Day 50: Coimbra

April 20, 2023

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For us, writing a blog is a fairly important part of each cycle trip. As each day evolves, we are thinking about what the narrative of it is, and how it will be told in the blog. And of course, the actual writing takes up time and energy, at the end of the day, when time and energy can be in short supply. Finally, the blog does have a cost, in mobile data when wifi is no good and in having the right equipment, like a working computer or tablet, camera, keyboard, etc. While all this can be a bug, it is usually OK, and the blog that results is something that can be treasured for many future years.

"Usually OK" disguises the fact that sometimes blog writing can be a disaster. No internet, evaporating mobile data, lost photos or text, no flat place to type, and just too tired to do it are some of the hazards. But last night there was a "perfect storm" of factors that interlock well enough to make them my opening topic for today. This tale may be of passing interest to general readers, but I am hoping for some knowing nods also from other blog writers.

Perversely, the problem begins when you arrive at someplace super, a city or natural environment that prompts you to take lots of photos. With lots of photos then to upload, you need fast internet. If internet is slow, then an hour or more can go by as the photos are slowly moved onto Cycleblaze. In the situation of a weak or dropping connection, Cycleblaze may begin to give up temporarily on some photos that did not load. But Cycleblaze will diligently keep trying, and when it succeeds, the photos will be there, but in mixed up order. Cycleblaze at this point does not tell you the photo file name, so good luck trying to reorder them properly, such as by using the serially numbered name they were given inside the camera.

This is only the beginning of the fun. If you are me, rather than oil my chain or something, while Cycleblaze fights to load photos with slow internet, I will start writing the text part, offline. It has to be offline, because Cycleblaze does not want to see your text while it is wrestling with photos. Eventually, the photos are loaded, so it is then time to get the relevant parts of the text and copy and paste them in to the blog. Oh, oh, on my computer anyway, Cycleblaze does not like to do that. Regardless of what browser I use, the Cycleblaze blog page will freeze with a copy and paste. Then the browser will typically say "the page is unresponsive, do you want to wait?". Yes, I want to wait. And after about usually ten minutes and repeated do you want to wait questions, Imay be free to proceed to the next copy and paste. Enough of this and actually hours can go by.

With hours going by, if your computer is like mine, it is losing charge even if plugged in. So finally it will say the equivalent of "you've been screwing with this blog for so many hours that I'm packing it in, see you maybe in the morning, when I am feeling more charged". "Wait", you say, "maybe it is 1 a.m., but if we both take maybe a one hour nap, we could get this done?" Last night that worked, so we live to write about Coimbra today again!

Coimbra was so interesting and beautiful that we arranged to stay another day. Unfortunately, our wonderful spot on the square was fully booked for tonight. So Walter, our very sympathetic owner, started phoning family members in town who are also in the hotel business. He found us a place with his uncle, in a much less attractive part of town, though only minutes from our square. We left our bikes and gear with Walter and walked out for another look at the city. We would return late afternoon to shift our gear over to Uncle's hotel.

Walter's rooms come with breakfast, but the breakfast is arranged at a cafe/restaurant about a block down the walking street. Going to a cafe rather than a breakfast room was exciting, firstly because it was a chance to feel cool, as part of some cafe culture. But also, the cafe was also more of a bakery, and this would be a chance to score the ultimate photo of a pile of pastels de nata. (The ultimate, of course, would really have to come in Lisbon, where there is a bakery with a dozen innovative pastel de nata flavours, and stacks of each one.)

My current ultimate photo of a stack of pastel de nata!

Our breakfast in the cafe was fine, and more than enough even for a cycling day, which this was not. It included a chocolate filled pastry similar to a French "pain au chocolate" but with way more chocolate and a nice maybe orange based flavour.

Let's have a closer, more lurid, look at that pastry!

This cafe (bakery) seemed to complete with others nearby, producing local or town specialty pastries and winning awards for them, year by year. For example, there was the Pastel Santa Clara in the window, that also could be seen on a nearby poster.

This great bakery did also have eclair and millefeuilles, but the jury has already come back on French pastries.

We do think flan type things are a bit of a Portuguese specialty. How about this one!

Spoiler alert, we have been looking for Portuguese cork based souvenirs for grandkids. Dodie either did or did not buy from the stand below!

Yesterday we had a fairly good run at three of the zippiest churches on this (East) side of the river. But on the other side of the Santa Clara bridge (clearly named for that pastry) was the Santa Clara and other monasteries, and the Santa Clara convent. Ok, the whole darn quadrant seems to be called Santa Clara.

Taking a photo that we shot later in the day, you see to the West the river and bridge, the large white building with orange roof to the right off the end of the bridge, and with a good eye, to the left of the end of the bridge, a smaller brown building with an arched entry. These are the Mondego River, the Santa Clara Bridge, the (new) Santa Clara monastery and convent, and the "old" Santa Clara monastery. These were some of our goals as we walked over the bridge.

Here as we set off on the Santa Clara bridge, we see the direction sign for the Camino of Santiago, but also the sign for the sanctuary of Fatima. Fatima is a whole other thing, but also with symbols embedded in the pavement here, and direction signs like at the bridge.

We reached the monastery/convent complex only to find it barricaded, and direction signs strongly hinting some kind of permanent closure to the public.

Having turned back, we passed Portugal dos Pequinitos, which is a mini theme park for kids about Portuguese buildings and history. We figured this could be at about our level, but for about 12 euros (seniour rate) each we gave it a miss.

Portugal dos Pequinitos is about a block long.

Our last hope for going into a monastery on the west bank was the old Santa Clara monastery/church. As we looked for a way in, we came to realize that it was actually a ruin, and not a place with some renovations under way. The site had been organized so there really was no way to go near, or inside. That was no doubt for the best, lest we get a brick falling on the head. It turns out that the church (still standing) and the monastery (convent) mostly demolished fell victim to repeated flooding of the river, from the 16th century. Some kind of works are apparently in progress, but the site has been out of commission for many years.

Now looking again at the buildings of the east bank, we see a bit of the new cathedral, and muse that very many of the buildings are part of the famous university.

Back on the East bank, our plan was to walk up through the city, to reach the University's botanic gardens. We set off, up steep cobbled roads and past even steeper stairways.

Later we looked down these stairs and they seemed steeper yet.

As we walked we had an embankment of nasturtiums. This was remarkable but we could imagine such a thing at home (not that we have ever seen it). The city is using 1/3 size electric busses on the inner streets, which is good. We also noticed some scaled down electric vehicles. One was the venerable Renault Twizy, which has been around for ages, but there were others too - probably Chinese makes.

We walked right by the entrance to the gardens, which were scarcely marked, and walked on for a long way! Finally we smartened up and turned around.

Google thinks this is a Mini Countryman electric.

Believe it or not, this gate beside a water plant is the main entrance to the botanic garden from this side.

Soon after entering the gardens one comes to the bamboos forest. Bamboo is a spectacular plant with many uses. We may not have seen such a large stand as this before.

The Bamboo Forest has the unfortunate Portuguese name Bambuzal

Here comes a little electric Citroen Ami.

The aqueduct, is about a block long here. It is famous, but wehave not researched where it started or ended or when it was operated. (Ok, it is from 1570 and is on the site of a former roman aqueduct. It is one km long and provided water to the upper part of Coimbra.)

In this area we began to see pilgrimage to Fatima emblems in the pavement. Fatima is a town about 100 km south of here, where in 1917 there was a "Marian" apparition to three shepherd children. After an initial period of disbelief, all Popes since have endorsed the sighting, and the sanctuary in Fatima has become a major pilgrimage site.

We next passed by a University building of its Justice and Peace religious institute. Founded in 1971, we are not quite sure what it does, but it has a great cafeteria with a view of the river!

This really hit the spot, and we felt like students again.

On one wall, Pope Francis appears to say that God loves us. I was thinking that Francis must just be waving, because he does not have his hand in blessing configuration, and certainly would not emulate Spock.

I am used to being confused in foreign lands, but it did take me a second to determine that these sinks were not urinals - too tall!

As we walked in the upper town, we encountered this cactus in flower. Wow!

Here is the top end of that staircase we had been looking at!

If your laundry drops from here, you have a hike to retrieve it!

Back near the main walking street, an accordion player had the help of his dog to collect the donations.

There are ever more scenic architectures to appreciate on the way back to our square.

And here is one more church to check out.

At one corner of our square was a little grocery, and I got posted outside as Dodie went in, I noted a couple with a child in a stroller having a complete lunch at a table just out there. It must have been linked to the restaurant across the way. It seems only in Europe will you see such an arrangement.

We were becoming nostalgic even before actually leaving our square. So we filmed our keyboardist and the surroundings, to help remember it. In the video you can see some of the "famous" elements - the church and the restaurant that had the fado, the couple dining at the table in the middle of nowhere, Dodie and the bikes at the MiniPrecio, our hotel, the adjoining walking street, ... it was all so great!

In a final chapter for the day, we walked ourselves over to the other hotel which amazingly for such a small change in location was in an area with no stores or restaurants, just a barren faceless streetscape with traffic. I left Dodie in front with the bikes and went up to the first floor, where who I took to be Walter's aunt was running reception. A more disorganized old lady I have never seen, and it took well over 30 minutes to look at my passport, take my money, and hand over a key. I knew Dodie would be wilting out on the street, but there was nothing I could do to speed the woman up.

Interestingly, though I feel I have been getting nowhere with Portuguese, I was able to handle "Yes, two people", "Yes I understand it's 47 euros", "No, I have nothing smaller than a 100 euro note", "Here is my passport", "It's on the second floor, ok, but can I have the key?" and "Is it ok to put the bikes in the room?". Not that I actually directly spoke or articulated all these, but somehow all this info passed between me and the lady. Not that it seemed to get Dodie off the street any faster!

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 2,187 km (1,358 miles)

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