{"id":22281,"date":"2023-05-28T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T07:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=22281"},"modified":"2023-05-27T08:07:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T15:07:23","slug":"coimbra-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/05\/28\/coimbra-portugal\/","title":{"rendered":"Coimbra, Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

I photographed the Honda VFR you see in the big photo above in Coimbra, Portugal.\u00a0 \u00a0Bait and switch?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 We are a motorcycle site, sort of.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ll try to work in a little moto content when and where I can.\u00a0 For us on this adventure, it was all walking, buses, and high-speed rail transport (and that was really cool).\u00a0 But that’s coming up later.<\/p>\n

Coimbra was another stop on our recent trip to the Iberian peninsula.\u00a0 Coimbra is a college town on the Rio Mondego.\u00a0 It was Portugal’s medieval capital before the Portuguese government relocated to Lisbon.\u00a0 But this college town was particularly cool.\u00a0 \u00a0The UNESCO-recognized Universidade de Coimbra is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe.<\/p>\n

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On the Universidade square in the medical school area in Coimbra. It was a stunning day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like many areas in Portugal, Coimbra also has a rich wine producing heritage.\u00a0 Many of the signs display this heritage.<\/p>\n

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The shape of signs in Coimbra. Wine was everywhere in Spain and Portugal. We had wine with virtually every meal except breakfast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u00a0Biblioteca Joanina is one of the world’s great libraries.\u00a0 One of the things that is particularly interesting is the way the librarians protect the ancient manuscripts from insects (insects are the books’ natural enemies, because they eat the pages).\u00a0 Bats reside in the library.\u00a0 They live behind the books.\u00a0 The bats come out at night and eat the insects in the library.\u00a0 I can’t make this stuff up, folks.\u00a0 This really happens.<\/p>\n

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In the Joanina Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Books, books, and more books. The principal threat to these books is insects eating the pages. The University has an app for that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I grabbed a macro shot or two as we wandered the campus.\u00a0 This sidewalk guardpost was interesting.<\/p>\n

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Photo ops galore. Nothing fancy with equipment here…all these shots are with a basic Nikon consumer-grade D3300 DSLR and 18-55mm kit lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we would find to be the case in virtually every Portuguese and Spanish town, Coimbra has a cathedral.\u00a0 Actually, it has three.\u00a0 We visited St. Michael’s at the University of Coimbra.\u00a0 That’s where I grabbed the interior photos below.<\/p>\n

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Inside St. Michael’s with our fellow travelers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The tile work, the organ, the roof colors…I had a great time on this trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A coat of arms, surrounded by scrollwork.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A statue in St. Michael’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After walking around the University, we walked into the city.\u00a0 \u00a0 It was pleasant.\u00a0 The weather was comfortable, the city was beautiful, and the photo ops continued.<\/p>\n

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One of many statues in downtown Coimbra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This almost looks like a fancy ancient church or castle. Actually, it was a store catering to tourists with a unique product line: Canned sardines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another statue in the Coimbra town square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A street menu for one of the many restaurants in downtown Coimbra. The food was excellent; the prices were reasonable.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I enjoyed Coimbra.\u00a0 \u00a0As a retired college professor, I thought visiting a campus was a cool thing to do.\u00a0 \u00a0We had a fabulous lunch, and then our journey continued.<\/p>\n

Back on the motorcycle thing again…I’ve traveled by motorcycle in some pretty exotic locales.\u00a0 I think bopping around Europe on a motorcycle would be a fun way to see the continent.\u00a0 I wouldn’t want a big bike, and even on the freeways, the speeds are such that a 250 or a 400 would be just fine.\u00a0 Maybe someday.\u00a0 \u00a0I know my friends in Chongqing read the ExNotes blog.\u00a0 If you need somebody to ride around Europe on your motorcycles to spread the gospel, the ExhaustNotes staff is available.\u00a0 We’re your boys (and one girl).\u00a0 Call us.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.\u00a0 I’ll work in more from Spain and Portugal as time and other blogs permit.<\/p>\n

\n

Keep the content flowing…please click on the popup ads!<\/span><\/h3>\n
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More Spain and Portugal stories?\u00a0 You bet!<\/p>\n

Spain and Portugal<\/a>
\nCamino de Santiago:\u00a0 Part 1<\/a>
\nThe Sportster of Seville<\/a>
\n\u00c9vora<\/a>
\nLisbon<\/a>
\nGibraltar<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I photographed the Honda VFR you see in the big photo above in Coimbra, Portugal.\u00a0 \u00a0Bait and switch?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 We are a motorcycle site, sort of.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ll try to work in a little moto content when and where I can.\u00a0 For us on this adventure, it was all walking, buses, and high-speed rail transport (and … Continue reading “Coimbra, Portugal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,89,374,369],"tags":[3568,3571,3569,3312,3310,3570],"class_list":["post-22281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-rx4","category-zongshen","tag-coimbra","tag-joanina-biblioteca","tag-moto-travel","tag-portugal","tag-spain","tag-wine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/DSC0293-2-800-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22281"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22469,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22281\/revisions\/22469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}