Palaces and Coimbra (Saturday)

When Susan and I originally came to Portugal on our honeymoon, we had toured much of Portugal. Each time we found a place we liked we would stop and get a hotel room. One of the places we tried to get to and stay at was Busaco Palace. We weren’t able to find Busaco after driving for several hours. We were getting tired so we stayed at Viseu. Which is a very mean town.. I’ll save that for another post. Busaco is the national mountain forest area. There is a Palace built by one of the last few kings of Portugal in this national park. This palace was where the king would go to hunt.

We decided to make a day trip out of going to Coimbra to do some shopping and visiting Busaco. Busaco is on the way to Coimbra. We found the exit for Busaco off the main highway. We ended up on a winding road driving for several kilometers up the side of a mountain. We almost gave up a second time trying to get there on this vacation. We pulled over and asked a farmer who was working for directions. He said to keep driving another 2 km. We finally made it there. We decided to eat lunch at the Busaco Palace which is now a hotel and restaurant. We had an royal lunch that included leitao, pato and bife a Portugesa. ( Roasted pork, duck and beef a la Portuguese). We toured the inside and outside of the hotel. Afterwards we stopped at a set of stairs with a stream flowing down between them. I remember coming here and seeing the hotel and stairs when I was a child visiting Portugal with my parents.

After our visit to Busaco, we got back on the highway and headed to Coimbra. We were concerned that we weren’t going to get there before the shops closed. Luckily the ceramic store that Susan and I had gone to when we came here last time was still there and it was opened. Unfortunately they didn’t have the ejeiljos ( Tiles) that we had bought last time to make a coffee tray. Afterwards we headed up the narrow street to an old church “Se Velho”. Afteward we had a coffee and drink at a local café. We saw a little PD (Portuguese Dog) dog fight. We headed up to Coimbra University and the court yard of the campus that has one of the oldest libraries in Europe. Susan and I had toured the library last time we came. It has 400 year old books. We headed up to the aqueduct ruins, since my daughter has been studying the Romans. She was able to see some history in person. Afterwards we walked back to the car and drove back in the evening to Gouveia. Our parents had had some yummy Portuguese soap for us, like they do every day. Our parents have been such great hosts! When my wife asked my son what his is favoriate place in Portugal he responded Avo’s apartement since that is where there is yummy food, his toys and his friend (his sister.) We watched the sun set on the mountains on the veranda that overlooks the Serrra Da Estrela mountain valley as we did almost every night that we stayed in Gouveia. It was so quiet and peaceful.