Coimbra

28th March

Teresa dropped us off at the bus stop for our 7:30 bus to Coimbra, her voice was finally starting to return.

When we arrived in Coimbra two hours later our hosts were waiting for us. Joanna and Adam were so kind to walk down to the station to meet us.

I was worried as they said it was a 45 minute uphill walk because my cold had gotten worse. However after the rest on the bus I decided to forgo the taxi and try to walk.

I was relieved when we started walking and it was flat. It turned out that only the last ten minutes was uphill.

We arrived at the apartment and ate the sandwiches that Teresa had prepared for us.

After that it was time to see Coimbra. We walked to the University Botanical Garden. It was beautiful, though some parts were only for the university students.

Next we went to the University where we saw the wonderful view.

After that we popped into the Monastery of Santa Cruz.

Statue in the fado area

We all felt a bit hungry after all the walking so we had afternoon tea in the town's main square where we tried the famous pastel de nata (Portuguese egg tart) and nevada. There was a busker on the saxophone there. He was very good and was playing music we enjoyed.

Then we walked along the river through the Mondego Green Park.

After that the weather looked like it was going to rain so we headed back to the apartment where Joanna and Adam cooked us some delicious spaghetti bolognaise.

Building in town centre that's very narrow at the end

29th March

The plan today was to see more of the other side of the river. First we went to a garden called Quinta das Lagrimes. We struggled to find the entrance and ended up going through via a flash hotel.

Once in they seemed more like woods to me. It's where Ines was beheaded and that's why there's red on the rocks from the blood.

We never did find the entrance so it ended up being free!

We then wanted to see the ruins of the Santa Clara-a-Velha. Once again... where was the entrance? Having found where it should be on the map we all decided to have morning tea before we went in.

Where's the way in? 

Next we went to the Monastery of Saint Clara. When we were deciding whether it was worth paying to go in, the lady serving us was very nice. She asked us if we were a family. We told her we could be and Jay bought the family pass for us (which was half the cost).

The ruins were interesting. The monastery was built near the river so it kept getting flooded. This caused it to be eventually abandoned and the nuns moved to a new location (we went there too but it's not open to the public). There was even a movie with English subtitles that explained the history of the monastery.

After a bit of debate about whether or not to go home (it looked like rain might've been about to set in) we decided to risk it and go to the cemetery. There aren't photos of this because you shouldn't take them out of respect. It's very strange for us as many of the coffins were in little houses with doors. Many houses had four coffins in them. So strange to see them above ground.

Then it was time to go home and rest.