Portugal - Coimbra

Coimbra, once the capital of the Portuguese Kingdom, is about two hours south on a regular train from Porto Campanha station.   From Rick Steves:

The college town of Coimbra — just two to three hours north of Lisbon by train, bus, or car — is Portugal's Oxford, and the country's easiest-to-enjoy city. Its main drag — with glassy marbled stone underfoot, old-timey shops and bakeries winking their neon signs, and more locals than tourists — is a delight to simply wander. And the historic university, capping the hill above town, offers a busy slate of cultural attractions. When school is in session, Coimbra bustles with exuberant students. (Over the summer holidays, it's almost sleepy.) Any time of year, Coimbra's inviting Arab-flavored old town — a maze of people, narrow streets, and tiny restaurants — awaits exploration.

(Click on each photo to enlarge.)

The main attraction in Coimbra is the University (a UNESCO World Heritage site).  The students there must be very physically fit as there is a steep hill to climb to reach the campus.  One has to pass the charming Arab-flavored old town to get to the top of the hill.

We are standing here outside the highlight of the campus, the Biblioteca Joanina.  It's the most beautiful library we've ever seen. The library is stunning and we didn't take photos as there are many more beautiful photos already available on the web.  We just enjoyed soaking-in the atmosphere.  Let's hear from Rick Steves again: The university's highlight is King João's Library (Biblioteca Joanina), one of Europe's best surviving Baroque libraries, displaying 40,000 books in 18th-century splendor. The zealous doorkeeper locks the door at every opportunity to keep the humidity out of this 300-year-old temple of thought. (Book ahead, as this popular sight often sells out.)

The interior is all wood. Even the "marble" on the arches is painted wood, since real marble would add to the humidity. The resident bats — who live in the building, but not the library itself — are well cared for and appreciated. They eat insects, providing a chemical-free way of protecting the books, and alert the guard to changing weather with their "eee-eee" cry.

The next series of photos show details from Saint Michael's Chapel (next door to the Joanina). From Wikipedia: The interior contains elaborate azulejo wall tiles, an altar with influences of Mannerism and an ornate Baroque organ.

Notice the Jacob's Ladder motif again for the altar (see a similar one in Bom Jesus in the Braga post).

This is a view of the city from the Royal Palace.

From the University description: The building currently known as the Royal Palace was built at the end of the 10th century, serving as a fortress for the governor of the city during Islamic rule. In 1131, it became the first Portuguese royal household, the residence of Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal.

The Mostly True blog has an excellent account (with photos) of the Royal Palace.

It was at The Royal Palace that we got to talk with Raquel, a young museum docent, who gave us some more insights about Portugal and its people.  One fascinating tidbit that Raquel shared is that all students at six years old have to study English and at twelve years old, they have to study another language (French, usually, as Portuguese people can get along fairly well with Spanish speakers already).  This explains why it is so easy to travel in Portugal if you only know English (unlike say in Spain, where English isn't widely spoken (yet)).

Time to have some science fun! Now we are inside "the most important Portuguese Neoclassical building", the Laboratorio Chimico (Chemistry Laboratory).  It houses one of the oldest Jesuit colleges in the world and a Science Museum (with a Cabinet of Physics, a Natural History Gallery, and lots of interactive modules).  You can see below that I was especially fascinated with the color matching/color perception test (I made four attempts and got one correct.)

We passed this church on the way back to the train station, and I picked up a flower from the wedding being held at that time.

Another beautiful church.

And another.

                                                                     Back at ground level.

More examples of beautiful Portuguese pavement (see discussion in the Aveiro post about calçada portuguesa).

A delicious dinner before heading back to our home base in Porto.  We arrived just before a huge children's birthday party. The first floor was full and the second floor was fully booked/reserved but they managed to squeeze us in.

Portugal - Aveiro

The city of Aveiro is often called the Venice of Portugal.  This moniker becomes apparent once you reach the old city centre and notice the boats on the canal that look like gondolas.

Once again we left from Porto Campanha station.  Aveiro is south of Porto and it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there on a regular train.

You'll see these next as you exit the train station.  Aveiro is known for its ceramics, with kilns that have been dated from the late Roman period.

(Click on each photo for more detail.)

This piece of art fronting the train station is by Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils). It's called "Scratching the Surface" - etched in acid and bleach, then hammered, chiseled, and drilled.

One of the pleasures of walking the streets of Portugal is encountering the intricate mosaic patterns of its pavements (called calçada portuguesa).  

Unfortunately, there are not many more artisans available to do this kind of work.  Since the calçadas could be slippery when it rains, most cities don't bother replacing them anymore when they break down.

Aveiro seems to be intent on maintaining them though as we saw several restoration works on our way from the station to the city centre.

The waters in Aveiro's canals are from the Ria de Aveiro. A "ria" is a funnel-shaped estuary that occurs at a river mouth and is formed by the submergence of the lower portion of the river valley.

The gondolas are actually called barcos moliceiros, once used for collecting moliço seaweed, which was used as agricultural fertilizer.  From Gaspar, Pereira, and Sousa-Pinto, https://doi.org/10.1515/bot-2019-0012  Collecting beach cast seaweeds for soil fertilization is regarded as a very old Portuguese activity, and the first written records appear in the 14th century (Veiga de Oliveira et  al. 1975)....The “moliço” is a mixture of algae and seagrasses collected in the lagoon of Ria de Aveiro. This mixture comprises mainly seaweeds such as Ulva (including the former genus Enteromorpha), Rhizoclonium, Gracilaria and the marine angiosperms Zostera, Ruppia and Potamogeton. This material was collected from the bottom of the lagoon using hand-rakes from boats called “moliceiro” especially designed for this. These collections had great economic importance in the past and the application of “moliço” has enabled very poor sandy soils to be used for agriculture. In 1911 there were still 1500 boats registered to do this harvest (Santos and Duarte 1991), but only 6–10 boats were registered at the end of last century, whereas nowadays the collection of “moliço” is only done occasionally and for its cultural aspects.

The harvesting of salt was once one of Aveiro's main industries.  There are still a few salt ponds left.

There's a museum by the salt ponds and also posters along the way explaining the history of salt production in Aveiro.  Salt from Aveiro is a gourmet delight (you can taste some at the train station gift shop).  Here's a little story about it from The Portugal News: ...by 1178, the Ria de Aveiro became particularly important by creating enough salt for both the whole country and for exporting....

The rectangular pools are known as ‘salinas’, and the men who worked the salinas are called ‘Marnatos’, and with hand-crafted butterfly-shaped sieves called ‘barboletos’ they skim the delicate salt crystals from the surface. Their expertise tells them when they are perfect for harvesting by the sound the sieve makes. Traditional sea salt crystallizes at the bottom of the salt pan and is raked into piles with a wooden rake called a ‘rodo’ every 3-4 weeks.

1000 litres of fresh sea water can give around 23 kilograms of traditional salt and takes 4- 6 weeks to reduce to form salt crystals.

'Marnotos' rake the traditional salt up to the bank from the bottom of the pools when the crystals begin to form, where it is left to dry in the sun for another five days.

We took a tour on one of the moliceiro boats.  There was a storm (no, just a short downpour) and fortunately, we had an experienced captain who guided us to safety (he steered the boat under a bridge).

Our captain was originally from Greece, but he's lived in Portugal for a long time.

There are many Art Noveau buildings in Aveiro. Aveiro is one of only 16 cities in the world listed in the “Réseau Art Noveau Network” (cities with a rich Art Noveau heritage), along with Barcelona, Brussels, Budapest, Glasgow, Helsinki, Vienna, among others.  For a tour of some of the significant Art Noveau buildings, click here.

An interesting and delicious delicacy that is original to Aveiro is Ovos Moles de Aveiro.

Ovos moles de Aveiro were the first Portuguese bakery product to be distinguished with the title of Protected Geographical Indication, given by the European Union. 

It is made from egg yolks and sugar and wrapped in a rice paper casing.

(The egg whites were supposedly used by nuns to clean their habits, and not wanting to waste the yolks, they invented this dessert.)

A wonderful discovery is the Art Nouveau Museum.

Here is a description from the Center of Portugal website:

The Museum of Art Nouveau (Museu Arte Nova) in Aveiro is the coolest new stop on the Portugal cultural scene. The museum resides in the Casa Major Pessoa, one of the most architecturally admired buildings in the city. Building design is attributed to architects Silvia Rocha and Ernest Korrodi. On the exterior, extraordinary art nouveau detail is evident in the stone façade as well as the wrought iron embellishments. The building is topped by a noble eagle, a theme that carries through to the interior.

Inside, tiles are the dominant design element. Lining the walls there are panels of traditional Portuguese azulejos (hand-painted ceramic tiles) depicting art nouveau motifs of birds, animals and flowers.

Time to say goodbye to Aveiro.  It's definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Portugal.

Here is a guided Walking tour of Aveiro.