As usual we are up early, but just sort of hang out drinking our coffee and enjoying this great apartment. We finally rouse ourselves enough to go out for a morning walk, heading down through the old twisty little alleyways that make up the Baixa. We hit all the old churches on our walk, crossed the Mondego river for the views, stopped for a coffee on the edge of the Largo da Portegem (the beginning of the old Baixa city) and wandered through the main Baixo street – Rua Ferreira Borges – filled with shops and cafes. I was particularly taken with the café that had Teddy Bears hung up on the 1^st floor balconies! Not to mention the murals and the Fado guys statues (sadly with a big black car ruining the shot!).

Returning to the apartment, we freshened up and hit the streets again, heading uphill (everything is uphill!!) to the University for our tour. The bonus of our uphill climb – besides the aerobics – were the views. We walked along the ancient walls of the city, oohing and aahing over the incredible architecture and gorgeous long views looking out over the Mondega river. A stunning workout.

Arriving up at the University with plenty of time before our tour, we sort of wandered through the courtyard, snapping shots of the great statues that adorned every building. Our guide collected us precisely at 11, but we were missing 3 people. There’s always someone! So he commenced with the tour, after finding out (somehow) that the others were waiting for us in the courtyard of the Royal Palace. Ok – well – anyway…..he gives us the history of the university – begun in 1280, moved multiple times between here and Lisbon, depending upon the ruling monarchy and finally situated for good in Coimbra. He explained the traditional dress – all black (pants and suit coat for men, skirt and suit coat for women – both with a long Harry Potter like cape), and told us it was worn mostly for ceremonies and special occasions. The students wearing them today were running for student council, and wore the uniforms to identify themselves as such.

The arched doorway to the Royal palace has remnants of students uniforms tied to the grating above the arches. This is a tradition at the end of the semester, when graduating students rip off their uniforms and shred pieces to be tied up on the grate. They cloth is left there as reminders of the celebration and completion of studies.

Inside the courtyard, we find our missing tour people – and weirdly enough, it is the picky family from dinner last night! (We didn’t blog about them yesterday, but we could overhear everything they said – and every dish the waiter explained had something wrong with it or needed some special treatment for them!) Talk about a small world! Anyhow, moving inside the walls, we get more history about the Royal Palace – now used as the law school – and how the royalty from various ages lived here. Too much for my brain to retain – but at the time it was fascinating – and the view of the courtyard really fantastic.

Inside the palace is just as opulent as you would think – rooms upon rooms of marble, beautiful carpets, incredible ceiling painting and decorations, the old Throne Room now the Great Hall of Acts where the University holds ceremonies….

…The private exam room where students go to take oral exams from a panel of multiple professors, ringed with huge portraits of former University Chancellors, the weird digitization representation of the head of the King Denis, who founded the Portuguese University and died in 1325, all interspersed with gorgeous views out across Coimbra from every window.

Done with that part of the castle tour, we return to the courtyard for more wandering and photos (which would be so much more lovely if the stupid construction crane were missing!) as we wait for our next venue – the University Library.

This is the highlight of the tour – King João’s Library (Biblioteca Joanina) with over 40,000 books displayed in original Baroque splendor. It is so special, that the doors are shut and locked between every entry to ensure the humidity levels stay low to preserve the books. Thus our wait until our appointed time. And true to tradition, the doors are open and immediately closed and locked behind us as we enter into the vast hall of knowledge. Fun fact – the walls are all wood, painted to look like marble because actual marble adds to the humidity! Who knew?

Our last visit is to the over the top chapel – just opulence galore – the altar, the nave, the organ – everything gold and marble and tile.

And then we are done, released back out onto the courtyard after a wonderful tour. We have the whole day left to ourselves, as we wander out in search of lunch, finding a great little cafe called Pe Na Alta in an alleyway behind the Machado de Castro Museum – our next destination. The owner is a chatty, ironic, sarcastic and lovely guy who just has no filter and is absolutely unapologetic about his feelings about Coimbra, tourism and the general state of the town. We adore him! And he can cook sausages, let me tell you! We order Chourico Assado – grilled chorizo of course! – and are mesmerized as the owner comes out, lights a grill on the sidewalk and proceeds to fire up our chourico! Sizzling sausage it is! We accompany that with a Pe Na Alta baguette – ham and cheese – and are happy as clams sitting on the sidewalk, eating, outside this little tiny hole in the wall gem.

Then we are onto the Machado de Castro Museum, located in an old bishop’s palace with tons of religious art from the 14th century, but also, a huge underground excavation of an ancient Roman forum. Awesome find!