exploring lisbon and coimbra

on april 10th we took the quick bus trip from evora to lisboa, arriving a bit before noon. we hopped on the metro and found the tourist office where we were meeting up with todd and ellie. (todd is my brother in laws's brother and a close friend) they arrived shortly after and it was really terrific to see both of them. we headed towards the belem neighborhood where we stopped for lunch. while parking the car we experienced our first encounter with the self appointed portuguese parking helpers. they point out the more than obvious parking spot and then expect money for their assistance. it is helpful to pay as you hope the person will watch out for your rental car. After lunch we had the delicious, famous \168pastel de nata\168 dessert - little custard pies. Todd has perfected the nasal accent necessary to properly pronounce this dessert.

then we walked over to the \168monasterio de dos jeronimos\168and took a look inside. They have cleaned about half of the monastery walls using various technologies and it was interesting to compare the clean parts with the weathered sections that were black from years of pollution. we also enjoyed seeing the large dining hall where the monks used to eat and pray next to a roaring fire. we toured the upstairs section of the church where we saw a large painting of saint simon and we realized that none us knew what he was famous for...hmmm, a little research project for us. after the monastery we headed down toward the river to see the famous monument to the portuguese explorers. it is a beautiful sculture depicting all the famous portuguese navigators including vasco da gama, henry the navigator, magellan, and cabral who discovered brazil. it was especially fun for us to reflect on how far magallan had sailed since we had crossed the strait of magellan in punta arenas chile just a month earlier. we decided to take a break and take in a little sun close to the monument. it was great to catch up with todd and ellie and hear about their life in ashford, england. then we noticed a nicely dressed gentleman talking on a large leaf. he was so serious and obviously so engrossed in his conversation that we almost believed he had a real mobile (cell phone in europe). after a good laugh we walked over to the torre de belem - a little tower from the 16th century jutting out over the river with a drawbridge. at this point it was getting to be evening so we headed over the bridge to \168costa da capeira\168 where we were staying with todd and ellie in ellie's parents apt. todd made a nice pasta dinner and we of course went out afterward for ice cream. the town is a little beach suburb of lisbon. the next morning we woke up after a good night's sleep swaddled in a portuguese blanket or as todd calls it a portuguese rug (it does look quite rug-like). we had a delicious breakfast of freshly baked goodies that ellie picked up at the bakery downstairs. ellie really spoiled us treating us to goodies every morning for breakfast and making us yummy sandwhiches every day for lunch. todd and ellie were really the hosts with the most! we drove to sintra, a sweet little town outside lisboa. we visited the famous moorish castle, climbing around the walls and enjoying lovely views of sintra and other private castles in the countryside. Before heading up to the moorish castle we ate our picnic lunch outside the town hall that had two conical towers on top that todd likened to one of madonna's bras. we also visited the famous disney-like castle on the top of a huge hill across from the moorish castle. we drove up to top passing lovely moorish tiled fountains along the way. ellie is an amazing city driver - she drove through the narrow streets with ease and patience. we walked up throught the grounds to the castle which was closed but we got to see the outrageous exterior. then we headed to the beach town of cascais for dinner. it was a warm evening so we strolled along the narrow streets before dinner. we ate in a cute restaurant and appreciated all of ellie's help in discifering the menu since she speaks portugeuese. ellie and i both had the \168bacalao\168, salted cod with egg. salted cod is a very popular, traditional dish in both portugal and spain. the early explorers used to take the cod with them on their voyages to the new world as it keeps for a long time.

the next day we drove into lisbon for the day. we enjoyed joking about the lack of navigation aids of the modern portuguese - they probably haven't updated their maps since the 16th century. just think they used to be the envy of all of europe with their detailed maps of the new world and today you can't even find the major monuments. eventually we found our way to the castelo and parked the car, of course with a little help from another self appointed parking guru. at the castelo we had a picnic and then visited the camera obsura which projects a crystal clear panarama of lisbon onto a large concave disk. we could see the cars driving on the old bridge and we saw the new vasco da gama bridge. we also reminisced about the camera obscura in san francisco at the cliff house. then we walked around the narrow, hilly streets of lisbon and came upon a trio practicing fado. it was great to sit and listen to their informal practice session. ellie got a recommendation from a few folks on where to see fado so we headed over to the restaurant to make a reservation. we also came upon a fado museum that looked great but since it was closing we didn't get a visit in. later on we returned to see the fado show. the music and singing was fantastic even though the restaurant sucked. the waitress was downright rude and food was just so-so but the music more than made up for it. the lisbon style fado developed from the working class people while the fado from coimbra, a town north of lisbon grew from the famous university there. we saw several performers both male and female. the first singer just about broke our ear drums with her zesty singing. one older woman, who had been serving up bread and olives all evening from a little room with a view of the restaurant, came out to perform and she was fantastic, very soulful. the portuguese fado guitar is a twelve-string and a derivative of an old british guitar.

the next day we visited the lisbon 98 expo site. we enjoyed seeing the pavillions, erupting colorful fountains and the aquarium. we spent a few hours touring the aquarium with lots of pushy portuguese folks. we even saw magallanes penguins, just think we didn't need to go all the way to patagonia. then we visited a mega grocery store to pick up the makings for eggplant parmesiano. dave made his famous dish and we enjoyed cooking as it had been awhile. ellie also offered us some tawny port that was delicious, our first sip of port in portugal.

todd and ellie dropped us at the train the next day since we were heading to coimbra. it was sad to say goodbye since we had so much fun with them. the train ride was quick and we were daydreaming a bit and missed our stop. we ended up in a small town just north of coimbra for about an hour waiting for the next train back. it was actually nice to experience the tranquility of that place. we even heard people singing in a factory next to the train station. we got to coimbra right during easter weekend so it was really quiet. the highlight was seeing the coimbra style fado. we had dinner at a nice restaurant (this time good food and service) that offered the fado. when the trio descended the stairs to perform it was if they had just arrived to the inn by horse in the middle ages. they all wore black capes and the singer really looked like he was from another age. it was beautiful but much more like classical music than like the blues of the lisbon fado. we both agreed that we prefer the lisboa style. the next day we had pizza in an outdoor cafe where we watched a sneaky woman steal a canadian guys backpack. she sat for about 45 minutes at the table next to the guy but never ordered anything which we both noticed. all of a sudden she jumped up and ran with the backpack. about 3 minutes later he was back with his bag...he got lucky and was able to catch up to her. we also enjoyed visiting the library at the university that was quite ornate with over 300,000 titles from the 18th century. after one more full day of touring the city, we found a great park for a picnic lunch, enjoyed abit of the nature in coimbra, and planned for our trip to porto.