Coimbra

This story starts with two heroes… Donny and Antonio Ortega.

As we lounged about our Nazaré AirBnB the last morning, packing a bit, cleaning a bit, catching up on email, news… I started to get that little niggling feeling in the back of my brain that maybe, just maybe I should think about getting ready to leave. I had already ordered the train tickets for our next leg so I had an idea of approximately when we needed to leave. When that little niggle hit, I pulled up Uber only to see the dreaded, “No Cars Available.” Same for taxi app.

With about 35 mins to finish the last bit of packing, catch a car, and get to train station 10 mins away, I commence panicking which Donny finds hilarious for some reason. Possibly because he clearly had a miracle up his sleeve when he produces a business card from a taxi driver we rode with earlier in the week. A quick call to Antonio Ortega, he can pick us up in 10 minutes, which he does (not always a given here in Portugal) and we get to the station with 10 minutes to spare! I ❤️ me some heroes!

We head north for a little over 90 minutes by train to Coimbra. This area of Portugal is clearly their “breadbasket”—we passed tons of farms growing vegetables of all kinds but the strangest were what appeared to evergreen trees that were being tapped for their sap. Anyone know what’s up there? The other striking thing about this part of the country are the huge tracts of eucalyptus that have been intentionally planted, most likely encouraged and/or subsidized by the EU according to Donny.

Quick cab ride to our lovely little hotel right next to the oldest university in Portugal. We walked around a bit but it was pretty warm so we headed back for a late lunch, which turned into a late extended lunch that ran into wine on the rooftop deck which ran into a late dinner with new friends from Atlanta. 😊

Now we’re hanging out in the room, watching a truly epic rainstorm roll through.Read more