Day 19 - To Coimbra

To Santiago de Compostela: 399 km
Walked today: 27 km
Total walked: 302.6

We are falling into a routine, up at 5 am, breakfast in the room (bottle of juice, sweet bread and a fruit), on the road by 6 am, walk until 1 or 2 pm, find where to stay, shower, wash clothes,  go explore town, dinner and bed by 9 pm.

Today we started very strong even though the road was up the hill, we walked 5 km in one hour.  Then reality set in, the sun started to get hot, the pack got heavier, pains appeared here and there and we slowed down.  We arrived to Coimbra at 1 pm, 21 km in 7 hours and that is more like us, 3 km/hour.

The trail was through pretty country, there are flowers everywhere, orange and lime trees loaded with fruit, and we can see the peaches and the cherries coming out soon.  Most of the walk was on asphalt on a quiet road. 

After two hours we stopped for a cafe con leche for Brenda and cha de laranja and canela for me (orange and cinnamon tea).  We started to talk to the lady who served us and very soon we were showing each other pictures of our kids and grandkids.  The best part was that she speaks only Portuguese so there was some Portuñol and a lot of signing.

Today we only met one couple of French pilgrims, Daniel and Chantal.  They seem to be walking as slow as we are so we probably will see them again.

There are some amazing views of Coimbra in the way in.  We climb to el alto de Santa Clara which is 215 metres higher than the Mondego river and the city is on a step hill by the river. Farther down we also passed by a Roman aqueduct that was cut to build a highway.

Then we walked by the Convent of Santa Clara. There was an old Convent of Santa Clara where the rests of Santa Isabel, patron of Coimbra was interred as well as Dona Ines de Castro. The Convent was moved because the old one was constantly flooded by the river.

Dona Ines was daughter of a Galician nobleman. Don Pedro, son of king Alfonso IV, fell in love with her and vowed to marry her. The king fearing Spanish influence forbade the marriage but they married in secret.  When the king found out, he had her murdered.  Lster, when Don Pedro succeeded to the throne he exhumed the body from the convent, had her corpse crowned and seated on a throne in Santa Cruz where courtiers were forced to pay homage and kiss the decaying hand of Dona Ines. 

As we came into town, we found where to stay, a new place, very clean, everything new so we orhanized ourselves and went into town.  Little we knew, the old town is up, really up, up, very steep.  Anyway we found our way to the old cathedral.  There were two pretty girls in black suits on the steps of the church. Ana and Ana (no kidding) they speak excellent English and are law students doing fundraising.  After a chat we went into the cathedral.  It is pretty amazing. The mediaeval religious art is everywhere and the building itself is very interesting.

From there we went to the Museu National de Machado de Castro.  Again, the collection of religious art is amazing. We spent a couple of hours there, had a light dinner and then we ran out of energy.

And that bring us to the end of day.

There is some problem with the pictures so I don't know if all will show up.

Santa Isabel, queen, is the patron saint of Coimbra so today we ask her to pray for us.