{"id":285,"date":"2018-10-07T13:15:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T19:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/?p=285"},"modified":"2018-10-07T15:25:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T21:25:38","slug":"coimbra-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/coimbra\/coimbra-arrival\/","title":{"rendered":"Coimbra, Arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We left Quinta do Cachao today and headed out on the three-hour drive to Coimbra, Portugal\u2019s first capital and home to Universidade de Coimbra, founded in 1290 in Lisbon and moved to Coimbra in the 1500s. It\u2019s one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world. We arrived in time for the last day of the Festa das Latas, a homecoming of sorts where freshmen dress in costumes, parade to the Mondego river, and get baptized into the academic community. The last day is the baptism and a huge party, right across the river from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a late tapas lunch and then began wandering around the old city, the site of our apartment. The university is beautiful, and there are several impressive cathedrals and old government buildings within easy walking distance. Easy, except for the extreme steepness of the narrow cobblestone streets. Coimbra was once heavily fortified \u00a0by a wall, and the old city was behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full day of exploring tomorrow. Here are a few photos from this afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Largo de S\u00e9 Velha, 1184.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bell tower, old university section.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Old meets new\u2014the new city bordering the old town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Largo de S\u00e9 Nova (New Cathedral), exterior. New is relative here. It was established in 1543.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Largo de S\u00e9 Nova, interior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Rooftops, Rio Mondego, evening light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Street scene.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Stairs. Lots of stairs…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Students massing for their \u201cbaptism.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Quinta do Cachao today and headed out on the three-hour drive to Coimbra, Portugal\u2019s first capital and home to Universidade de Coimbra, founded in 1290 in Lisbon and moved to Coimbra in the 1500s. It\u2019s one of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coimbra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/Portugal18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}