Coimbra (last day)—October 19, 2018

Today we took it easy, walking a little over four miles as we meandered around the medieval streets of Coimbra's old town, ending up at Santa Cruz Church where we ran into Oscar, the tour guide we met and had lunch with two days ago. That's a whole other story.

Linner was a different traditional bacalhau (cod) dish.

And then coffee at Santa Cruz Cafe.

Marie writing Emi a postcard. She's sending one to her from
all our stops.

The rest of the day was spent capturing whatever interested us
along the narrow medieval streets of Coimbra's old town.

 

Pulpit at Santa Cruz Church.

The tiles were added in the 17th century.

Oscar the tour guide we had lunch with two
days ago. He had stopped by Sant Cruz to
purchase a couple books and there he was.

This portico is off the plaza is off
the plaza where prisoners from the
Inquisition were executed.

We had lunch at the Patio Restaurant with Tiago and Oscar.
This restaurant overlooks the Inquisition Plaza.

Manga Garden (1528) has a central dome anod is surrounded
and connected by four chapels. The story goes King Joao III
designed it on his doublet sleeve, hence the name of the park.

These steps were once part of a palace leading to the Inquisition
Courts of Coimbra (1548).

Susana, our friend from Despertar Saudade.

We ended our day visiting in the communal kitchen/living room with Maria (a guest from Brazil attending a Peace and Justice Conference at the University) and Susana, the guesthouse desk clerk who works the evening shift. We met her last year and she was surprised and pleased to see we returned. And we were happy to see her again, because we shared many conversations last year about global politics and Portuguese culture.

Last night was enlightening. Maria talked about how the conference she was attending couldn't be held in Brazil because of the current political climate there; people don't feel they can openly discuss the dangers of authortarianism, especially as Bolsonaro gains traction in the presidential race. (NB: Now that Bolsonaro has been elected, we'll have to see how far he and his ilk will go.)

The cultivated divisiveness is reminiscent of the U.S. election in 2016. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. We covered a lot of territory and exchanging ideas about travel, culture, the importance of friends and family is universal.

Saturday is a travel day as we head south to Lisbon and then on to Cascais.