At the Astoria Hotel in Coimbra a "venerabe place that retains it's charm"

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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 and this morning it is partly cloudy and in the 50's with a brisk wind coming off the river. Not than unlike Portland or SF or Vancouver. We are at about the same Latitude, 49 degrees north and are inland from the Atlantic here about 40 miles I would guess. We plan to spend more time in the city this afternoon, but to be honest we have seen our fair share of museums and churches an monuments, and so may not wander far from this comfortably Art Deco 1900's hotel.

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