Coimbra part 2

After visiting the university, we stopped in a museum that had some Roman ruins underneath.  

View of the city from across the bridge.

Once we were back in the city, the clouds were mostly gone and the evening light made the whole city look different.  

We went to see some fado music played in this little church, which was converted into a music venue.  Rick Steves recommended that we had to go listen to this traditional Portuguese music.  In most places, older women sing these traditional songs, but in Coimbra, it is male students from the university who perform.  We only went to a performance here in Coimbra, so we couldn't compare.  

Next up... Porto!

Coimbra

Next stop was another little town called Coimbra.  The main thing to do here was to go to the university, which was started in 1290, and has been at this site since 1537!


We took this elevator up to the upper part of the city.  It cost a euro to get up there.

View of the city

Walking up to the university, we noticed that some of the streets were named after academic subjects.  This one is for my math major BIL.

The iron gates into the University

Inside the gates

there was a graduation going on.  We could spy on them from the upstairs balcony.

this is a room with portraits of all of the past presidents.  It's hard to see them.  

this is the chapel at the university

Two students in their uniforms walking across campus.  Probably talking about something important.  They look like they are out of Harry Potter, right?

More students, hanging around, looking at their phones in their traditional uniforms, just like college students do!

After exploring the university, we went back downtown.  Here are some views of the city.  It was rainy most of the day. 

Here's Kathy in front of a cute, skinny building.

more to come...

Evora, part 2

Although we were in Evora only for a day, there was lots to do here.  This is the outside of the Capela dos Ossos -- or the Chapel of Bones.

This is a description of the chapel.

Inside the chapel are apparently the bones of 5000 people.

The view of the city from the roof of the chapel 

After we went to the chapel, we walked back past the Roman temple and took some more pictures in the evening light.  

Walking past the cathedral, there was some live fado music playing.

Here's a church in town.  If you look in the bottom corner, you can see two college students.  The story goes that JK Rowling lived in Portugal and got her inspiration for the Hogwarts uniforms from   college students in Coimbra (our next city), but the students here in Evora wore the same things.

Here I am in front of the fountain that wasn't working.

Pastel de nata and other breakfast treats.

As we were leaving, I realized I didn't have a picture of the wall surrounding the city.  The ancient city is enclosed in this wall, and parking is scarce inside the city.  So there is a large parking lot outside the wall where we parked for the night, and then walked to our hotel and all around the city.  There were cars around the city, but mostly all the streets are the narrow cobblestone streets that you can't drive on.  

good-bye to Evora!  

Evora

After leaving the Algarve, we drove back up north to Evora.  Evora is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It used to be a Moorish city and was also under Roman rule.  The first thing we did was go to the city center.  This is a place where they post the names of people that died.  Apparently there were no deaths the day before.

Most of the buildings in the city are white with yellow trim.  The yellow is supposed to ward off evil spirits.  

The remains of a Roman temple, in the middle of town.

Church 

Town Hall.

While they were renovating, they found this Roman bath inside the Town Hall.  So I guess the renovations stopped.  

We read about the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, and we walked in circles until we found it.  Once we saw it in person, we were a little less than impressed.  Unlike the Roman bath above, which I had zero expectations of and when we found it, thought it was super interesting.  

More to come...