On our journey north through Portugal toward our final destination of Porto, we stopped for a lovely twenty four hour stay in Coimbra. The main draw was to wander around its medieval old town and to explore the University of Coimbra. I’m glad we decided to spend a night here rather than just making it a day trip spot as we ended up having our favourite meal of the trip (and that’s saying something).

Our luck with the weather in Portugal continued unabated for our day in Coimbra. It is a beautiful town from any angle, but especially so from the point of view of the Mondego River.

Shortly after arriving in Coimbra by bus from Nazare, I set off to get lost wandering the streets in the elevated, medieval part of the city. The narrow streets here are just wide enough for a car to pass through, but a few times I had to turn sideways and watch my toes as a car slowly navigated past me.

Some of my favourite experiences during European vacations are these times of no set destination or plans. Wandering without purpose often turns up interesting sights, like these tapestries hung between buildings on one of the narrow hilltop lanes.

I worked up quite an appetite and stopped at a little hole in the wall type place for a late lunch. The owner spoke very little English and I speak virtually no Portuguese, so it took a few minutes me to figure out how to order this chorizo sandwich. I came very close to ordering a whole bag of smoked chorizo instead. The beer was easy, I’m multilingually fluent in beer ordering.

After a quick respite at the delightful hotel we selected (Hotel Solar Antigo, an amazing place to stay staffed with super friendly and helpful staff), my wife and I took off for a bit more exploring before our dinner plans for the evening.

We came across the beautiful Santa Cruz Monastery. Dating back to the 1130s, the “Igreja de Santa Cruz” dominates a main square in central Coimbra, just outside the walls that protected the original city on the hill.

Taking a look inside, the architecture was not what I was expecting. Nothing remains of the original interior from the 1130s, with most of the features inside being from the 16th century or later.

Our evening plans in Coimbra were for a show and dinner, and in Coimbra, a show often means a fado concert. The concert at Fado ao Centro combined some history of the music as well as performances by two guitarists and a singer. It is a unique style of music that originated in Portugal in the 1800s with the theme of “longing” running through the music lyrically and stylistically.

Our dinner reservation for the evening was at Sete Restaurant. We chose here on a recommendation from someone working in another highly regarded restaurant in Coimbra (that was closed on this night). And what a recommendation it was.

Sometimes food, mood, atmopshere and service come together perfectly, and this was one of those nights. My wife, who needs to eat a strict gluten free diet, was treated like a queen with ample suggestions, her own amazingly delicious gluten free bread, and doting care from our servers throughout the night. I mean, look how happy she is with her soup!

She scored what ended up being one of the two best dishes either of us had over the two weeks in Portugal. Her cod was perfectly flaky and fresh. My octopus on the night was almost equally perfect. And the restaurant even had a nice selection of local craft beers. This really was a perfect meal at a lovely restaurant.

Waking up the next morning, our plans revolved around a tour of the University of Coimbra. It is the oldest university in Portugal, and one of the oldest continually operating universities in the entire world. I’ve now spent close to nine years of my career working at two different universities and have visited a great number more, and this one has to be one of the most beautiful campus sites I have ever seen. The main square of the university is actually the former courtyard of the Royal Palace.

Our first stop on the tour was the Johannine Library. Inside, it’s floor to ceiling books on the main level and looks exactly like what you’d expect a historical university library to look like. The fifteen minutes or so we spent inside the library will always be one of my favourite memories from Coimbra.

The tour inside the university’s facilities was fascinating. We saw the thesis defence room (below, left), a classroom (below, bottom right) and one of the rooms that belongs to their faculty of medicine (below, top right).

The university tour wrapped up a thoroughly enjoyable day in Coimbra save for packing our bags and heading to catch a train on to Porto in the afternoon. I’m so glad we set aside the time for this stop on our visit to Portugal.