Portugal – Coimbra (En)
On Monday we arrived in Coimbra and stayed in the municipal camping which is great with all the facilities and amenities. With the Acsi card, we paid 17 euros with electricity included. It has a restaurant, bar, pool tables, gym, minigolf and tennis court. We ate the menu in the restaurant for 8.50 euros with included soup (we did not eat the soup because it was really hot weather) and a second course: skewer of cod or chicken with bacon, with rice and veggies, we tried both. I really recommend it, the bus stop to go to the city centre is at the door to the camping. I do not give it 5 stars because you have to take your own toilet paper!
Yesterday Tuesday we went to see the city. Coimbra is a riverfront city in central Portugal and the country’s former capital, is home to a preserved medieval old town and the historic University of Coimbra. Built on the grounds of a former palace, the university is famed for its baroque library, the Joanina library, and its 18h-century bell tower. In the city’s old town lies the 12th-century Romanesque cathedral Se Velha. We went to take the bus but we missed it so we took a Uber to the centre and left us in the Portugal Bank square. From there we went to the Cathedral, the National Museum of Machado de Castro and the University. And from the University we went down a very steep street where we saw the bell tower and the Sub-Ripas house from the 16th century.
We saw the S. Tiago church from 12th-century and we arrived at the Town Hall square where there are many bars and restaurants and the Santa Cruz church, after walking so much we had lunch in one of the square restaurants where we tried the typical seafood feijoada with clams, mussels, crab and prawns, white beans, onion, tomato and rice in a delicious salsa. We love it!
After lunch, we went to see the rest of the old town and we saw the San Domingos Convent, the school of Our lady built in 1543, the school of San Tomas built in 1547 and the church of San Bartolomeo. And we took the bus back to the camping.
And today Wednesday we are preparing to go tomorrow to Nazare, a town on the coast famed for its huge waves, the Surf World Championship and its barnacles! and you can see this in the next post.
