from a third floor window. We reflect on the importance of culture, learning and history. Its quite a moment, captured somewhat when we see the ancient stone aquaduct beside the busy modern street with an ultra compact car super-efficiently parked.

Anyway, moving on we nose out into rush hour traffic, Simon communicates with his satellites and calmly leads us through the congestion on our way towards Porto.

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Photos

Picnic stop
Fonte da Santa Marta

A solemn moment
A beautiful church

Coimbra University
And a learned frog

Hi Keith!
Inside the University

Nice parking
Part of an ancient aquaduct, Coimbra

Our new best friend
Navigating with Simon the GPS

A portagem
On one of many toll roads