Well the third monument, the Knights Templars Convento de Christo, turned out to quite gobsmacking in its sheer size. The castle and monastery were spread over up to 3 levels, and remember there was no steel so every floor had to have the gothic style curved arches to support it. There were something like 200 individual sleeping rooms (cells) for the accepted members and another wing just for the noviates - these guys obviously didn't have the learing looks of the Cistercians where the young monks slept in bunks between the older monks. Most of the place was quite austere, but the church was just sumptuous and stunning. The depth of colour and the detail in the work - photos don't really do it justice as it is almost round with a huge round section in the middle so you can't see it all from one position. There were so many cloisters and circular stone stair cases I kept getting lost - no I didn't use the blue dot! ( Just in case you think I must have exhausted the monument supply I drove past Fatima and some other place I can't recall and the woman at the hotel in Tomar said I should have seen them!!! )
Well, enough of old castles ( for now at least ). Gloria was set for the back lanes and she excelled. Some of the roads were so small and twisty I sometimes had my doubts but we always seem to come out somewhere. The sky was darkening the further north we went and eventually it rained! As I pulled up outside the hotel in Coimbra the rain became quite heavy - this hotel had been chosen as it had parking, a good call!
Well at least this weather was going to let me use some of my attire that hadn't been out of the case - a rain jacket!
Coimbra was the first capital of Portugal. The first few kings are buried there and it has one of the oldest universities in the world - in existance since 1535 or around then. Where is the university - on top of the hill! And quite a hill it is too! This university is also unique in that the students have to wear a gown, and the males a tie and jacket - I can't see it being a big hit with aussie students! There are several sections of the old buildings open - the library, the chapel and another large hall. The library is billed as the most ornate university library in the world, and it may well be - it is amazing. Of course you can't take photos! The chapel was nice but its main attraction, an ornate organ was covered in sheets to keep the building dust off as they were renovating! There was a torre as part of the visit - closed due to the weather - can you believe it? As the students weren't in attendance there were quite a few acting as touts selling a booklet with, you guessed it, photos of the library and chapel and the torre. I did my bit to help them, buying a booklet and a postcard ( from an aspiring lawyer - I told him it was a bad choice ).
The highlight of dinner was a mini comparative port tasting at the end - I had chosen the most expensive they had and asked a few questions - please don't call Australian port port - oops! The waiter went and got a couple of other port styles - the reason there was no blog last night
Having gotten a taste for port, it was time for the Douro wine region inland from Porto. A bit of a drive, 200k or so so no back lanes today. Coming along the freeway you can start to see vineyards lining the hills then you take about a 5km descent into the river valley - and it is quite some descent. This is NOT bike riding country. The car struggles on some of these roads and they are narrow, very ugly on a bike. The valley is just stunning and it runs inland for something like 20km. There are vines everywhere, and I mean everywhere. The country is so steep in places that there is just one row of vines per terrace. Everything is hand picked and irrigation is not allowed! There is no way you could cultivate this sort of area in Aus, the labour costs would kill you! All the terraces are faced with hand made stone walls - there must be thousands of kms of them. They have been built up since the 16th century. It is just staggering to think of the amount of work just in the stone walls. Having driven up to one of the high points for a good squiz I was driving along a narrow dirt road when around the corner comes a small truck with bins of grapes - a bit of juggling was required to get past but we somehow managed it. I am staying in a little town called Pinhao, and it lives and breathes wine. The harvest has just started and there are small trucks with bins of grapes, utes with bins of grapes, you name it, anything to transport grapes. Some of the wineries do tastings for varying amounts of money, depending on what you want to tatse. The tasting I did was in a winery at the end of the main street - a working winery and they were crushing grapes today so we got to see some mechanically stomped grapes - they don't crush grapes here. There a few wineries where they still stomp by foot - real feet! I would love to stay in the Douro for a week as there is so much to explore, and then I could actually buy some of the wine. They had some 375 ml bottles of a 20 year old tawny today - it was gorgeous and I was trying to work if I could drink it in 3 nights and do it justice - sadly I decided I couldn't. There is no way you could taste and drive around here as the roads are so tight, even along the valley floor you sometimes wonder if the trucks aren't going to hit you - where is my driver home when I need her?
Off to Porto tomorrow for my last few days here - I should have gone to less places and stayed for longer in just a few, especially Lisbon and the Douro!
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