Coimbra lies at the Mandego River, and is known as a university town, but of course it has a much longer history. During the Roman era, it was the settlement of Aeminium and from 1131 to 1255 it was the capital of Portugal.
The first Portuguese university was established in 1290 in Lisbon but was relocated to Coimbra in 1308, making it the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world. We were looking forward to visiting the old part of the university, especially the library, sadly we got no tickets. So if you come here, better book the tickets in advance!
The construction of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Sé Velha) began some time after the Battle of Ourique (1139), when Prince Afonso Henriques declared himself King of Portugal and chose Coimbra as capital. In the 16th century, there were many additions to the cathedral. The chapels, walls and pillars of the nave were covered with tiles. Nonetheless, the basic architecture and structure of the Romanesque building was left intact.
What gave us a bad impression of Coimbra was the rubbish lying around in the alleys, the smeared on house, you can’t call that graffiti, and the general impression that the town isn’t looked after with crumbling pavements and a general look of decay.
For sure, a visit to the university would have given us a better impression, but no luck there, so we left the town again, a bit disappointed.
As it was quite hot, we headed for the coast again. At Figueira da Foz a big parking for campers sounded great. In reality, it was not nice, packed with cars and an overflowing service station smelling badly, so we left again to find a much nicer spot a little bit further south at Praia Osso da Baleia where we could park behind the dunes and go for a long walk along the beach.
We will be driving on to Óbidos tomorrow, where we have an appointment – more next!