More of Day 7 - We continued the day with a drive to Coimbra and a tour of the 700-year old Universidade de Coimbra, including its Joanine library, one of the richest European libraries (no photos allowed), and St. Michael's Chapel.  The university is the oldest in Portugal and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world. The current campus started in a palace and has been added on to over the centuries. The large gallery with red carpet and walls, which looks like a courtroom, is where doctoral students defend their dissertations. We climbed a lot of stairs and went through many hallways and even climbed out on a ledge/balcony of the tallest building overlooking the city. 

After leaving the university we took a long downhill walk towards town. Luckily it wasn't going uphill since the route, named Rua do Quebra Costas, means Back-breaking Street! We wandered through commercial and residential parts of the city and ended the day with an exquisite, five-course, Portuguese dinner at Solar Do Bacalau.

Day 8 - A day trip from Coimbra took us to a tile and ceramic factory in nearby Condeixa-a-Nova. Tiles are such a significant part of Portugal's art and architecture! We toured the factory and watched the artisans paint beautiful designs, and were even able to paint some tiles ourselves. 

The next stop was visiting Roman ruins that date back to the second century BC. Ancient Conímbriga was an important city in the Roman province of Lusitania. The elaborate floor mosaics were intricate and beautiful.

And what vacation wouldn't be complete without a trip to the laundromat (and one with a view at that)? 

So it went for Rodney and Jim who made it an adventure on rented scooters, and Theresa who carted the laundry for them via Uber.

Fado music in Coimbra is different than that in Lisboa: it's only sung by men, they wear the black capes of the university students, and the songs are love songs.

Our group attended a Coimbra Fado concert and then were on our own for dinner...except 12 of us decided to eat together sharing new food, lots of laughter, and more fun.