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The University of Coimbra under moody lighting from our hotel rooftop

Skinny atmospheric streets

From the Douro Valley we need to get to Portugal’s other major wine region, Alentejo, for Margaret and Hajir’s wedding. But we decided to break that trip up with a two-night stop in the lovely college town of Coimbra.

Coimbra served as the capital of Portugal from 1131 to 1255, soon after the Moors were driven out. Today the University of Coimbra dominates the top of this steep riverside city. It’s Portugal’s most prestigious university — and one of the world’s oldest. It was founded in Lisbon by King Dinis in 1290, moved around several times, and finally established permanently in Coimbra in 1537.

We enjoyed touring the beautiful campus, part of which occupies the royal palace of the earliest kings of Portugal. From our hotel next to the campus, it was a steep climb down to the lower city to find restaurants and other sites, including the Santa Cruz monastery, where Portugal’s first two kings are buried. It made for a most pleasant stopover between wine regions.

A reception room in the royal palace that is now part of the university

This elaborate 2,000 pipe organ was intended for a much larger church, but ended up dominating the university’s Saint Michael’s Chapel

Restoration workers in Saint Michael’s Chapel looked like beauty stylists give the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception a makeover

The Great Hall of Acts was once the throne room of the palace and now serves as the venue for important university events. The upper walls are lined with portraits of the kings of Portugal. They should not be confused with the guy standing on a balcony. That is just Jim.

University founder King Dinis was exhumed and subjected to lots of high tech research to create this incredibly accurate and lifelike representation

Climbing down the steep and narrow paths to the lower city

The main square in the lower city was suddenly packed with gazillions of loud school kids

The square on a calmer evening

The monastery of Santa Cruz is the resting place for the first two kings of Portugal

A lovely lunch in a friendly tapas restaurant with just five tables

Diners in Coimbra are sometimes serenaded by students in black capes. That never happened to us, so I had to pose with the pretend singers.

We walked past an “American” restaurant. I guess that means they have hamburgers.

And I made Jim pose with a pre-hamburger

The evening view of the river from our hotel rooftop

Part way down the hill toward dinner we found this beautiful cocktail bar with sweeping views of the river. But why did they seat us here?

The 19th century manor at the core of our resort was at the top of a lot of stairs

The second stop on this Portugal Explorer was an easy 90-minute drive into the Douro Valley, the country’s most famous wine region. We stayed in the Six Senses resort, located high above the Douro River in a grand 19th century manor. Truth be told there wasn’t really a lot to do so there’s not a lot to say about it.

The food was good, though because of the isolation of the resort there were no off-resort restaurant options and after just a couple days of looking at the same lunch menu it gets a little old. And the weather was spectacular for this time of year – sunny and in the 60s much of the day.

Lunch on the patio at Six Senses Douro Valley surrounded by vineyards and with plenty of sun

Being right in the middle of wine country – literally surrounded by vineyards – we took advantage of the hotel’s offer to do a wine tasting. For €55 you get to taste several wines with a sommelier giving you a history of the wine, the region, all that. Some of it was interesting but there were two downsides. First, none of the wines they chose were particularly representative of the Douro Valley. That was really strange – they all had at least some non-native grapes, and in a couple cases all the grapes were not native to the region. The whole point for us was to learn more about this specific region.

The other problem was annoying: they listed the price as €55 but when the bill came they added a €5 charge for the little food nibbles you get as a palate cleanser. Sorry, you don’t get to advertise one price and then just add a little extra. There’s a happy ending to the story though. After I complained at the front desk and had them take the extra charge off we saw the next day that the advertisement for the wine tasting had been changed to reflect the cost of €60. Victory!

Our sommelier telling us about the Douro Valley wines without actually using typical Douro Valley wines

Otherwise our days were filled with a lot of reading and a fair amount of exercising. There was a really nice gym on site and there were some great walking trails along the river and into the vineyards. A few days walking and reading in the sun with nothing to worry about isn’t the worst way to spend time!

There was a trail from below the hotel that ran just about exactly one kilometer along the river, a pleasant part of every day we spent there

And then you could extend the walk up into the vineyards. Even in just three days I could watch the little green sprouts emerging on the vines – my sense is that in just another week or 10 days at most this will be way more green than it is now.

There was a nice pool but it being the start of April and all the water was too cold for most people. I went in, though, and while I was there we found that it wasn’t too cold for ducks, either, two of whom landed while I was in it. You can see them in the upper right of the pool!

There I am, even closer to the ducks

Another view of the vineyards. Our hotel is off in the distance, almost exactly in the center of the picture.

More wildlife! The hotel had two very calm dogs that hung around with guests. This one, Foxy, wasn’t very strategic: completely ignored you, even if you tried to make friends. But then at lunch time when there was food he was eager to be fed. Sorry, you weren’t friendly when I wanted you!

At one of many viewpoints above one of many historic churches

We loved the little restaurants that you’d discover hidden away on the winding streets of the old town

The dramatic Baroque Torre dos Clérigos is the tallest building in Porto

Charming ancient streets

A tiled cloister in the Sé do Porto, the medieval cathedral

We have spent very little time in Portugal. I passed through for a few days with my Dad decades ago, in winter. Jim once attended a work conference outside Lisbon. We have not done the place justice, and now we’re going to correct that.

This correction was conceived when our friends Hajir and Margaret announced last year that their wedding would take place in Portuguese wine country this April. Their wedding will no doubt be a memorable affair — and the perfect opportunity to plan a trip around the country in glorious spring weather. And glorious it has been. So far it’s sunny every day with temperatures in the 60s. And that is what is forecast for the foreseeable future.

So we planned a 17-day trip, which began with a direct flight from Newark to Porto. We only even had to endure a four-hour time difference, since Europe had not yet entered daylight savings time. (That was corrected a few days after our arrival, so now we’re five hours ahead of Eastern Time.)

Portugal’s second city anchors the north of the country, and it is truly loaded with personality. It sits at the mouth of the Douro river, where a city grew around the trade in port wine. The wines are produced in the Douro valley east of here, and then shipped down river to Porto, where a huge industry blossomed to market and export port to the rest of the world.

The medieval city sits on the hills north of the Douro, spilling down toward a promenade along the river packed with lively (but touristy) bars and restaurants. From there the dramatic steel Dom Luís I Bridge spans the river to the south bank and the separate city of Vila Nova de Gaia, where we actually stayed. This side of the river is lined with the export houses/tasting rooms/marketing centers for dozens of port makers. Both sides of the river, up and down the hills, are bustling, colorful, and beautiful. This is a stunning place, not to be missed.

Now I must say a word about Portuguese cuisine. It has not previously been one of my favorites. I think of it as very heavy. And totally dominated by cod. Whenever I’ve experienced Portuguese food, it seems I can’t escape from a big slab of cod topped with a gloppy sauce.

After checking into our hotel on arrival here, we inquired about where to get lunch. The guy at the hotel directed us to a row of restaurants along the river a few minutes away, and he wrote down which two he thought were best. So we picked one of those, where I ended up with a big slab of cod in a gloppy sauce. Whatever Jim had was also kind of heavy and unmemorable.

But once we invested a bit of time into restaurant research things ticked up wonderfully. We sniffed out places with amazing creative food and wonderful wines at very reasonable costs. So the culinary offerings have ended up rivaling the visual splendor of this captivating city.

Walking along the bank of Vila Nova de Gaia, across from the center of Porto

Our first lunch at a mediocre place. The food offerings improved dramatically after that.

Dinner at The Door. The flimsy table was very precariously tilted towards me on the sloped cobblestones. It was worth enduring the fear for the incredible food, service, and atmosphere.

The train station boasts 20,000 painted tiles

Close up of the train station tiles

Our hotel roof offered amazing views of Porto to the left and Gaia to the right

Relaxing on the hotel roof

Crossing the bridge toward the old city

A glorious lunch spot

One night we climbed the hill behind our hotel for an elegant dinner at Graham’s, one of the many port houses of Vila Nova de Gaia

Arriving at Graham’s

Naturally that dinner involved a sampling of the good stuff from a huge bottle

Even the abandoned buildings of Vila Nova de Gaia are elegant

I made a friend!

Jim did, too

Morning fog on the Douro. There were even chunks of ice in the water.

Night view across to Gaia

Evening stroll

Couldn’t stay away from that roof deck