Relaxing Coimbra

Upon arrival, we found a charming old town with many small, winding streets. Since we liked Coimbra at first sight and the apartment was appealing, we decided to extend our stay for another night. Upon closer inspection, however, Coimbra can be explored in just a few hours. This does not diminish its charm, but rather limits the opportunity to discover new things. We wanted to use the extra day to sleep in and do laundry afterwards. Unfortunately, the first point, sleeping in, turned out to be more difficult than initially assumed. The combination of 36°C without air conditioning and the Portuguese couple in the same building who had a very spirited argument at 9 am made it challenging. The beautiful thing about this was that, due to the open windows of all the apartments in the same courtyard, it seemed that not only we felt disturbed on Sunday mornings. Other neighbors thought they could calm the argument with loud Portuguese love songs 🥰. However, even this nice gesture did not lead to a more restful sleep for us. Lesson learned, it is quite interesting to rent an apartment in a regular residential building through Airbnb.

Since we still had some time, we came up with the idea of going to a Fado concert. Fado is a very well-known Portuguese music style and is advertised everywhere in Coimbra, which piqued our interest. It is mainly associated with the cities of Lisbon and Coimbra. The singers are always students or alumni and mainly sing about unhappy love, social problems, bygone times, or the longing for better times. The combination of explanations, the history of Fado, and the singing at Fado ao Centro, followed by Port wine, was really good. We learned that in the past it was common for students to woo their love with a private Fado concert outside their window. If this was accompanied by the lover flickering the lights three times and the neighbors clearing their throats three times, then love was sealed.

Historical background: Coimbra used to be the capital of Portugal. However, when this title was transferred to Lisbon, Coimbra was designated as the sole university city as compensation. And this unique feature was built by the city authorities directly at the most prominent location in the city, on the mountain in the center. Unfortunately, we could not witness the lively student scene as the school year starts later. The sight of many students in black capes is said to transport you directly into the world of Harry Potter.

Conclusion: definitely worth seeing, a day trip or one night is completely sufficient.