Belém

Just a short drive out of the center of Lisbon and we found ourselves in Belém (still inside Lisbon). We had heard from our friend Dennis Bray and others that we were not to leave Lisbon until we had seen and tasted what the Belém harbor had to offer.
After driving by, making an illegal u-turn, and getting yelled at by two Portuguese men from their cars on each side of me, we finally made it to our first stop - The Monument of Discoveries.

Erected in 1960, the Monument of Discoveries honors Henry the Navigator,
Vasco da Gama, and the like.

This is where we are.

This is where you most likely are.

Then we moved further down the road to the Torre de Belém, built in 1514 to defend the harbor. Once again we did not want to pay the money to look inside. But the outside was beautiful.

Lastly we went to the famous Pasteis de Belém for lunch and pasteis de nata. We have heard tales of older women downing plate-fulls of this famous Portuguese pastry in one sitting. We were a little nervous so we only ordered four. Gui and Leah told us that they had knocked back six like it was nothing. Sarah didn't really like them so I had to man up and eat her second one. I was really glad she didn't like them.

As I drove South over the bridge, Sarah snapped a few photos of the Cristo-Rei. We waved good-bye to Lisbon and Jesus and headed towards the Southern Coast.

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Lisbon

As we said in the last post. We left Coimbra a little early because we wanted to have more time in Lisbon. But also at the same time we wanted to take some scenic routes in order to drive along the coast. We were reminded that scenic routes lead to a lot more time driving.
We did enjoy the random castles off in the distance.

These two picture was taken at a beautiful little coastal town called Ericeiria. The bad weather actually made them look pretty cool.

Finally we made it Lisbon and caught our Couchsurfing host on his dinner break. We dropped our stuff, met his cats and roomates, then headed out to a fado show. Fado is to Lisbon and Coimbra what flamenco is to Sevilla.
Our host directed us to one of the most famous fado houses in the city. We sat down but quickly moved on after realizing how expensive it was. Not soon after we got tempted in to another place where we were the only customers and we had our own personal fado show. The music was great. A man playing guitar, a man playing the 12 string, and a singer. First a man sang, then a woman. When we got the bill though it put a cloud over the whole thing. We hadn't realized that they were charging us for every little thing and we ended up spending a lot more than we wanted to. We felt defeated.

We headed out early the next day to give the city a chance to redeem itself.
Lisbon is indeed a very beautiful city. Lots of parks and art.

There were a few major roundabouts. We liked the statues.

There was a nice huge path to walk on down the main shopping area.

We liked this fountain because you could see just as much water going up
as you could see going down.

The night before we had seen a giant elevator that takes you up to a good viewing spot,
so we decided it would be a good way to get a feel for the city.

From the elevator and tower, there was a bridge that brought you to the Barrio Alto were you could find lots of cool restaurants and tiny streets.

Apparently my money is in the wrong bank

At the end of our walk we found ourselves at the waters edge. We enjoyed resting in the chair/plant holders and watching the water for awhile.

We did not think the city had redeemed itself completely,
but we surely could not deny its beauty.
We know that one day we will have to give it another chance.

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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.

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