When we were preparing to move to Portugal our real estate agent introduced us to another couple (Randy and Corinne) who were also preparing for their international move. Their house had just sold, they had already been on a scouting trip to Portugal and fell in love with the country. We moved about a month before they did and we have kept in touch. The place they chose to live is the beautiful university city Coimbra.

This excursion was the first time we’ve left our furry babies with a pet sitter and travelled out of town for more than one day at the same time! Fortunately our neighbor Paulo loves animals and is able to come visit and care for the pets multiple times a day (he can’t stay at our house since he has a houseful of his own pets). Unlike in the States where house sitting is a straightforward monetary transaction, here it seems to involve sussing out an acceptable trade – in this case a new harness for one of Paulo’s dogs.

Paulo was at Café Bianca the very first time we went there and speaks fluent English. He prefers we leave instructions in English which means we don’t have to worry about accurate translation for medication instructions. The pets got to know him since he came over daily the week before we left to practice feeding them and get them used to the smell of his furry family. We headed northbound on the train early Friday morning!

Travel was uneventful for us, we had an easy train change in Faro and another in Lisbon. The ride to Lisbon was behind schedule for some reason and we thought we would have to catch a later train, but they held the train to Coimbra and Porto at the station and all was well. We saw multiple travelers make mistakes on the trains, usually all or part of a group not getting OFF the train when they should and some taking the wrong train altogether. Most announcements are in Portuguese (sometimes translated into English or French depending on the conductor) but the city names are universal and shouldn’t be hard to miss for an attentive passenger. Most station stops are quick and when you hear your destination called you should grab your luggage and be ready to depart as soon as the train stops.

Coimbra is a charming city which is nestled on the hills along the Mondego River. It has roots back to Roman times and was the former capital of Portugal for over 100 years.

We strolled along the river with Randy and Corinne, explored a large monthly flea market in the city, and had a wonderful visit.

The sidewalks were amazing throughout the city, with ample room for bicyclists and multiple walkers to share the path. We were a wee bit envious of both the paths and the workout our legs got from going up and down actual hills (our hometown of Olhão is very flat). The temperature is similar to Portland or Seattle and caught us out in a biting cold rain without an umbrella when a sunny morning transformed in a matter of minutes, going from about 75 to 68 degrees much too quickly.

The street art we saw wasn’t as vivacious as Olhão (we still plan to do a grafitti post), but we didn’t get to fully explore and I’d be interested in seeing the area around the main university.

We had a lovely visit with our friends, ate at fantastic Mexican and Italian restaurants, and even played through the bulk of The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine card game. We want to go back and see more of the city but our first impression is that we probably wouldn’t live right in Coimbra. It is a large city and most accommodations are apartments or condos which aren’t as conducive to piano playing and dogs as we’d like, although we did see a lot of K9 friends out and about with their humans. The clouds and rain seemed like they might become unpleasant long term, it seems we might already be a bit spoiled by the sunny Algarve. The line of tour buses packed with large groups of tourists we saw parked by the downtown area was also unappealing.

We sat together on the return trip and only had a single change of trains in Faro. We returned home to find four happy babies and are confident in our arrangement with Paulo as we prepare for a much longer trip in a couple weeks.