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Published: March 2nd 2024
Me
Paço das Escolas, CoimbraDear All
I had a lovely day of explorations today, and feel so happy to be on the road again. In the morning, I bade farewell to my comfortable lodging in Póvoa de Varzim, realising what a great find it was. While Porto was busy and quite touristy, this place to the north of the city was Portuguese and authentic. I could really practise my Portuguese there, which I'd been learning for a few months already before my visit. Being a Spanish speaker, Portuguese is really quite easy to read. It is speaking and listening to it which isn't easy, they speak so fast and really "eat their words", as they say in Spanish, so it's difficult to catch what's being said. I'm enjoying the challenge though!
I took the Porto Metro for the last time into town again, to take a fast InterCity train on its way to Lisbon, heading myself for the old and seriously beautiful University Town of Coimbra. My plan was to spend the afternoon there, before taking an evening onward bus to my next destination of Fátima henceforth. The train was comfortable, and looking out the window I was again struck by how beautifully
green the Portuguese landscape is. I half-expected it to be a dry and barren place, like much of Spain to the east, but that was certainly not the case. And with the amount of rain that had fallen since I arrived there, it's no wonder it's so green. On this day, the rain was heavy in the morning, but during my four-hour exploration of Coimbra, it was fortunately mostly dry, with a couple of spots here and there. The train deposits the visitor at Coimbra B station around a mile-and-a-half north of town. From there, a free shuttle train takes you onwards to Coimbra A station at the foot of the town's central hill overlooking the Mondego River below. It really is a spectacular location for a town and university. While waiting for this shuttle train, I met a friendly mature couple from England, the husband of which was actually from Sheffield, only a couple of miles from where I grew up - small world! They were spending three months over the winter in Coimbra, seeing if it could be a place where they could buy a second home to spend the winters in. I think they came to the
conclusion that it's a bit too wet and cold up there, and are instead looking to buy on the southern Portuguese Algarve coast. I think I may have to visit there myself on a future trip to Portugal, it would be nice to get out of the wind, rain and chill for a bit!
The couple pointed me on my way from Coimbra A station when we got there, up a pedestrian street, through the Torre de Almedina, the only surviving ancient gate to the city dating back to the Moorish times of the 11th century! I could feel already that this place had history! From there, it was a short but steep climb up a stepped alleyway called Rua Quebra Costas, or Backbreaker Road in English! I didn't find it that bad actually, I've done worse, and was soon at the top admiring the simple Romanesque beauty of Coimbra's 12th century Old Cathedral. From there, it was a further walk uphill to the seriously attractive University of Coimbra, and its many buildings, squares and statues, interconnected by striking mosaic pavements made of black- and cream-coloured stones set into geometric patterns studded with large star-shapes. I loved this place!
Coimbra
Over the Mondego River The University is one of Europe's oldest, founded in 1290, and its students are famed for wearing their distinctive black capes. Being a Sunday though, I didn't see any, despite having my camera poised to take a picture or two of these cape-bearing scholars. I presumed they must have still been in bed after a hard night's drinking the Saturday evening before. I did recollect seeing a group of black-caped twenty-somethings back in Porto the day before though, on the drinking rounds, and wished I'd taken a snap of them there. The Sheffielder I met on the train had explained that the black capes were originally worn by employees of the students' rich families whose task it was to accompany them to Coimbra at university, and watch over them, particularly making sure they didn't drink too much. I'm not sure how this cape then transformed from the guardian onto the student. He also explained that the black cape inspired the motif for the Sandeman Port variety, whose logo I'd seen in many places back in Porto and assumed to be some kind of El Zorro related character or something. This makes sense now!
I enjoyed a nice wander around
some of the University grounds and buildings, drinking in the particularly gorgeous and vast Paço das Escolas square right at the pinnacle of Coimbra's hill and overlooking the Mondego River below on one side, surrounded by proud university buildings on the other three sides. I then headed for Coimbra's New Cathedral nearby. Although called "New", it still dates back to the 17th century, and this was probably called new when it was built after the "Old" one five hundred years previously. I then headed downhill again and through the wondrously lush Botanical Gardens, which were a seriously pleasant surprise of sumptuous green beauty. I didn't expect much of it to be honest, after having visited numerous botanical gardens in other places, but this one felt different, and I was awe-struck by the beauty of it all, as I felt I'd stepped through a portal leading to the Garden of Eden. The recent rains added to the ambience, filling the air with moist and fresh verdant smells, while the leafy scenes were accompanied by a cacophany of sweet birdsong from all around. I'm not normally impressed by botanical gardens, but this place was indeed something special, to be topped off by
none other than a bamboo forest, called Bambuzal, straight out of the pages of a visit to Japan, on the way out. The only difference here was that much of the thousands, if not millions, of bamboo stalks had been etched at eye-level with graffiti, probably by the local and abundant student populace after one of their many nights out. If I were a student in Coimbra, or simply just living there, I'd most certainly be spending hours on end in these beautiful gardens, and I highly recommend them to anyone reading this who may be planning a visit to the city.
My final visit in Coimbra was across the pedestrian Ponte Pedro e Inês, along the left bank of the Mondego River for great views towards the city rising up over the hilltop on the river's right bank opposite, and on to the lovely Old St Clare Monastery. Dating back to the late 1280s and originally founded by Mother Dias of the Order of the poor Clares, the place was dissolved within a few decades due to local persecution of the sister and her order for some reason. It was then re-founded again in 1314 by the saintly,
and later indeed made a saint, Queen Elizabeth of Portugal. Apparently after her husband, King Denis, died in 1325, Elizabeth found a new spiritual existence following a pilgrimage she had made north to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She donated many of her jewels to the church and to the poor, and spent the rest of her life tending to the lowly and needy. She was canonised in 1626. I found her story, beautifully told in a short video in the Monastery's Interpretation Centre, moving and inspirational.
As early as 1331 however, the Monastery was subject to regular floods from the nearby Mondego River, and while initial attempts to manage this were undertaken by building higher floors and moving upwards, the place finally had to be abandoned in 1647 by orders of King João IV. A New Monastery was built higher up the hill in 1677, to which the nuns moved and where they still live today, in the New St Clare Monastery. The Old Monastery was left flooded and hidden for three centuries, until the site was rescued from the waters in the early 20th century, before being rehabilitated into this fascinating Interpretation Centre in 2009. I absolutely
loved my time there, and felt a real sense of spirituality while wandering its ruins and reconstructed church. The staff were also really friendly, and it felt a fitting introduction to my next stop on this trip, the hugely famous pilgrimage site of Fátima.
I was pretty rushed for time towards the end of my Monastery visit, and so rather than walking the two-miles to the Flixbus stop back near Coimbra B station, I took an Uber for the bargain price of just €3.50! Everything is just so cheap in Portugal, from taxi rides to food to transport - a coffee from a café for example only costs around €1, while you can buy a small can of beer from a supermarket from just 39 euro cents! With the taxi, I arrived in good time for my 60-minute bus journey to the spiritual hotspot which would be my abode for the following two nights. I shall write up about my time there in my next one, but for now I will just say that upon arrival in Fátima, the spirituality of the place really shone on me. Being located on top of a high plateau, I arrived with the
place covered in a thick, drizzly fog just as darkness was setting in for the evening. It felt ethereal and holy, and I was so excited to be there.
But of course, I will write up properly on my time in Fátima in my next one.
Until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now.
Alex
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Neil Collie
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Bloggers World Map
Hey Alex, how did you manage to establish that world map on your cover page below your trips, indicating where your blogs have covered? I asked that question on the Forum recently and nobody replied! Cheers.