Coimbra

After Porto we started to make our way south through Portugal.  Our first stop was the medieval town of Coimbra, famous as the site of Portugal’s oldest university.

School was not in session when we were there so, like many university towns in summer, Coimbra felt a little quiet.  We still enjoyed exploring the winding streets and learning a little about it’s history.

The Old Cathedral (exterior visible above) is a Romanesque, fortress-like building but it contains a beautiful cloister.

I love cloisters as an architectural form.  My obsession started when Dan and I visited Spain a few years ago.  I just find them so beautiful; each one feels like a secret garden.

We also got a chance to visit the Museo Nacional Machado Castro.  I sadly don’t have any photos of the museum but highlights included the ancient Roman cryptoportico: an underground maze of market stalls and passageways.

Then there was the historic university, a beautiful series of medieval and renaissance buildings surrounding an open courtyard.

The exquisite baroque Biblioteca Joanina is the main attraction here.  Unfortunately there are no photos allowed inside but you can see some here.  You might recognize it as the model for the library in the recent remake of Beauty and the Beast.

As you can probably tell from the photos the weather in Coimbra was not the nicest while we were there.  The rain kept us from exploring the city more fully but we thoroughly enjoyed the parts we did get to see and would love to make it back during the school year some day.

Lisbon

Next it was on to Lisbon, Portugal’s capital and a city we’d been looking forward to visiting since we first started planning this trip.

Unfortunately, for a number of reasons Lisbon actually ended up being one of the low points of this trip so far.  In case I’ve been giving anyone the impression that traveling the world is all fun and adventure I’m going to get real for a minute.  First of all, finding affordable but fun places to stay takes an annoying amount of research and, despite a lot of research, the Airbnb we ended up with in Lisbon was a big miss.  On top of this Dan got really sick, leaving me to explore on my own a lot of the time (definitely not as fun).  Despite these setbacks Lisbon did have a few highlights.

San Francisco Similarities

They have cable cars and a Golden Gate Bridge lookalike!  These were fun little reminders of home.

Castelo Sao Jorge

The ruins of this Moorish castle are perched on a hill offering gorgeous views over the city and the river below.

Jeronimos Monastery

This gorgeous UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the sites I had to visit on my own while Dan was sick.

The only up-side to going on my own was getting to spend a ton of time wandering around the cloister without worrying about him getting bored.  Have I mentioned how much I love cloisters? Well this one was pretty fantastic.

Pastries

Pastries were a highlight of Portugal in general, not just Lisbon, but we did get some particularly good ones in the capital.  Pasteis de Belem is probably the most famous pastry shop in the country, mainly serving up their namesake treats, and they did not dissapoint.

Even though we didn’t get to fully enjoy Lisbon we made the best of it considering the circumstances.  Our time there was a good reminder that when traveling for this long not every stop is going to be perfect. It’s important to slow down and prioritize our health from time to time, even if it means missing out on some of what we hoped to see and do.

Evora

From Lisbon we made our way to another college town.  Evora is a beautiful, sprawling little town of white washed buildings with brilliant yellow and orange trim.  It definitely has an aesthetic all it’s own.

Despite being a fairly sleepy little town, Evora has a couple of very unique sites.  One is the beautifully preserved Roman temple which sits in it’s own little square in the middle of town.

The temple is apparently in such good shape partially because it was walled up during the middle ages and used as a butcher shop during that time.

Evora is also home to a Capela dos Ossos or a chapel of bones.  This bizarre and somewhat creepy structure is exactly what it sounds like: a chapel constructed out of human bones.

Apparently when cemeteries got full the local priests dug up older graves and put the bones to use here.  Over the door hangs a sign that translates to “We bones that here are, for yours await”.  A little morbid but definitely an interesting thing to see.

Also, Evora has a pretty cool cathedral with, you guessed it, another beautiful cloister!

Overall we had a really nice time making our way through Portugal, checking out a mix of big cities and small towns along the way.  Each place had its own character and helped us get to know the country a little better.