25/07/19 – 26/07/18 – Coimbra, Centro Region
Once the medieval capital of Portugal, Coimbra is a well preserved historic town built on a steep hillside overlooking the Mondego river. However, with its bustling student population it’s not stuck in the past, and is supposedly one of Portugal’s most liberal and progressive cities.
Our camperstop for the night was on the west side of the river (GPS 40.2002041,-8.4292415,17.78), close to the boat club buildings and offered a safe and quiet spot to park the Moho. It was a busy little place and campervans of all shapes and sizes were tightly squeezed into spaces, allowing just about enough room to open your door.
Having said that, once out of the Moho we were about 50 metres from the grassy riverside where there were a couple of cafe’s, cycle racks, children’s playgrounds and enough space for Marley to stretch his legs off the lead. There was also a pedestrian bridge wide enough to cycle across to the main historic centre on the other side of the river, or about a 15 minute walk away which is where we headed off to first.
Like many of the historic centres we have visited in Portugal there is a good mix of steep narrow cobbled streets, opening on to more grand roads and squares only this time, there was the feeling of it being more run-down than many places. Lots of derelict buildings with smashed windows and adorned with graffiti (Lorraine’s favourite being “Eat pussy, not animals”). Not to say it wasn’t still pretty.
Anyway, like Jack and Jill, we made our way up to the top of the hill where the main university campus lies. We were greeted with a group of girls playing Fado music. Fado was originally created in Coimbra to woo the women, so it was nice seeing that times had changed and that all sexes can be wooed (Although it didn’t have any effect on either us us!).
We did the usual tourist routes of the university grounds and appreciated the views from the top over the river and the rest of the city, before working our way back down though the narrow streets once again. Our favourite part was a narrow little street with a few bars/restaurants that had quite a bohemian vibe to it. That’s where we saw the crocheted sun shades strung up between the buildings.
Back on the west-side of the river, we walked up the other steep hill towards the Santa-Clara-a-Nova Monastery and were tempted to go in the Portugal dos Pequenitos theme park (Basically Portugal’s top tourist attractions in miniature form)….but we didn’t want to see it enough to have to take Marley back to the Moho to leave him there.
All in all a lovely city, well worth a visit as it’s only an hour from Porto and about 2 hours from Lisbon. Apparently, most people try and do it all in a couple of hours, but it’s definitely worth spending an evening there, if you can, in order to see it at a more gentle pace.
