Day 39: Pombal to Coimbra

March 16, 2024

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We really liked our hotel in Pombal, with its view out to the main street. That view backfired a bit, because it also faced that food truck venue, which turned out to be part of some kind of rock concert. The "concert" went on all evening and to 2 a.m. It's amazing about modern amplifiers. I could hear perfectly, way deep in our room, or in the bathroom. As I tried to sleep, I was searching for any signs of musicality in the sounds so easily bypassing my ear plugs. But all I could get from it was an underlying tribal-like thumping. Dodie had the same problem, and she declares that we are too old to understand such music. Maybe it would have been better if the vocals had been in English, but I think not.

I have mostly given up photographing breakfasts, except maybe for one jammers and ten jammers. So I no longer bring along the good camera. t today I took out the cell phone, to record especially the selection of soft cheeses. It was a breakfast we hadn't expected from this reasonably priced hotel.

We took the time to look at the way to Coimbra, as portrayed by Google Maps, by cycle.travel, and by RideWithGPS. They each had a different take on it. One that especially caught our attention was cycle.travel, that came in with a route featuring 800m of climbing! We went with Google, which was offering a much much flatter way.

The Google way did have some special surprises for us. First, it took us through what could only be described as a slum, on what must be the wrong side of the Pombal railway tracks.

This photo does not quite show how run down this housing looked. Also, the street on the other side of the building was strewn with litter. It had me musing about whether the mess was because people were poor, or were they poor because they were the kind of people that would make such a mess. Whichever is the case, it was something we have almost never seen in Europe.

If I lived here, I would be cleaning this up.

We cycled for quite a long time, uneventfully. The way remained flat, which I liked, given the warning from cycle.travel that big hills were lurking. There was really not much to photograph, though. Further south, we had appreciated the neat villages, all with white box like houses and orange roofs. But here things were more heterogeneous, with houses of various colours and shapes. Surprisingly, all the colours and shapes did not add interest. What do you think?:

When you make a bargain with Google, you have to watch out what you have let yourself in for. Sure, the deal was for a flat route, but did Google say dry, or paved? better go read the contract!

Mud liie this really clogs up the fenders.

There was a maybe escape over this bridge.

We did find our way to some better road surface, and to a sign that announced we were on the rice route. It promised we could see some of the birds and animals shown below.

Well, we did find a Cattle Egret in a rice field, so that was something.

Google then took us across a huge corn field, on a track that ended at a paved road! But mere feet before that road, the track actually ended at a deep ditch. I walked and surveyed the ditch, which while deep and water filled was partially filled in in spots. I plotted a way to maybe roll and carry the bikes across, but it really wasn't happening. We backtracked and eventually found another way around.

RWGPS can see the blue water filled ditch that stopped us, but Google missed it.

Back on paved road, we looked to the right, to see an amazing Stork hotel on a power line tower.

The scene was also repeated on the next tower along.

The last time we came to Coimbra, we approached from the east, and there we encountered a most disconcerting amount of traffic and elevated roadways. But this time, coming from the other side, the city just quietly appeared before us.

Coimbra, with the University atop the hill.

Colourful buildings, all facing the river.

I thought this pink building was our hotel, as I remembered the "Astoria" with a round turret.

Here it is, the real Astoria. It's easy to tell from the sign. Dodie could not believe I could not see the sign, but I was looking from across the river at the wrong building.

Our hotel, on the left. Last year, it was one of the first photos I made. This year, we are staying there!

At other hotels, notably all in Spain, we have run into some negative reactions when we spring the fact that we have bikes to store on them. But here the girls just quickly decided to stash the bikes in the cloak room on the main floor.

The dining room. Breakfast will be there tomorrow.

The hotel was started in 1919 and opened in 1926. The elevator is mostly original. It has the unique feature of a bench to rest on. You might laugh at that, but it was slow enough that we took to using the bench while waiting to arrive at our 3rd floor room.

Between the hotel and the river the road was under construction. We seemed to remember the same amount of disruption from last year. We took this photo so next time we will be able to see if there has been any progress. A photo inside the hotel shows a steam train parked in this same space between hotel and river.

Coimbra has all kinds of neighbourhoods and things to see, up and down its hillside setting. But for us this time, it would be enough to just walk its main street, which is also a car free zone where everybody is sitting out at restaurants. The buildings and the place are so incredibly beautiful, this has to be one of the #1 streets of its kind in Europe.

We don't know where the tradition came from, but it is a "thing" for university students in Portugal to perform in the streets, dressed formally in black. These are educational psychology students.

Here is another group.

The restaurants are very enticing, except to the extent that they feature bacalhau, the Portuguese all time favorite, which is rehydrated salt dried cod.

Looking beyond the musical students up the street, where more fun awaits.

A gate to another neighborhood, not for us this evening.

And this iconic wedge shaped building and ramp leads to the Jewish quarter.

There is beauty on all sides, like in these building facades.

This is "our" square, because our hotel last year was over on the left.

To the right in the square is the amazing monastery of Santa Cruz.

The main room in the monastery is decorated with blue and white paintings.

The paintings depict quite complicated scenes.

Here is a Mary with a different sort of crown.

At the front of the main room lie the first king of Portugal, on the left, and his son, on the right. These are of course very famous tombs. They are from the 12th century.

A small admission fee took us into many more of the monastery rooms. Below is a library or document storage room. The walls are lined with tile, and there are banks of drawers no doubt housing antique documents.

The cloister is another stunning spot, again with (mainly blue) tiled walls and painting.

One of wall paintings. I chose this one to show because it has the added interest of the face of the devil having been gouged out by someone,

An upper room, lit only by windows, contains an array of uniquely shaped reliquaries. Each one, I think, contains bits of various saints or other important figures, including, I think, four popes.

There are twelve pyramids in the room, each holding eighteen reliquaries.

Looking down from the reliquary room to the cloister.

One staircase was lined with tile, as is everything in this building. It's beautiful, but a closer look reveals the tiles not only with many different designs, but designs that are the same are clearly hand done, revealing subtle differences from one to another.

Many designs, and same ones not the same.

These tiles, in the library, are also clearly hand made!

Back on the street, here is another student group.

Back in our room, we are appreciating the old parquetry floors, old wardrobe and desk, and the little sitting room by the window overlooking the river. That room has an old chair in it, that I sat in for a while, just absorbing the oldness and elegance of it all.

Looking out our window, we see how the riverside has been torn up, but also the bridge we easily crossed to reach the town here.

Here is our simple 4 km walk up the walking street and around the monastery. There is lots more to see and do here.

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Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,882 km (1,169 miles)

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