Coimbra

After leaving from Porto later than planned we were finally back on the road.
Fortunately the drive to Coimbra was only an hour and a half.
We did not have any directions to our hosts house so we explored aimlessly around the city while trying to get a hold of her. We realized that Coimbra was much like Porto with its steep hilly small streets and very easy to lose your sense of direction.
We got a hold of our host Celia while we were stopped at another confusing roundabout and realized that we were just down the road from her apartment. She came and met us in her car to avoid any confusion on the way to her place.
We met Celia's daughter, her old OLD dog Kelson, and the hundreds of owl figurines she collected. It was getting late so we set up our beds in the office/spare room and got a good nights sleep. In the morning we said goodbye and headed into the city to explore.

The weather was trying to get better and the sun fighting to shine

We found an "easy to remember" safe parking spot for the Kia near the university. The University of Coimbra is one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in Europe and the world. It began in Lisbon in 1290 but moved to Coimbra in 1308.

Before going to the university we went walking around the Praca do Republica looking for the tourism office. We ended up getting a map from a bus information center than stumbling upon a sweet park. Sarah said she felt like she was in a fairy tale that was just a little creepy.

Pretty random art installation. Kinda creepy.

The Portuguese take great pride in the paint on their buildings. There is some saying about how even though they are poor they have bread and wine on the table and a nicely painted house.

They have trams going up the hills for the older locals.

New cathedral of Coimbra

Center of the university

The old aqueduct

Some of the oldest parts of the university

Our host Celia graduated from this university and told us a little bit about sitting in the cold stone buildings during class. Its crazy to think about all the history and how many students have gone through.

We thought about paying the price to get in and see the famous gold bookshelves in the library. But we enjoyed just walking around the buildings.

Then we made our way into the university botanical gardens

Found a nice spot to set the camera on a timer.

The university stairs

We needed a little pick me up so we enjoyed some pastries and coffee.
Portuguese pastries are amazing.

Celia directed us to this area for the best pastries

Another river city. We went to see the other side.

We heard about this pretty popular tourist spot but were not willing to pay the price to get in. It is an educational park with miniature models of different monuments in Portugal.

We were really enjoying the city, in fact it was Sarah's favorite,
but we knew we wanted a good amount of time in Lisbon.

So we hit the road once again.