As with the prior day, we started off with a walk across the river in a horrible downpour to get to the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova. This was the 2nd cloister built by the same order as the one we visited the day before, and since they left the first because of flooding, this one was obviously going to be uphill. We joke that the idea of “walking uphill both ways” surely must originate from here because it feels true.
This building was not much to look at outside, but the inside was simply amazing. I’ve been to a LOT of cathedrals and churches in my travels, and while La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is the most awe-inspiring cathedral I’ve seen, this was the most ornate. The altar looked to be made of just gold, and lots of it!
Coffee was in short supply (and poor quality) at the hotel, so we walked over to Santa Cruz, the church where we were meeting up with Matt and Marnie. Having a coffee in a church cafe was a novel endeavor and we enjoyed it. Plus, it was dry and out of the rain.
Many of the streets in Coimbra are pedestrian-only, which is a delightful experience. We meandered along, buying postcards and looking at the other various souvenir shops before heading back up to the university for our 2:00 tickets to see the library. Yes, we had timed tickets to see a library, but this is no regular library. The Joanina Library (also called the Baroque Library) is more like a cathedral with books than anything else.
I was fascinated to learn that this library has 2 colonies of bats that have lived in the library since the US declared its independence. The bats eat the insects that would otherwise devour the books, so the library maintains a symbiotic relationship with the bats. That’s not something you see or hear about often! In the US, we definitely would’ve exterminated the bats and then spent oodles of money managing the ensuing insect problem. We would probably have poorer results, too.
We rounded out the evening with some wine and games back at Matt and Marnie’s AirBnB. One of the many perks of life in Europe would be the proximity to friends. And escaping a megalomaniac dictator who cares only about his own power, of course. Whenever people ask where we are from and we say the US, they give us such a look of pity (and they are right to do so). I was researching health insurance and it seems that if you pay into the social security system here (which happens if you have a job), then you just get health coverage. For free. My US-oriented brain can barely comprehend the idea of a government wanting its citizens to have access to medical care.
Vacation Days 