Coimbra, Cidade universitaria

  Coimbra, Portugal
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Quinto día
Quarta 11

Though the accommodation at Casa Pombal is basic, the breakfast is not. It is delicious, plentiful and varied, comparing favourably with that at the A Maré in Salema.

We leave the car where it is and stroll a few blocks past the "new" cathedral, started in 1598, and enter the old university campus.

1. Coimbra University

The 700-year old seat of learning is still the most respected in the Portuguese speaking world. The ancient original courtyard is surrounded by magnificent buildings and porticos in the elaborate Manueline style; we enter the richly decorated Great Hall and the lovely Chapel of St. Michael. The azulejos and Manueline altar are spectacular and the magnificent 2,100 pipe organ appears implausibly suspended on the wall, surrounded by brilliant azulejos.

But the piece de résistance is King John's Library.

2. Whatever shall I read?

We wait outside the vast closed doors. The guardian only cracks open the door momentarily to let visitors in and out in order to protect the invaluable contents against the outside environment. The sumptuous Baroque interior of this edifice swathed with exotic South America hardwoods and copious gold leaf, is the pride of the University. Built 500 years ago in the glory days of Portuguese world expansion, the library contains over 30,000 tomes in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. No Portuguese, English or French, if you please.

3. Rua da Quebra Costas

After enjoying spectacular views of the city and the Mondego River, we descend by way of steep, winding cobblestone lanes, past the "old" cathedral (1064), down the "Rua das Quebra Costas", literally the Street of Broken Ribs (when it rains the worn cobbles get pretty slippery) and through Arco de Almedina, which was originally the entrance to the Moorish medina.

We are now in the city centre, and a handsome city it is too. We notice numerous groups of students doing stupid things in public, and we are told they must make fools of themselves as penance for being freshmen. Two students in cap and gown are swinging from a beam across the alley. Hopefully they are mannequins.

4. Street Scene, Coimbra

We wander on the pedestrian streets and admire the shops before wending our way back through the market to the Elevador do Mercado, a funicular cum lift that whisks us back to the University and our Casa de Pombal.

We depart Coimbra, eschewing the motorway, and travel south on the main A1 highway between Porto and Lisbon. A big mistake, as we encounter much more traffic that we have encountered up to now. It's obvious that few people use the motorways probably due to the expense.