If this is Thursday, it must be Porto!

Sorry to steal a title but my brain is pickled.  Thursday morning we were trying to get a ticket for the car so that we could get out of the parking lot. Thanks to a very helpful lady we managed to get the gate open but only after she walked us to where the security guard was.  No easy task, we were at the Mercado in the underground lot to the right of the stairs. She took us there without being able to speak English, only knowing we didn’t know what we were doing.  The security guard chastised me for not speaking Portuguese but I made him laugh when I shared all of my Portuguese vocabulary: vinho branco secco, vinho tinto,  bacalhoa, carnes, batata frito, and Obrigada. He gave us directions in sign language and Portuguese for what to do at the gate. Back up stairs we went. Dennis went to the car and I stayed by the gate to put the paper in the slot. All of a sudden, there he was, our hero taking the paper from my hand and signaling me to get in the car.  Now you know why we love Portugal. Really Blanche DuBois would do just fine here.

We can make this work!

How did we start with 12 and end with 14–no more shopping!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Coimbra which is a beautiful medieval town with one of the oldest universities in the world. Most of these universities are in Europe but there is also one in Egypt. Coimbra’s university is a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with Salamanca which I was privileged to visit on a teaching trip. Maybe that should be our next adventure—visiting all of the world’s oldest universities.  But for now we visited the university and were awed by everything we saw. It is beautiful.  There are some newer structures built by Salazar that are rather ugly but that’s not what we trudged up hill to see.  We came to see the chapel and the library.

The Elevator 

From the elevator to the funicular to get to the campus.

Climbing the last hill to the University

University Courtyard

The Chapel

The Library

The Scholars

Coimbra is a lovely city with more than 100,000 people and it is a place where we could spend a much longer time. The people are lovely and you will find most everything you want, right here. Shopping in the pedestrian mall is very appealing.

The World According to Dennis:

Let me just take just a few minutes to share my impressions of beautiful Coimbra.  The old university campus is arranged around a courtyard with a tall tower in one corner. I wanted to climb but unfortunately it was open only to academics, not even visiting scholars like me.  I love those old towers before we got all safety conscious. They give me a funny feeling when I lean out over the edge and look down, something between elation and anxiety—you know where.  Do women get that too?

Anyway after about an hour or so, Jim, Pat, Cindy, and I headed down the hill for a “nip-o-the grape.”  On the way down, I thought I’d add a little humor to our conversation, and said, “Cindy, I think if someone came in here and leveled all the old buildings and put in a golf course, this area could really take off and make some money.”  She slowly turned and looked at me like I just dropped a turd in the punch bowl. Can you picture the eye roll and hear the deep sigh?  I waste some of my best humor on Cindy. 

She got back at me though as we continued to walk we passed many quaint shops, so naturally we had to shop. Need I add that most guys I know do not like shopping, especially me. Where does she decide to enter? A store that sells—wait for it—socks! An entire store that contains nothing but socks.  Many colors, sizes, textures, and patterns but only socks. Then she starts up and down each aisle examining each pair on each rack, feeling them, thinking about the color and then moving on. After about 30 minutes we leave the store and she has a banded pack of  6 pairs of socks for €6.   She’s smiling. I’m thinking, I park in the Walmart lot, walk in, buy a pack of 12 pairs of black socks and I’m outta there in 6 minutes.  Who shops for socks? Who does that? As I said before...just sayin’.

How Big Is It?

Nazare, home to the biggest waves in the world, especially from November - March. Proving ground for World Champion surfers. Twice we went to Nazare to see the waves and they were HUGE but not 7 story waves, just fierce violent waves, pounding the shore and smashing into the rocks that surrounded the lighthouse. The first day we went we scoured the water for surfers.  We looked out into the waves and were sure that there were two surfers attempting to get on their boards. Whoops, buoys!

Nazare was fun even without the surfers.  “Carnaval” was just getting off the ground.

We really wanted to see some surfers so after a trip to Fatima where Pat and Jim attended a high mass in the new church while Ana, Dennis and I went into the old church which reminded me of the church in New Market, Minnesota. I wonder if it’s still there and if it is still so splendid.

New Church

The painting behind the altar of the old church

The altar in the new church

The Old Church

On our way back home, with new GPS coordinates (crossing fingers that they will work) we decided to stop at Nazare once more, just to check if there were surfers.

Ana at Nazare
The roof to the lighthouse was closed but we could still get a good look at those magnificent waves.   

Still no surfers but we were able to drive straight out of town (more or less with only one or two complete passes around the round-abouts) and head to Obidos.  What can we get for an amazing driver? Dennis is the champion at calm and collected driving!

What happens when the queen has a penchant for Moorish design, a German architect is hired, and the king wants to build a castle that will never be forgotten?

From below, Sintra’s Pena Palace’s red and yellow walls are the surprise of the morning.

Then coming round the bend on the last bit of the path up to the castle, Astonishment! 

It’s impossible to describe how charming and eccentric this castle is.  We’ve decided that Vietnam has Hoi An, Ethiopia has Lalibela, and Portugal has Pena Palace. All of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites are fantastic!   

José our intrepid guide from Lisbon on Wheels took us from the courtyard to an—-elevator up to the inner chambers of the castle. Beautiful! This was just as I was complaining that despite all the walking we were doing, I’m sure I’m gaining weight. He said, “well, all I do is weight lifting. I lift the wine in this hand, and I lift the cheese in this hand!” And then he proceeded to demonstrate. 😂

No wonder we love this guy!  

No photos are allowed inside the castle chambers except in a few spots that do not have furnishings. If you’re curious about the furnishings you can Google images: Pena Palace, Sintra. 

After the rooms, the balconies:

And of course, the shots I couldn’t resist:

José got us moving right away in the morning so that we missed most of the crowds. When we came out the lines of people and tour buses was astounding. I can’t imagine doing this in summer. After Pena Palace? Lunch!

And the winery where the vines are grown in sand with extremely long roots that go down into clay.

The day came to an end in Estoril where there has been a casino and hotel forever. I loved seeing these because they are part of the story in A Small Death in Lisbon by Wilson. And this is where Ian Fleming spent time when he really was a spy and where Casino Royale was set.

No more words today. Tchau!