Umbrella time in Porto and Coimbra

It is pouring in Porto as we walk around town for one last look around. As is always the way we discover interesting streets we haven't come across before just as we are about to leave. There are lots of very over the top bridalwear shops where we take photos to show Elysia.


We have lunch in the middle of the shopping area in a little cafe called Tupi Tupi where people are queueing to get a table.


Over to Sue:


"Alan has his usual serving of soup - vegetable this time. We compensate with a glass of red wine because we can't have him having more than us. We all have the fish - it is nice - boneless, moist and lightly battered. (Apparently it was the Portugese who introduced tempura to the Japanese.) The meal is accompanied by rice with beans - risotto style - and carrot salad. The ambience is enhanced by the shimmering peacock-blue eyelids of the elderly lady behind us. It is our best meal in Portugal so far for only 27 euros for all us including the good red wine."

The train trip to Coimbra takes just over an hour and we find accommodation right behind the main square opposite the river. Pensao Residencial Larbelo is very efficiently run and very clean. We are told off by the stern lady behind the desk to move so the cleaning lady, in her housecoat and scrubbing away on her knees, can clean the floor behind us. The rooms are spotless but ours are three floors up the spiral red staircase.


After a predinner drink in a great courtyard we find a little restaurant in an alleyway. They don't speak any English which makes for interesting identification of menu items.


Sue:


"Lee, Rose and I have the pork chops with very yellow french fries and rice with a carafe of red. The chops are a bit dry. We also have three salads and numerous bits of bread. Alan has roast chicken washed down with a carafe of white wine. Again the meal is ridiculously cheap."