We decided to take a few days to road trip out of Lisbon. Originally we were going to make the trip to Seville, Spain (4.5 hrs) for said road trip. I lived in Seville for my Junior year of college (1997/98), and I was itching to get back to Seville and show the girls my beloved city. Last minute we decided to change course and instead stay put & explore more of Portugal. It just felt like we were trying too hard to cram in a visit to Seville, and that it would be a missed opportunity not to use that time to check out more parts of beautiful Portugal. We’ll do Spain properly another time :)
We scrambled together an itinerary for our Portuguese road trip based on the time we had & the recommendations we had jotted down (thanks Nuno, Patricia and Dan!). Our plan was to hit up Coimbra (2 hrs), then overnight in Porto (another 1 hr 15 mins), and pit-stop in Óbidos on the return leg to Lisbon.
Checking out the University
Our first stop in Coimbra was the University. Founded in 1290, the University of Coimbra is one of the oldest universities in the world. The girls weren’t exactly “into it”. The baking sun might have played a part; hard to know. At one point Sadie asked me “Why do we have to go here? When you were a kid did you like stuff like this?” I thought for a moment and responded “No. Not always.” Sadie: “See!!”. The girl had a point. We quickened our pace doing the rounds of the university :)
Leisurely Lunch
We then ventured into the main town of Coimbra for lunch and a stroll. We were delighted by the medieval city’s winding, charming streets. Our lunch was a delicious assortment of grilled shrimp, tomatoes and eggplant. Post-lunch we happened upon a little art store. The artist’s whimsical style immediately caught our eye and we popped in for a closer look. It made for a special stop; read more about it here.
Coimbra: Destination #1 on our Portuguese road trip in the books! Time to hit the road & make it to Porto before nightfall ...
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