Figueira da Foz concert adventure & Coimbra

 

Starting 2024, I made a decision that I would go to more cultural events. With this in mind, I bought "9a SINFONIA DE BEETHOVEN" tickets after convincing 2 people. The reason started with seeing a billboard in Lisbon while walking on the street on New Year's Eve and continued with buying the concert tickets for February 17th thinking that it was in Lisbon. However, a week before the concert, I had a hunch and when I checked the tickets, I realized that the stage was in "Figueira da Foz".

We immediately made an organization as a team, rented a car and decided to set off in the morning. We even thought if we could stay the night, but my friend said that we could travel at night and return home.

We rented a car from Lisbon airport via Uber and set off for the city of "Coimbra". In this part, I would like to talk about the quality of wc and food while traveling between cities. Let's never underestimate my beautiful country Türkiye, the gas station toilets are actually very clean there. In Portugal, I didn't travel with car in this way much, of course, I saw 2,3 of them at most, it was not very clean, frankly. I can say that it was low in terms of hygiene, but I can't say it was a disaster. Regarding the food service, both the sandwiches at the gas stations were unnecessarily expensive, the variety was low and the bread was really stale.   We really didn't come across a decent restaurant, we didn't come across a decent bite to eat at the gas stations either...Government should have some nice restaurants every 30 km, why don't people take a break on thier way my beautiful Portugal 😊

We arrived around 2pm in the afternoon to our first destination Coimbra. It was good that I bought the wrong tickets, we could have visited 2 different cities a little bit 😊

After parking the car and walking randomly, we decided to find a cafe and sit down, so we came to the street "Rua de Ferreira Borges". This is a lively street with cafes and lots of souvenir shops. It was fun for me to walk and watch the buildings. That day we also came across the "Tuna de Enfermagem de Coimbra", who were playing band music and dancing on the street, I think they must have been a school band or a city band. We listened to them for a song or so and continued on our way. The main street and its surroundings were really small, we were a bit unprepared so we were walking around spontaneously. Since we had limited time, we kept going by liking the points under the name of "tourist attractions" on the map while walking.

Then we came across "Igreja de S. Tiago". Of course, being an artifact and church enthusiast, I couldn't pass by this Roman style building from the 12th century without shooting it with my camera. I saw so many different churches in every city of Portugal this year that it is hard not to be impressed!

Igreja de S. Tiago

 I wish I could find a synagogue in every city too! And then wouldn't I come across a "Mikveh" board? But it is not open to everyone at the moment. If anyone is wondering what a mikveh is, in a broad sense, it is a pool that women enter before getting married in order to reach ritual purity/purification.

After seeing this board and getting excited, I looked around for a synagogue but I couldn't find one. Anyway, we turned back from this point and carried on our way, impressed by the appearance of the baroque style church called "Igreja de Santa Cruz".

We reached it through a beautiful fortress gateway, which I think was the gate of the "Torre de Almedina", but we saw that it was closed, even though it was Saturday and a tourist day.

After a while we reached this wonderful old cathedral, which I liked the most: "Sé Velha" Built in the 12th century in a Romanesque style, it is stated in the relevant sources that this cathedral is the only surviving building in this style. Afterwards, we climbed the city slopes hoping to find a nice "Miradouro", but we only reached the university and library garden. It was not very wide and open, so we walked around a bit. Unfortunately I can't talk about this place too much because we didn't have the opportunity to visit these famous places.

Right next to this place is the "Machado de Castro National" museum and on the terrace there are the "Roman ruins", from the terrace we continued walking, watching the opposite side.

At some point we reached the gate of the Botanical Gardens, but unfortunately we turned back, thinking that there would be no exit gate at the bottom, even though I wanted to go in very much, it is a city with incredible hills, I was intimidated.

I am putting some landscape photos,  there was an excavation operation going on in the city at that time. For that reason, we didn't cross the "Santa Clara" bridge anyway, we didn't have that much time.

Coimbra

Another points to see in Coimbra :

Jardim da Manga (Manga Cloister Gardens)

University

You can buy a ticket together for :   Science museum, Library, Royal palace and Saint Michael’s chapel

Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Coimbra -  (Coimbra’s Botanical Gardens)

Machado de Castro National Museum

Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha * Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha

 

View top Coimbra

Then after 30 minutes of driving we arrived in the city of "Figueira da Foz" and parked the car. Unfortunately we couldn't go sightseeing here, it was already evening. We wanted to sit by the sea, but there was a festival, they had covered everything with tarpaulins and the festival was over. Unfortunately I can't share any details from here but we tried to walk to the ocean however it was too far so we turned back halfway. In the evening, after having dinner at a nice and random restaurant we found, we arrived at the "Grande Auditório (Figueira da Foz)". We enjoyed the concert with 4 soloists, a delightful choir and orchestra. Since I don't have enough knowledge to be a music critic, I don't have the right to comment 😊 But I must say that the rust of my ears was erased!

I believe we will see each other in the next events and adventures. Thanks to the involuntary ticket purchase mistake I made, it was a pleasant journey, my friend drove in Portugal for the first time, and I became a copilot on these highways for the first time 😊 We should always turn negative situations into advantages in life, what do you think?

Please don't forget to check it out pictures from my camera to see Coimbra