Prancing About Portugal

 Boa tarde!.... from the Wandering Berkmans!

With quads of steel after about 5 weeks of climbing this hill and that, we say "até a próxima"  to Portugal, this land of beautiful cities, forests and bacalhau (cod) enjoyed in every way, shape and form.  

First stop-- Coimbra!  Suckers for university towns, we had to see the public University of Coimbra.   Founded in 1290 and with a current student population of 25,000, it's one of the oldest universities still alive and kicking.  And we saw plenty of its vibrancy as we toured university grounds in the week before classes started. 

 Seen below-- 1st year students subject to all sorts of initiation activities from their cape-wearing upperclassmen.   This group was told to run around in a circle and hit themselves on the head while chanting not sure what.  Ah, the folly of youth.  

It's said that the "she who shall not be named" author of the Harry Potter series gleaned inspiration for the robe-wearing students and the school in general (4 houses, one of them a little sinister) by spending time in Coimbra.  This opulent hall reminded us of  a tricked-out Great Hall.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the old library (there is also a newer one on campus) but it had a similar vibe to the great hall as it applies to its decor.  Fun fact-- they release bats in the library at night to have them eat the bugs that would otherwise chow down on the 60,000 tomes nestled on the shelves.  Tables are covered with cloths to protect them from the inevitable guano.  Every morning staff cleans up the droppings to ready this impressive library for another day of research and study.  Here it is from the outside-- 

Bisected by the Rio Mondego, the city itself is a stunner, especially at night. Here's DB in the money shot we'll be selling to the tourism board!  The building at the top is part of the university.  

My sister Laura came to visit for a week, her second Portugal visit with us-- the first one was juuuuuuust when the pandemic was rearing its ugly head.   This is the view of the city from the University-- our staircase-heavy but comfortable Airbnb was on the other side of the river, away from the tourist crunch but close enough to walk to the center of town.  

Lining the river is the peaceful Parque Dr. Manuel Braga.  The perfect place to take a book (which we did), rest on the grass (Laura did) or farther down, tuck into some delish italian food while taking in the view (which we all did!).  

The beautiful Jardim Botanico is part of the university.  We went back often to take in the  taste-and-smell-friendly herb garden, the manicured shrubs and fountains and the bamboo forest.  Weeping willow trees everywhere-- Don made sure to hug as many as he could in his dad's honor.  

We caught a fado show in this impressive Café Santa Cruz.  Interestingly enough, fado in Coimbra is sung by men only so the experience, while memorable, just didn't evoke the same melancholy, the same longing, without a plaintive woman singing in a darkened room.  We were just kinda... meh.

The Penedo da Saudade  is a park overlooking the city.  Within the park, the Retiro dos Poetas is filled with plaques sponsored by graduating classes of the university and features poetry from established authors and amateurs alike, thanking Coimbra for their years of study there.  We had to wrestle a plaque away from Don as he tried to add to one of them the infamous   "There was a young man from Nantucket...".  Naughty boy.

 

This 14th century monastery of Santa Clara a Velha was flooded so many times by the nearby Rio Mondego that they finally gave up and built another one on the hill behind our Airbnb.  Sometimes nature wins. 

To our delight, the always packed Portugal dos Pequenitos  would feature a trumpet-blowing reverie that we could hear from our apartment at 10 am and 7 pm everyday to welcome the little ones to this mini Epcot center of all things Portuguese and the world.  True, the bugle call battled with the crowing roosters living at the remains of another monastery across the street from us but it all just became the soundtrack of our stay.  Why the Jewish star in front of it on the sidewalk?  (there were 3 of them).  We never figured out why so we'll leave it to our brilliant and always curious readers to unearth the mystery!

As we are wont to do, we explored some nearby towns, both by the not always punctual but largely accessible mass transit and a car we rented for one week.  

The intact mosaic flooring from Conimbriga blew our minds.  Not sure how many date back from the origins of the Romans there in the 1st century BC but these floors looked better than anything we had in our kitchen in Clinton!

Known as the Venice of Portugal and a major supplier of salt, Aveiro was a must visit.  In the end, very pretty but very touristy.  Still, we had a tasty lunch of grilled fish, took a fun little jaunt in one of the boats and went home with a little pouch of locally sourced salt.  Nice. 

Perhaps to combat the tourists and their maddening tendency to leave very, very heavy locks on their bridges, the city sells these charming little colored ribbons, each with their own meaning,  to tie on the bridges instead.  You can barely see the bridge railings for all the ribbons tied there.  

We headed to Porto, the land of port wine and a billion more hills, via train.  A return visit for us and a place Laura wanted to experience but alas, tourists as far as the eye could see.  While strolling/avoiding the tram/juggling past others on the bridge Ponte Luiz I  we saw a young person wearing a sweatshirt that said "New Jersey" and "Chicago".    We said to him enthusiastically "We're from NJ and Chicago!"  He came back with "But I'm from India!"  We all had a good laugh but point being-- I don't think there was a local to be found.  

Portugal has a real thing for canned fish-- I tried some with little gustatory success (the smoked mackerel smelled just too much like Friskies) but it must be just me.  You will never find more colorful, sometimes downright stunning stores as those Portuguese establishments set up for the sale of canned fish.  This jolly one featured a novelty can for every year from 1926 to the present.  Who needs birthday cake when one can put a candle in a nice herring?

Laura's need for the beach took us to the balmy Figueira da Foz where we basked in the loveliness that is the shore after 4 pm.  We loved it so much that Don and I returned  a couple of days later for an overnight stay.  Wide, clean, free beaches, a bike path hugging the length of it, restaurants where one could watch the sun go down and next to no tourists.  Maybe because it's October but we got the feeling that this is a beach town for the Portuguese, undiscovered by the Algarve crowd.   When we checked out of our beautiful little BnB and took to the bike bath we kept adding another week to our "next stay".  Interesting view of the water-- instead of cruise ships or sailboats we saw 5 huge fishing ships (one seen here) close to shore just waiting to head out the next morning.  (See previous picture of canned fish!)

In the charming Tomar we found the Portuguese equivalent to our little town of Clinton... granted with the 12th century Convento de Cristo  overlooking it.  Quaint shops and restaurants, parks and even a stream with an old mill! 

What do you get when a king builds a summer hunting lodge then dies a year before it's completed?  The stunning Bussaco Palace , now hotel, nestled in the forest of the same name.  For the price of an overnight stay at the Marriott one can walk the forest trails, take in the beautiful gardens behind the palace and...

.... go hog wild at the buffet breakfast (included in your stay) in this incredible dining room.  Our room was on the tight side and the bathroom was "vintage" but it was worth it to have this tremendous experience.  

We were sorry to say goodby to Coimbra but were looking forward to a week in Lisbon in the Airbnb that started it all-- back in February 2020, when we began our international travels in Lisbon and were still blissfully unaware of the lunacy to come.  Elsa and Jeff were our amazing hosts and returning to their Airbnb felt like coming home.  Added bonus-- we caught them before they were leaving town and had a laugh-filled, delicious dinner together in their home.  Added bonus #2-- meeting son Thomas, girlfriend Teo and their normally shy little kitty who sat by me and let me pet her awwww.  We miss our families so we relish the times when we can meet up with our international family around the world.  

Another tremendous opportunity to "borrow" someone else's family-- we had the great fortune of being in Lisbon just days before our friend Sophia (from our first Lisbon stay) was heading out to Japan with her mom.  Sophia (seated next to me below) invited us to dinner with her large family--such a treat!  Obrigado, Sophia, for making us feel so welcome!  

Call this stay the Bacalhau Bonanza--  we ate codfish in every way, shape and form, including bacalhau a Bras (the sublime marriage of cod, EEVO, egg and potato) multiple times.  Thank you, Laura, for introducing us to this tasty dish!  (shown here with  a bifana, a very simple but well seasoned pork sandwich, and some random Earthling ) 

Laura and I tried the Bacalhau a nata with a grilled cream topping-- a little too rich for my blood and it took away from the tender fish.  (I say invoking my best Alex Guarnaschelli.)

A new dish to our repertoire-- Açorda do camarão, a bread stew with shrimp and topped with a raw egg yolk to mix in.  It was tasty but the bread to shrimp ratio was off.  No shade to bread lovers!  Don went with the tried and true grilled cod.  Wise man.  

We arrived Monday in Nîmes, France after a literally "planes, trains and automobiles" day of travel that went surprisingly well with so many moving parts (last minute, DB changed a bus ride with a 4 hour wait in Marseille to a train and it made a huge difference.  Well done, Grand Planner!).  We'll be here until mid November when we head to Ohio to see my dad and Ron and then to New Mexico for Thanksgiving.  In the meantime, our super sweet hosts keep leaving us cookies and cakes on our staircase- we could get used to this!

For this post's SOL we invite you to clap along to the dulcet tones of some student musicians of the University of Coimbra, busking for travel money.     

Be well and thanks for following along!

Don and Monica