Apr 24: Portugal: 20-25 Coimbra to Sintra

Saturday 20 April

Huge storm in the night with torrential rain for a time - and an impressive lightning display and distant thunder.

Little detour to Costa Nova to look at the coloured houses - still quite cloudy so not at their best colour wise.

The fish market was very busy - loads of customers and loads of fresh fish.

Then on to Luso where it started to rain.

We saw the fountain but didn't bother with anything else - too dull to take photos 

Coimbra

70 miles

Arrived early so we went off to do a bit of supermarket shopping. Met Carlos (lettings agent) and was shown into the apartment and given keys. Mike went to get more bags whilst I put the cold stuff in the fridge.

Knock at the door five minutes later - Carlos had put us in the wrong apartment. Emptied the fridge .. 🙄😁

Eventually got settled into the new apartment and ate a meal.

Then discovered that Mike had left an adaptor at the last hotel. Luckily we still had his spare one - which I was using as I hadn't even packed one this time! 

Short walk in the evening - no idea where we went we just wandered. Both very tired.

Mike had been bitten on his cheek and it had swelled up towards his eye overnight.  He took antihistamines which quickly reduced it. It always seems to be Mike that gets the swollen bites! 

The university is the oldest in Portugal - founded in the 13th century. 

In May the city is over run with tourists visiting for the student end of year festivities - which culminate in the 'burning' of the tapes' when each of the faculties burn their ribbon colours to signify the start of the new period in their lives - hard study before their final exams!.

Sunday 21 April

Coimbra

Set off early (well 10am is early on a Sunday!) to avoid the heat.

First stop was the Santa Cruz church - just managed to have a quick peep as Mass was starting.

Off we went walking up the narrow streets - just like Cuenca but not as beautiful of course!.

We couldn't get into the Se Velha - Old Cathedral - as there was a mass on. A man was cleaning the steps.. 😁

More 'up' towards the university. Students from the medicine faculty (blue tapes/ribbons) and law faculty (red) were having photos taken - with some of them throwing their capes into the air.

Very beautiful buildings but I hadn't realised that we needed timed tickets to enter some of the buildings - which of course sell out weeks ahead and very fast - so we didn't get to see inside.

The Joanina library is supposed to be very beautiful. Stock pic as we didn't get there 😒

What a fabulous place to study!

Mural on the art faculty wall.

A peep inside the new cathedral - another Mass on. 

We walked down by a different route - steep and scenic - could have been Cuenca 🥰

The old cathedral was open this time.

16th century almudjar tiles. 

Quiet cloisters.

More 'down' then a late breakfast.

We saw some Marvel comic pics so we went onto the shop to look at them. All sorts of tins you could buy - with your birthday year, popular festivals, Marvel comic strips, various Portuguese locations - all looked very interesting until you realised they were tins.. of sardines!.. 🤣🤣🤣

As we were by the Santa Clara bridge we decided to walk over to visit the old Santa Clara monastery.

More steep 'up' but well worth it.

 

Beautiful cloisters - really well looked after.

Looking back over the river to the main part of the city - looked like Cuenca!

Back over the river past the Santa Cruz church and home. 6.5 miles walked - in 30⁰ of heat.. 🤪

We forgot to defrost bread from the freezer before we went out so Mike came up with an ingenious solution when we got back - he pegged it on the washing line in the sunshine - it worked a treat!.. 🤣🤣🤣

After our meal we managed a short walk round the corner to look at a piece of art - steam punk tree - and have an aperol spritz in the sunshine.

The boys did the treasure hunt I'd left for them at home 🥰💕

Monday 22 April

First visit was to the monastery of Alcobaça. Huge! And very lovely. 

Second visit was to Batalha monastery- another huge one also very beautiful.

We had a little picnic under a tree.

Managed to go through another motorway toll without a ticket so had to pay another full ticket price on exit - not as much as the first one though. Think we've realised now that on approaching the tolls we need to move over to the booth on the extreme right instead of sailing through the ones which are for people with devices in their cars. 🙄

Fatima

60 miles

We walked to the Shrine of Fatima. Huge grounds to the building.

Tombs of the three children who saw the apparition.

The exact spot of the apparition has a statue of the Lady of Fatima which stands 1m high and is adorned in silver jewels and pearls with a 1.2kg gold crown. Embedded in the centre is the bullet used in the assassination attempt in Pope John Paul II in 1981. 

The statue is at the side of the priest.

They were holding a mass here and penitents were crawling on their knees. 

The three children saw a light 'brighter than the sun'.

I lit candles for Carol and Siobhan.

Tuesday 23 April

An interesting start to the day when the car wouldn't start. After international phone calls to our insurance company eventually a mechanic came out who jump started the car and enabled us to drive to the Bosch garage.

Three mechanics had a look. I spoke some very untechnical Spanish and we established that the battery was probably broken.

New battery. Bill for £250 and we were on our way.

So much for our early start - good job we'd had breakfast!

Obidos

70 miles

Too early for our accommodation (despite the late start 🙄) so we drove towards the town and parked just outside the walls..

Our accommodation was at Sanctuario do Senhor Jesus da Pedra - the stone church just outside the town.  A beautiful location just a ten minute walk across the fields back to the town.

Called the stone church because superstition says that the stone effigy of crucified Christ was found in a river by fishermen - who later built the chapel to put it in. 

Inside the walls were lots of pretty little back streets and several churches. 

One of them had been converted into a book shop with pretty curved shelves.

Further down the road was another 'port and cod pasty palette'  tourist emporium - far superior to the one in Aveiro with a violinist playing on the balcony above the tables. 

Lovely little winding streets and alleys with traditional blue and yellow paint to ward off evil.

Painting with coffee.

We tried the locally made 'ginja' liqueur made with sour cherries - tasted a bit like our homemade slow gin. 

We drank it from chocolate cups.

Ornate archway leading into the walled town.

Shops and churches.

Part of the aquaduct.

Such a pretty town.

Selfie at an Instagram spot 🤣

Tiny bar near the accommodation - with views of the town walls one way and the stone church just behind Mike. 

Nice meal in the evening - the restaurant was 20 paces away.. 🤣

Wednesday 24 April

A misty start to the day.

Sintra

60 miles

Pastries for a late breakfast.

Set off for a walk and ended up at the castle. Only walked about 3 miles but most of it was UP.  In flip flops.. 🤣🤣🤣

Went for a short walk in the evening to Miradouro da Vigia where you can look across to the three hills with the Castle of the Moors, Peña Palace and the Castelo do Sao Gregorio on top of each one. 

Thursday 25 April

Sintra

Freedom Day national holiday - a coup was staged in 1974 which led to the end of dictatorship and began the process towards democracy. 

Called the Carnation Revolution as almost no shots were fired. A restaurant worker started to celebrate by giving soldiers carnations and others followed suit - putting carnations into barrels of guns. Fifty years this year.

Probably not the best day to visit one of Portugal's top tourist attractions 🤣 but tickets for the Peña Palace were bought months ago.

Peña Palace was the summer residence for King Fernando.  He built an incredible caciphony has been described as 'a wild ride for the eyes - ridiculous, playful, joyful, overwhelming and aggressively rich in a style that is neo-gothic, Islamic, romantic and medieval all at once' - think that about sums it up!

Went up to the Peña palace in a tuk tuk - saved a lot of walking 😁

Quick glimpse of the Sintra palace which we won't have time to visit.

 The castle from another angle.

Bit cooler today and less sunshine but still lots of colour.

Our tickets were for the first entry at 9.30. What a fabulous place!

Loved the handrails 

Such beautiful ceiling work and candelabras.

Loved this little door!

It soon got really busy!

Chapel.

Late breakfast - hot chocolate with sweet cheese and cinnamon tarts - local delicacy.

The sun came out briefly. Absolutely heaving by the time we left.

Tried to walk to the Quinta da Regaleira - Google said it was just 32 minutes. About an hour and a half later we gave up and walked back to the accommodation.

Had a rest then went out again.

32 minutes walk.. straight there.. 🙄

Quinto da Regaleira is another quirky castle which has had many owners. In 1904 it was owned by a businessman called Monteiro who decided to deck it out in ways which would reflect his interests and ideology - namely alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar and Rosicrucians - in Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Manueline styles.

One of the castle oddities is the Initiation Well believed to have been used in initiation ceremonies in Freemasonry or other secret societies. Interesting to walk (or in my case sidle 😁) down - I didn't look over the sides but just held my phone out to take pics - glad I did it though it was certainly an experience.. 😁

Looking up. Or rather pointing the camera up 😁

At the bottom were tunnels which led to waterfalls. They were quite wide so not too claustrophobic.

I'm sure we missed loads of stuff in both places but we'd walked over 21,000 steps and were happy with what we'd seen. Time for a sit down and a meal.

Local sausage and baked cheese with cold white wine. Delicious.