Coimbra -Day 1

We arrived this afternoon in Coimbra, the second city we are visiting in Portugal. We had our first Portuguese train adventure getting here. All went well except for the fact that this train had only announcements in Portuguese to tell you the stations. The local trains we rode in Porto had electronic displays that showed all the stations. We managed to figure out the words for "next station" but were caught off guard when they announced our destination a good 20 minutes before we thought we were arriving. The problem, it turns out, is that Coimbra has two stations, which we knew. On an intercity train, you arrive at station B, then transfer to a local shuttle to get to station A in the middle of town. We knew that, but we didn't know that the train timetable we'd been given printed out the time of our ultimate arrival at station A, NOT when we were getting in to station B. Bit of a scramble to get off the train, but we made it!

Coimbra is another hilly town, and also site of one of the oldest universities in Portugal and perhaps the best known. Tomorrow we will explore the hilly part of town, at the top of which sits the university. Today's picture shows our hotel, the Hotel Larbelo (yellow on the right of the square) which is right near the river and at the foot of the old town, together with the view from the window in our room. The third picture shows Coimbra from the bridge near us. A lovely old town with narrow winding streets--I am going to like this place.