Month: April 2022

We took a walk around the neighborhood and happened upon a soccer game in progress. Maybe a city league or a University league. They looked pretty darned good to my untrained eye.  And then we saw a guy get injured. Teammates rushed to help. Help drag him unceremoniously off the field that is. And leave…

No signs of rain today, so a late morning scoot under the Roman aqueduct… …before entering the botanical gardens and ambling down a path through the bamboo forest and out onto the riverfront walk. We stopped at a cafe that had a tables on a deck built off the river bank above the Mondego. I…

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Amazing. With a prediction of 95% chance of rain today, we awoke to crisp blue skies. I need to learn how to interpret the weather report on this side of the Atlantic. No rain today. Not one drop. The news that New Mexico is on fire puts a damper on the moment. A sobering reminder…

The dramatic storm front that threatened to drench us yesterday was, like most things Baroque, needlessly exaggerated. A sprinkling here and there, but, for the most part of the day the lowering clouds swept overhead, disappearing by evening when we took a walk up to the top of the Coimbra campus for the dazzling view….

The great Portuguese unmasking Today I noticed several people inside buildings without masks. When I pointed that out to Grubb, he said “huh?” Grubb has added The Portuguese News online, an English language Portuguese newspaper to his daily news scan. Sure enough, just today most mask mandates have been dropped. Except on public transportation and…

University of Coimbra https://photos.app.goo.gl/gGPbkPKXPbbLUsCt9 Our AirBnb in Coimbra As you’ll see, not as modern as our place in Porto. This apartment is in a designated UNESCO heritage building so there are limits on updates. It is located just a block below the University and a couple of blocks from the Botanical Gardens. We can see…

Storm clouds swirled in this morning, towering billows of dark grey shot with silver, outtakes from a gloomy Baroque masterpiece threatening to unleash the fury of two weeks worth of withheld rain. With the temperature dropping it was time for the down vest and knit cap along with the umbrella. Today we were going to…

What is your travel mode? We all do it differently I’m sure. Have some tips, tricks or pearls of wisdom or silliness to share? Love to hear them. Here are some of ours. Eat what you want. Try everything. Sugars and fats be damned. You know it’s impossible to gain weight when you travel. Everyone…

What’s with the students sporting long black capes?  A little research and I’ve got a vague answer. The black cape has been a university student’s uniform here for 500 years. “Here” being Coimbra but also seen in Lisbon and Porto as well. Why a black cape? As opposed to some kind of hat or other apparel?…

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After a couple cups of Delta coffee (since coming here I’ve become a snob in that regard), we boarded a quick train to Coimbra. Our initial plans for traveling in Portugal had us renting a car, but the Covid crisis priced us out that option. So no increased heart rate going into the centripetal swarm…

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Finally getting around to posting photos of the interior. Now that we have left. id highly recommend this place. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ErdrwRPhAmZaJAau7

Who remembers Brownie box cameras? Or Polaroids and the waving of the photo sheet with its curved edges, watching as the photo developed magically within a few minutes? Oh my god, and one’s first Minolta or Canon SLR and trying to figure out f-stops and the endless adjusting, never being absolutely sure it was clearly…