Our first stop on the tour was the roman ruins at Conimbriga. These are the ruins of an important Roman city which was inhabited between the 9th century BC and 8th century AD. Undaunted by the impending rain, and constant drizzle..we wandered about the ruins admiring the mosaic tile work that has remained intact after hundreds of years. The site is surrounded by still largely intact original stone city walls. The museum located close by contained many of the artifacts that have been discovered at this site.
Our next stop was the city of Coimbra which along with it's beautiful architecture has the oldest University in Portugal which is also one of the oldest in the world. We toured the library, chapel and the prestigious auditorium where doctorates are presented. Several students were available to answer questions, all wearing their distinctive black pants, shirt and black cape (Randy thought they resembled batman..or Harry Potter).
After a stop for lunch (consisting of some local specialties like roast suckling pig and sparkling white wine) we traveled to Aveiro. Aveiro is sometimes called the Portuguese Venice because of it's canals and boats. It was a quiet little town with very picturesque buildings. We had a ride in a traditional boat along the canal. This moliceiros (boat) originally had a sail and carried seaweed for fertilizer from the ocean to the farmlands further inland. After our quick boat ride, we stopped at a local salt farm where we purchased some pure fleur de sel....for 1/100th of the price of our Canadian gourmet food stores!
We continued on to our final destination today of Porto. The hotel is again amazing....it was part of an old theater that has been refurbished into a small boutique hotel. The area around is packed with little restaurants and shops. After a light meal at one of the local establishments we enjoyed a relaxing evening sipping port wine with Filipe.
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