Portugal’s colorful Coimbra may be the perfect city

  • By Rick Steves
  • Friday, April 10, 2015 3:42pm
  • Life

A couple of hours north of Lisbon, Coimbra is the Oxford or Cambridge of Portugal — the home of its most venerable university. It’s also the country’s easiest-to-enjoy city — a mini-Lisbon, with everything good about urban Portugal without the intensity of a big metropolis. I couldn’t design a more delightful city for a visit.

One of the best activities in Coimbra is wandering the inviting, Arab-flavored old town — a maze of narrow streets, timeworn shops, and tiny “tascas” (budget eateries). A pedestrian street divides the lower part of the old town (Baixa) from the upper (Alta). Historically, only the rich could afford to live within the protective city walls of the Alta. Even today, the Baixa remains a poorer section, with haggard women rolling wheeled shopping carts, children running barefoot, and men lounging on squares as if wasting time is their life’s calling.

One of my favorite old-town stops is the Mercado Municipal. Though nearly every city in Europe has a vibrant market, in many cases, the character has been lost thanks to the European Union asserting itself and raising hygiene standards. But in Coimbra, the color and twinkle survive. Visitors can still feel the wrinkled and fragrant pulse of the town and see the “salt of the earth” in the faces of the women selling produce while their men are off in the fields — or in their beloved “little chapels” (a.k.a., bars).

To find the market’s seafood section, all you have to do is follow your nose. While fresh seafood is abundant, the Portuguese favor “bacalhau” — dried and salted cod. Perhaps it’s in their collective DNA, from the age when sailors filled the bilges of their ships with the life-sustaining protein of preserved-in-salt cod. Even though cod is no longer found in nearby waters, the Portuguese remain the world’s biggest cod eaters, importing dried and salted cod from Norway, stacking it like wood, and — when it’s time to eat it — soaking it and cooking it. Frankly, it’s just the strangest thing: a nation’s primary staple imported from faraway Norway.

When touring any city, it’s fun to drop in on the local university. Coimbra’s is beautifully situated on a hill, overlooking the city. To get there, you can follow the little lanes that meander up like the alleyways of a Moroccan medina, or ride an elevator halfway up the long, steep hill, then transfer to a funicular.

The university’s highlight is one of Europe’s best surviving Baroque libraries, displaying 55,000 books in 18th-century splendor. The zealous doorkeeper locks the door at every opportunity to keep out humidity, so you need to buzz to get into this 300-year-old temple of thought.

The interior is all wood. Even the “marble” on the arches is painted wood, since real marble would add to the humidity. The resident bats are well cared for and appreciated. They eat insects, providing a chemical-free way of protecting the books, and alert the guard to changing weather with their “eee-eee” cry.

While wandering around campus, you may see students wearing black capes, the traditional school dress. But to really get close to the students, stop in at the cafeteria for lunch. University cafeterias generally offer the cheapest meals and the most interesting crowd of fellow diners in town. During busy times, all seats are taken, and you’re likely to find yourself munching with law students or their professors.

Before heading back down into the heart of Coimbra, it’s worth visiting the Machado de Castro Museum. Housed in an elegant old bishop’s palace, it boasts many floors of mostly religious 14th- to 16th-century art. All of this sits upon the vast, barren understructure of an ancient Roman forum, which is also open to visitors. Walking through the two-level maze of vaulted galleries, evocative and beautifully lit, will leave you marveling at what you can do with slave labor.

After a day of wandering, I like to cap it off with some fado, the folk music of Portugal. Though fado is generally performed by women, in Coimbra, men sing the fado songs. Rather than songs about love, loss, and hopelessness that’s common in Lisbon’s fado, songs here tend to be literary translations or follow themes students can relate to. Singers are accompanied by the Coimbra-style Portuguese guitar; locals say a good musician plays his guitar with art and passion, as if loving a woman.

You can watch fado at various clubs, or you may stumble upon roving bands of students, dressed in their signature black capes and serenading around town for tips — and the hearts of women. Whether you’re on the street or in a club, listening to this unique, mournful music, performed in its unique Coimbra style, feels like just the right way to end a day in this distinctive city.

Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at rick@ricksteves.com and follow his blog on Facebook.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Sarah Jean Muncey-Gordon puts on some BITCHSTIX lip oil at Bandbox Beauty Supply on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Langley, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bandbox Beauty was made for Whidbey Island locals, by an island local

Founder Sarah Muncey-Gordon said Langley is in a renaissance, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, seen here in 2013, will perform April 20 in Edmonds. (Associated Press)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

R0ck ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn, frontman of The Byrds, plans a gig in Edmonds in April.

Mother giving in to the manipulation her daughter fake crying for candy
Can children be bribed into good behavior?

Only in the short term. What we want to do is promote good habits over the course of the child’s life.

Speech Bubble Puzzle and Discussion
When conflict flares, keep calm and stand your ground

Most adults don’t like dissension. They avoid it, try to get around it, under it, or over it.

The colorful Nyhavn neighborhood is the place to moor on a sunny day in Copenhagen. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves: Embrace hygge and save cash in Copenhagen

Where else would Hans Christian Andersen, a mermaid statue and lovingly decorated open-face sandwiches be the icons of a major capital?

Last Call is a festured artist at the 2024 DeMiero Jazz Festival: in Edmonds. (Photo provided by DeMiero Jazz Festival)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Jazz ensemble Last Call is one of the featured artists at the DeMiero Jazz Festival on March 7-9 in Edmonds.

Kim Helleren
Local children’s author to read at Edmonds Bookshop

Kim Helleren will read from one of her books for kids at the next monthly Story Time at Edmonds Bookshop on March 29.

Chris Elliott
Lyft surprises traveler with a $150 cleaning charge

Jared Hakimi finds a $150 charge on his credit card after a Lyft ride. Is that allowed? And will the charge stick?

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.