Coimbra's Youth Hostel

... Portugal and was the only one until the mid 1900s and boy do you have to be in good shape to go there. The University is on the top of a hill of winding cobbled streets and when we got to the top we once again told ourselves to get into better shape. The University is gorgeous and has wonderful views of the river and the city. After walking around for a little bit and ...

Arrived after a short uneventful journey. Campsite similar. Weather changeable.

Tourist sites do not always live up to the flowery language used in the brochures eg. "Musicological Nucleus of the Salt" turned out to be a Musee de Sel. We did not go.

The local beauty spots, like every where else, that we did go to were covered with ingrained litter.
We are moving on tomorrow.

We arrived without incident after a short and pleasant journey. Odd campsite mainly permanent encampments! Most of them looked like they had been there for many years. We were entertained by families arriving over the weekend to pack up for the winter. They cleared out all the rubbish that they had accumulated over the summer. They then covered their caravan.awning and covered area with tarpaulin and tied it down and put stones ...

Day 4 – 25/12/08

LISBON-EVORA-ALCOBACA-B ATALHA-FATIMA-COIMBRA

We left early after breakfast. The GPS proved to be blessing for 'wrong' drivers like me. As it was Christmas there was less traffic on the roads & we had a smooth drive to Evora. There we saw the Roman Temple, the church & the Chapel of St.Francis. The sleepy town had narrow lanes ...

... keltide ajal. Roomlased seadsid ennast sisse 1. saj pKr, mil see kasvas ja õitses suureks linnaks. 3. saj olid elanikud ohustatud sissetungijate eest ning ehitasid enda kaitseks linnale kaitsvad müürid ümber. Kahjuks polnud see piisav sueevidele (germaani hõimude rühmale), kellel õnnestus 468.a vallutada linn. Kohalikud põgenesid Coimbrasse, säästes sellega Conímbrigat suuremast hävingust. Seetõttu võib ...

... it is actually one of the oldest universities in Europe founded in 1100 i think. There really wasn't much to coimbra, it was summer holidays so the town was pretty dead. It was pretty and the university was cool, but i don't think anything would have been lost from us not visiting it. We did get a really good cheap meal there though, i had roast sucking pig which was just fantastic, and cost around 5 euros and a bottle of wine only cost 2 euros! very cheap.

... 20 or so minutes looking for the place. There was no sign of course but once on the right alley, we could hear the music inside. It was a cozy cove with about 20 people, 2 guitars, and people waiting their turn to sing. We were the only tourists and soon started a conversation with a former professor who spoke perfect English. He was very nice and seemed a little resentful that Dan Brown made his fortune writing down in fiction (The Da Vinci ...

... order food and for all other occasions and situations, the sentence "I don't speak Portuguese", in Portuguese, worked miracles. (All of that is true.) We then rented a car (in English), and the four of us, two from Spain, two from Austria, fled the wet and gloomy city of Braga. We drove right into sunny Coimbra with its ancient city center and nice stores and restaurants.

Hello...

I'm in Portugal now. Last I wrote was in Toledo, I think...I took a night train to Lisbon, where I stayed for one night. It's nice, as far as big cities go, but it's a big city. It's very diverse and the people are real laid back.

After that I went to Sintra, just west of Lisbon. It's a little town in the mountains. Lots of shade, green, and fresh air. I spent many more days there than I planned to. The first night I arrived ...