We have been to the historical city Coimbra lots of time. To eat nice Asian food, eat the best ice cream in town, and to just stroll in a city. There are nice restaurants from Italian food to Korean. There is also an Asian supermarket where we can find tofu and other Asian products and even an Indian store with lots of spices that we need. Of course there are also nice activities you could do in the big city and we combine all.
On the pictures above you see Cinta in a bubble tea shop at Praza Commercial, next to the Korean BBQ place and good ice-cream bar. On a couch near the river Mondego waiting for our bus back to Ribeira de Alcalamouque. And in Seoul Chicken, eating the vegetarian Korean sushi with tofu!
Climbing in an old Refurbished Garage
There is a climbing / bouldering place inside an old big garage hall, near the Mondego. It is called UPA. You rent the climbing shoes and you are free to go. With a group you can easily spend a few hours here. The bar has nice teas and other drinks.
Guided Walks
We did lots of walks in the old town. Sometimes it was a guided tour to see all ‘collegios’, or the Jewish quartor or the Botanical garden.
The Jewish quarter tour ended in the museum of the Inquisition building, where there is a permanent exhibition of the history of Jewish people in Coimbra.
Sometimes we showed friends the town ourselves and we visited nice small museums, like the Fado museum. I went a few times to the international museum night where the museums from the municipal are open until midnight!
This time it was a three hour caminhada in the centre done by a local via Guru free walks. It is really interesting to hear stories behind the buildings and walls you passed a lot of times already. If you like to experience it yourself, you can just book a tour. There are lots of free tours offered. The idea is that you tip them afterwards. I was never disappointed in these tours given throughout the whole world. However, Cinta was always bored. Most of the times, there is a lot of talking about history. A three hour walk and listening to a guide is really too much for her but generally for children, when walking with a group of 15-20 people it takes a long time too. The tour we had in Coimbra was perfect, it said in the summary of our guide: a relaxed walk, without a history course, and it was true.
