Destination Lisbon

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Another beautiful day on our adventure and today we head to Lisbon. But first some unfinished business in Coimbra and what better place to start than breakfast at the pastelaria we visited yesterday.
We still wanted to visit the university, the oldest in Portugal. For reasons known only to the creators of this wonderful institution it was built on top of the hill. Actually it was once a royal palace and this is the reason it is so high above the city. So once again we climbed up steep, narrow, cobbled, streets. You need an entry ticket to visit the historical parts of the university so out came our New Zealand Teacher Registration Certificates and we received the concession entry. We were lucky to witness a student presenting her research to a jury and faculty leader as part of her PhD examination. The other highlight was visiting the historic Baroque Library that contained 300,000 books. We discovered one really interesting fact. Bats live in the library and at night feed on any insects that also live there and this is one of the ways these valuable books are protected. It was also interesting being individuals having to cope with tour groups touring the university. This is something we can appreciate after our trip through Turkey.
It was time to head south and once again we were confident enough to leave our travelling companion in her little zip-up bag. Perhaps we will let her out closer to Lisbon. It was getting quite hot (high 20’s) and we were getting hungry so we stopped at a ‘cafetaria’ that catered for truckies. Inside the nice cool building we ordered two items off the menu and decided to share them. One plate was a mixed salad. The second plate had casseroled lamb spare ribs and boiled potatoes. We had started sharing when a third plate appeared with two large pieces of pork, chips, rice, vegetables, a spicy sausage and a black pudding. Our eyes bulged and our stomachs were about to wonder what had hit them. It was decided this was dinner and breakfast as well. The payment was just as big a surprise. With drinks included, 17 eruros covered the bill and tip. Back at the car the outside temperature was registering 36 degrees but this soon dropped once we got going.
Our friend, Miss GPS, was allowed out of her bag as long as she got us to the hotel unscathed. Much to our joy she did. The hotel is quite new in an area either undergoing or in need of redevelopment. With the car nicely tucked away in the garage for the next two nights we had time for a welcome cold beer before settling down for the night. As we turned off the lights rain started to fall and the sky was lit with lightning. We just hope it clears for tomorrow.

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