06/09 - Fail attempts

Today was not our day. This is our last real day in Coimbra, because tomorrow we will be leaving quite early to go to Leiria. We wanted to visit the Sé and go to Conimbriga (a short bus ride from Coimbra) it is the largest and most extensively excavated Roman site in Portugal.

Heading to the Sé

We realised that the 1st one (the cathedral) was closed on Sundays.... unless you attend the mass at 11am. But we would have missed our bus for Conimbriga, so we skipped the Sé. We had a hard time finding the local bus stop, so we had no food and little water. Plus one of us forgot to change shoes before leaving the hostel and was wearing flip flops....

12pm found the bus on time, got on it, 40 minutes later, we arrived in Conimbriga. We discussed with the bus driver at what time were the bus to go back: 1.55pm or 6pm (That's a massive gap!). At the ticket office we have the good surprise that the site is free the 1st Sunday of the month YAY!!! We wtart walking in the site when we read a sign telling that it was a 16km walk.... 16?????? no way!

We have not hat (and sun is hot!!), little water, wrong shoes for one of us, and did not bring any lunch with us... a big decision has to be made. We decided to reach the closest ruins, have a look and head back for the bus at 1.55pm.

What we saw was nice, really well preserved Roman ruins with impressive mosaïc work on the floors. but not worth 16km.

floor mosaïc

well preserved ruins under a roof protection with vegetation end water

more floor mosaïc

Roman ruins

The bus driver was puzzled to see us waiting for him, where he left us an hour earlier. Back in the bus and back to Coimbra.We ate in a small restaurant around 3pm, the place and food were not that great and then we headed for a park that was recommended to us by a colleague: Quintas de Lagrimas.

We had to pay to get in, and because it was recommended to us as a Romantic Roman garden, we thought why not! Plus it was a hot day and the garden was promising shade! We went up and down, relaxed a bit on the grass, but overall we were disappointed and a bit gutted we paid for it.

On our way back, we crossed the Ponte Pedro y Ines again, to see it in day time. Further on the way, as we went passed the Jardim Botanico (the entrance is under the Aquaduct) at the bottom of the 125 steps for the university), we decided to try it as it was free. And it was actually much nicer than the one we paid for...

Ponte Pedro e Ines by day

Aquaduct leading to the entrance of the Jardim botanico

Jardim Botanico

After the Jardim Botanico, we finally headed back to the hostel and socialised, made dinner, packed and went to bed early for an early day tomorrow.

Slept another night in our private room in Grande Hsotel de Coimbra.