🇵🇹 2023 Summer Coimbra

I put Coimbra on my itinerary merely because I didn't want to spend almost five hours on the train from Lisbon to Porto. Coimbra is a famous university town with the oldest university in Portugal. My Portuguese friend (who admitted Taiwan's KFC make better pastel de natas than Portugal) is from Coimbra.

It took around two hours to get from Lisbon to Coimbra. I called an Uber to take me to my hotel, Solar Antigo Luxury Coimbra. I mentioned the hotel's name because it was such a lovely stay. When I checked in, the receptionist told me that they upgraded me to a room with a jacuzzi and I was welcomed with a glass of champagne and fruits. It doesn't sound like a hotel room that costs 95 euros a night, right?

I headed toward the university after dropping my bags. It was the start of a new semester, so there were many students advertising their student clubs in their traditional outfits, which looked so much like the wizard robe in Harry Potter.

Coimbra University has a great set of museums. You can buy a combo ticket at the information desk that includes entry to Baroque Library, St. Michael's Chapel, the Royal Palace the Science Museum and the Acaemic Museum. The first stop I went to was the Cabinet of Curiosity which exhibited rare animals and objects people collected in colonies back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To be honest, it was a bit eerie, but the weirdness and darkness couldn't stop me from being curious.

Another two museums are the Science Museum which used to be a chemistry lab and the Academic Museum which showed the life on campus and the history of the university. In the Academic Museum, I learned that the students I just saw were raising money for a traditional big parade at Coimbra University.

It was time for the library. The ground floor of the library stored some old books in acrylic cupboards. The second floor was the Baroque Library, the highlight of the University. The guide shared some fun facts and history of the library and one of the things I still remember is that there used to be around 200 bats living in this library.

The rest are the chapel and the palace, which are quite similar to what we used to see in other cities. What makes them special is that the chapel and palace here are strongly linked with the university. For example, the palace was donated to the university by the King, which is why Coimbra city was developed around the university.

I wandered around Coimbra after visiting the university. I had to say Coimbra is a charming town, every corner contains a scene worth remembering. In a small alley, I saw an old man sitting with his dog, the dog was resting on his lap. You can still see the trash from the next-door neighbour, but it is this kind of scene that makes this place lively and memorable.

For dinner in Coimbra, I found a restaurant named Refeitro da Baxia. It was co-located with a pottery studio, so the restaurant felt quite pottery-y. The ox cheek was so tender that it melted in my mouth before I had a chance to chew. On the contrary, the creme brulee is a bit meh, but overall it was a nice restaurant. Walking around Coimbra at night after dinner was a nice way to end the day.

The next morning, I had a huge breakfast at the hotel and then went to the botanic garden. It was too hot, so I didn't walk too much before I sat under a tree and read.

From Coimbra to Porto, it took around one to two hours by train. My train was delayed and there was finally one train after around half an hour. I wasn't sure whether it was the right train, so I asked the staff if this train would go to Porto. He gave me a positive answer, so I got on the train. I walked from the first carriage to the last but had yet to find my seat. I checked with him again, he said, "Ah the one you book is the fast train, this one is a slow one." I was so panicked and asked him what to do (in a very sobby tone). He told me to find an empty seat and not to worry about it.

In the end, I reached Porto at around 3 pm.