Portugal - Aveiro and Coimbra

Originally we had hoped to fly to southern Spain to visit with Kevin's Swedish relatives who we haven't seen since our Scandinavia trip in 2016. Unfortunately, traveling during the pandemic is getting trickier, and the rules here in Portugal are becoming more strict. This is a good thing -- they want to protect the local population and encourage responsible tourism for the economy. But it also meant that it would be too risky to leave Portugal and possibly not be able to return. We were quite sad to cancel the original plan, but in the end we changed our travel plans to include a rental car and use an Airbnb in Nazaré as a base for exploring central Portugal via day trips. We picked up the rental car and our first stop was in Aveiro, which was on our route about an hour south of Porto.

Aveiro is a vibrant seaside town, usually. Our photos look a little drab due to the fact that it was raining most of the morning. The town is known for the colorful traditional moliceiro boats that are moored throughout the town. Once upon a time, sailors would harvest the seaweed or algae from the bottom of the lagoon to be used as fertilizer for the fields. But now the boats are used to ferry tourists through the canal network -- Aveiro is known as the "Venice of Portugal". Each boat is uniquely decorated with brightly painted scenes on the curved bow and stern.

Just to the west of Aveiro is another picturesque town called Costa Nova. (Actually I am not sure if it is a town or just a suburb of Aveiro.) Stretching along the beach are the striped wooden huts that were formerly used to store fishing equipment but nowadays have all been converted to vacation cottages.

Between the boats in Aveiro and the beach cottages here, local paint stores must do a pretty brisk business.

The rain continued to drizzle as we made our way to Coimbra, home to Portugal's oldest University founded in 1290. Nestled next to the Mondego River, it's a beautiful and walkable hilltop town, as long as you are into hiking and have good shoes for the slippery cobbled streets! The University of Coimbra is -- of course -- all the way at the tippy top. There is also an elevator/funicular combo that will take you up without any exertion if you want to skip the hills.

Undeterred, we opted to hike up the narrow slippery cobbled streets to get to the oldest part of the city. This is the Old Cathedral (and Ye Olde Parking Lot, apparently). In Portuguese, it's called the Sé Velha (old cathedral, constructed in late 1100's) not to be confused with the Sé Nova ("new" cathedral, built in late 1500's) further up the hill.

We didn't have much time here in Coimbra, but we wanted to see the 18th century Joanine Library, which has been storing books for the University since 1750. Here is the courtyard just outside the library.

We were not allowed to take photos inside, but here is one that I found on the Visit Universidade de Coimbra website. The library vault is maintained at a constant temperature and humidity and holds over 200,000 volumes. For the squeamish, I should mention that it is also home to a colony of bats that keep the insect levels to a minimum to protect the books. Thankfully, we did not see any bats perusing the stacks during our visit, and I was glad to be wearing a KN95 mask. The staff cover everything at night to protect the decorative surfaces, and uncover/clean up every morning. Add that to the list of "Jobs I Do Not Want".

Photo courtesy of the Universidade de Coimbra

We also just barely had time to visit the nearby Capela de São Miguel, which was formerly the private chapel for the king.

Nearly every flat surface is painted or encrusted with azulejo tiles. No bats live here, I'm guessing.

There was much more to do and see in Coimbra but with the rain and our limited time we hopped back in the car to head down to Nazaré and get checked into our next Airbnb before dark. Our apartment in Porto had a great central location, but no view to the outside -- the windows all looked out at the wall of the next building. We are glad that is not the case here in Nazaré! We're a little further out of town but with a nice view all the way to the ocean. Boa noite!