Coimbra to Lisbon

First, here are some pictures from Coimbra I could not post until now. Here are some pictures from the town of Coimbra.

Here is a street sign near the university. The streets are identified by blocks of tiles on the sides of the buildings at the intersections. Alas, this road is not heavily traveled by many Americans.

Salt Cod!

The fire station next to the hotel where I stayed.

A view down a flight of stairs on the Coimbra hill.

A little archway.

The view of town from the museum on the hill where we had our banquet.

Hello.

Another quaint arch.

The plaza near the math department.

A periodic table located in the science museum. I am not sure of the age.

The author at the zome tool sculpture site.

This is the aqueduct that I was admiring when I took a little tumble.

Here are some interesting pieces from the conference. These are just a few of the many things on display that caught my eye.

Here are some pictures from the excursion day. Scroll fast if you are easily offended.

The picture above the altar in the side chamber at the convent we visited.

The altar. Wax models did not appear to be life size.

A view from the park we visited on the excursion day. It was very beautiful there.

A tree lined lane in the woods. The large trees were hundreds of years old.

This was part of a display on artificial insemination at the science museum. This shows the seminal work involving the use of a frog condom/rubber-pants.

I left Coimbra this morning for Lisbon as planned. I packed and went to the desk to check out. My credit card was initially declined, but we finally got it to work after several attempts. That was the only money trouble on the trip (so far).

I walked to the train station and purchased a ticket for the next train to Lisbon. It was scheduled to leave in about an hour so I went to a local pastaleria. This is combination bakery and coffee shop. Everything looked good, but I settled for two baked items and a coffee. The first was a quiche with ham. The second was an apple pastry. I also had a coffee. Most coffee in Portugal is shot-glass sized espresso, but this was a large version. I ate a leisurely pace and watched the hustle and bustle of the shop and the activity on the street. I walked back to the station to catch the train.

Actually, this was the transfer train to the other station in Coimbra. The train to Lisbon only stops at the Coimbra-B station. I thought I would recognize others from the conference, so I walked along the train but saw nobody I recognized. I thought this was the right train. At that moment I saw several other conference people getting on the train, so we sat together. Safety in numbers is my motto. We sat in a train car we a defective door. It needed grease or something because it made an irritating shrieking sound, something similar to a cross between a bluejay and fingernails on a chalkboard. The first few times I tried to ignore it, but about the 5th time I wondered what was going on. Well, it wasn't the door but a young woman sitting by the door who was making the noise, perhaps like hiccups. I hope the condition is not contagious. Luckily she stayed on the train when we got off to catch the train to Lisbon. It would not have been pleasant to ride next to her for 2 hours.

The train I took to Lisbon.

The train trip was uneventful. We stopped 5-10 times during the trip. I away from the direction of travel, which is a bit weird and disorienting. At least I wasn't rowing. I got off at the Gare Oriente train station in Lisbon. This is the train station closest to the airport and where I had reserved a hotel room. The hotel was a short walk and I got checked into my room without any problem. The internet connection is wired and works without annoying long pauses or disconnections like I had in Coimbra (hence all the pictures).

Unfortunately, it was sprinkling and overcast when I got to Lisbon so I camped in my room looking at options and hoping for the weather to clear. I discovered most museums were closed today and so I decided to just walk around the hotel area. It is a new area called Parque das Nações, developed for the 1998 wold exposition. There is a large riverfront promenade, parks, several museums, and a mall with lots of shops. The mall was also full of people avoiding the rain. The mall was not very interesting and the rain stopped so I headed to the promenade and walked along the river. One little park along the way had some percussion instruments like bells, marimbas, gongs, etc. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. There was a also a skyway I took, in part to avoid the rain that had gone from sprinkle to drizzle.

The "musical" instruments.

A very cool fountain along the promenade. There were several towers like this that would periodically shoot water like a volcano. It was very fun to watch!

This bucky ball was at the base of the museum. Unfortunately they did not want people to climb on it, even though that is one of the first things that came to mind when I saw it.

At this point I should remind you that Portugal has a rich history of world exploration and conquest. Portuguese is the fifth most popular language in the world. One of the most famous explorers from Portugal was Vasco da Gama, who was the first to travel from Europe to India around Africa in 1497-1499. The mall is named for him and the world expo was scheduled to coincide with the 500th anniversary of his famous trip.

The Rio Tejo forms a large bay near Lisbon. The largest bridge in Europe crosses the expanse. It is 7 miles long, including tunnels. The Lisbon side has two large cable-stay towers and goes out as far as you can see. It is named for Vasco Da Gama.

A really poor stitching of some low quality panoramic shots I took of the bridge. Do a google search for better pictures that give a true sense of the vastness of the bridge. It is nearly 50% longer than the mighty mac.

I came back to the hotel for a little while and then decided to go back out for dinner. I ate a Portuguese seafood restaurant on the promenade. I had shrimp cooked in an Indian curry sauce that was served with rice and pineapple. It was tasty and the pineapple was surprisingly good with the other ingredients. I talked to the waiter a little and he told me his wife had been to Chicago. I skipped dessert and had some port wine instead. I tried a moscatel port that was served chilled. It was very good. I asked for the check and he "made" me sample another variety of port (on the house). Overall, I have felt very welcomed in Portugal.

I walked back to the hotel and skyped home, did some computer work and am ready for the big trip home tomorrow. I need to get up early (2 am at home) to make sure I am at the airport on time for my flight.