Coimbra, Tuesday 6 October
We crossed the border into Portugal expecting minor delays with customs. Nobody was there. Welcome to Portugal. It promptly began to rain and I saw grey clouds for the first time since I have been away :-( The houses changed from terracotta to white although the landscape stayed pretty much the same - dry and rocky. It is apparently rude here to indicate personal wealth so the whitewash keeps things simple.
A couple of hours later we arrive in the pretty town of Coimbra. A university town there are loads of kids around, curiously all the girls though are in trendy boot but with low heels. Most unusual. It becomes obvious why as we climb slippery old cobblestones to the top of the town. I am in a Flintstones version of Riomaggiore - it’s steep, there are big steps but here stones are inlaid in everything and in the warm drizzle it is actually very slippery. Any heel higher than a five cent piece would wrench your tendons like a butcher preparing 100 Christmas lambs. It is only a 10 minute walk up for the view over the town and so we adventure in our flatest shoes. Surprise, surprise there are some cute souvenir shops on the way. Pays to be the researching shopper here, not my strength, so excellent fact finding is done by others on the way up and purchasing undertaken on the way down by us all. A E20 hand painted piece of porcelain ranged in price E17 to E24. It actually didn’t matter to me whether I bought or not as I coming back week after next and will buy things then …well things that is, other than the couple of items I bought in excitement before I was reminded that I was coming back!! I forgot. It’s the busy days. We have travelled 520km today visiting three places covering 1000 years. I am starting to forget yesterday and tomorrow already.
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