Coimbra to Porto

This morning was a bit cool and foggy in Coimbra. We met our local guide Daniel who had studied art history so was well suited to showing us around today.

Coimbra is a big university town. The first Portuguese language university was established here in the 1300s and it dominates the hill overlooking the town. Originally of course only priests could study at university and women were only allowed in 1910.

Of course the original settlers here were the Romans in the first century. They built the obligatory aqueduct and walls around the city. The Romans were driven out by the barbarians and the city continued to develop next came the muslims and finally the Christians all of which left their mark..

The buildings occupied by the university were built around the 14th and 15th centuries. Originally the university had its own jail attached to lock up any heretics but this became the library. No photos allowed but this was very baroque style.

After looking around the university we walked down towards the main part of Coimbra. We came to a gate in the original Roman era wall and then the main shopping area.

We looked around town for a while and then headed to our next destination Aveiro. This is another university town north of Coimbra. This is also a very flash place to live. It is on the coast so the temperature was very comfortable.

Aveiro’s claim to fame from very early times was salt. Being on the sea with large areas of flat land close to sea level they started harvesting salt back in Roman times. They also harvested sea weed which was used for fertiliser. To help facilitate trade they built a system of canals to allow the salt and sea weed to be collected in boats called Moliceiros. Today tourists can ride the Moliceiros around the canals of the city.

Just near Aveiro and literally right on the coast is the town of Costa Nova. This is a real summer holiday destination and a lot of the houses have stripes. See photo.

We then pushed on to Porto. We had a pretty decent wood fired pizza for dinner at a small restaurant near the hotel.Baca lagi