Travel Stories - Portugal

Yesterday we arrived in Coimbra and stayed at the campsite next to the pool. This day we take the city bus to the center of the city. It’s allowed to put our big bags in a cafe on the corner for a few hours and rush back for the bus that takes us to the ruins of "Conimbriga". We have to wait with an Italian couple for the door before we have to pay four euros each for the museum what we are going to skip and the ruins themselves. We walk up to the ruins and we see the columns already, the pillars in the distance and a large covered area where probably the most beautiful pieces of fresco are hidden underneath. First two pieces of mosaic that are still in excellent condition and a little bit away from the original road between Roman "Braga" and "Lisbon". The road is exactly 4 meters wide, like most Roman roads. 

Then we walk to the covered part which is called "the house of fountains"; in the middle we see a pond in an ornamental form where most probably the fountains have stood. In the boxes next to it we see a lot of different plans and then a plateau around it full of perfect mosaic floors with images of the hunt, portraits of people and everything else. Around the floor are all kinds of pillars that stand out beautifully. We walk between two terrible thick walls where once there was a gate; we still see the opening where the large iron gate has been. The walls are about 4 meters thick and this is right through the old fortified city, so they were very afraid of the surrounding tribes that always attacked this Roman city that was rich in food and money. 

On the other side of the great wall we find ruins of a very large house; the villa of Mr. "Cantaber" which was most likely very important when we see his house. We walk further and arrive at a large open space with white tiles. Three white pillars have been put back where the forum once was located; the main square of the city. Now it looks a bit strange actually with those white tiles. We leave it for what it is, walk past some "ordinary-house-ruins" and walk through an open area where they need to prune to the baths. A big bath and then some white walls that again do not really fit in according to my feelings. We hear a horde of children arriving and we accelerate slightly towards the end of the tour. We sit down under a big fig tree and pick up our yoghurt and eat a sandwich. I find a piece of cardboard in the container and write "Coimbra" with thick black letters down because it is still early and we really want to go back soon.We try to hitchhike our way back. 

There is quite a big highway near the ruins and we are going to stand at the intersection where a lot of cars are racing past. Nobody stops until we have almost given up courage. We stood there for an hour but now drive straight back with a businessman who speaks reasonably good English to the center of Coimbra. We rush back to the cafe, pick up our bags and walk with our bags to the bus station that is hard to find because the entrance looks more like a garage door than the entrance to a bus station. The bus seems to go in half an hour. Later we get off at Castello Branco, an old bus station in the middle of the old city. It is very busy with local people and I step into the waiting room, which looks more like a garage with a piss tank and a few old chairs attached to an iron beam. We stand in line for a glass window. Finally at the window I have to keep my head down to see her behind the glass. She speaks a little English and I ask her the bus to "Idanha-a-Velha" where she answers that we have to take the bus to Idanha Nova and then directly to "Idanha a Velha". Wow this is a different Portugal we haven’t seen before.