Travel tips | Impressions

Mexico 2014 – Mexico City – Part 3, Coyocan

Our third day the City was Saturday. Sunny as all days were, so we took the metro several stops south on the same line where we lived -to General Anaya, to the suburb called Coyocan. From there we headed on a quiet street towards the area where prominent people lived and maybe live. The walk was very pleasant, houses were looking better and better, we came across some plazas and churches here and there, like in a small Mexican town. There was a nice museum on our way, evidently it was previously a monastery, but left its visit for next time:

First bigger stop was Trocky’s casa – where he lived his last years hiding from Staling and still couldn’t manage to escape his plan. Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo, being devoted Communists, met him in Mexico, hosted him in their “casa” and helped him to find and move to his own:

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This is the desk behind which he got a fatal smack with an ax from a trusted friend, who was also hired by Stalin. Not so many trusted friends in Communa-land…:

Casa’s of Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera, the two outstanding artists of Mexico, were in our plans next. For the respect of their talents I will not mention peculiar facts about their strange lives…I am sorry for Frida’s pains and sufferings she had because of polio and an accident, and admire her for persistence to paint even while bed-bound. Here is her house, Casa Azul, where Frida was born, where both of them lived for a while, both of them created and collected ancient and not so very ancient pieces of art. It is not permitted to take pictures in the house, so I took some in the gardens:

They show a documentary movie non stop with Frida and Diego and Frida singing. He was as he is portrayed, fat and not handsome, and Frida was much more attractive than she painted herself in self portraits. Here are some of Diego’s creations – the ones hanging. he made a lot of them. they are now in his studio, where taking pictures is also not permitted. Or maybe permitted fro additional price, i already forgot. The figures on the bottom – are ancient Mexican art pieces:

Here Frida’s day-bed van be seen through doors upstairs – the mirror is on top of it and they put her death mask draped with a traditional colorful scarf on her bed – it seems she is still there..She really is – hes ashes are in adjacent room in an ancient Indian urn, one from her collection – a useful collection. I should say:

A hint – better go to Frida’s house on another day but weekend. Lots and lots of people and tickets are more expensive.

From there through a colorful street, having some rest in an occasional garden:

we reached the Hidalgo square – the essence of Coyocan. There there is a church, and a park and performers, mostly clowns, and a girl having her “sweet 15” party and lots and lots of art galleries and restaurants around. This is the place not to go through, but to stay and enjoy:

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But we went through the gate:

and walked and walked on Avenida Francisco Sosa – so pleasant that we returned there for some more enjoyment in a couple of days:

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There we found a House with gardens for Culture – where couples were training to dance salsa, others playing music, others playing chess, and us only sitting by Frida and Diego:

We found a Fonoteca, where wonderful Handel was being played in their gardens and nobody was listening:

we found a museum of Watercolors – in an fancy mansion:

What else can one wish! We did manage to reach an edge of Miguel Angel – another suburb, but left it for another day – it was already enough, and so we ate in Ostioneria Mazatlan on our way to metro station Miguel Angel de Quevedo. It is a chain seafood restaurant, really good, highly recommend! Full of locals, which is a good sign.

I will continue about our adventures the next day, which was Sunday, of which I won’t show a lot because taking pictures is restricted in some museums. On Sundays some of the museums are free. Free or not free -the museum tickets are not expensive in Mexico city, so it is not a big deal, you may not stress to visit many of them on Sundays. More important hint is that on Mondays everythign is closed, even the very big Chatapultepec park! But still the Sunday we were on our quest to see as many as possible. We took metro to the stop Revolution and visited Museo Nacional de San Carlos – it was supposed to have older colonial art, which was good, not a big collection at all:

Walking back toward the center we saw a long line of dressed in white kids – they were going towards their First Communion – girl’s dresses were way over the top, like little princesses…

On the other side of that big street by metro station Hidalgo we saw Diego’s very big mural and a museum built specially for it. Impressive, lots of his friends and political figures depicted there:

Laboratorio Arte Alameda was just interesting for its walls. The art there was worthless in my eyes, an instalation made by some European, fro those who understand :-). But it has changing exhibits, so you may be luckier. Museo Nacional de la Estampa was closed, bad, for I wanted to see the outstanding drawings of their artist-caricaturist Posada. What was left -Palacio de Bellas Artes – it is in a wonderful location and looks wonderful. I am sure they have wonderful concerts and ballet performances there, too. But we saw only Handel’s Messiah, performed on a movie stage by the Palace walls – so many people were enjoying it! Inside the Palace besides their very beautiful interior there are many murals by all those outstanding muralists and exhibition halls of art, so rich, so vivid!

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So that was almost enough. After early dinner or lunch we still managed to go through the National Gallery. of which the stairs,doors and ceilings left the biggest impression!

Then home to rest!

Mexico 2014 – Mexico City – Part 2

I just read in Lithuanian Delfi.lt newspaper how they describe Mexico: “vibrant, full of contrasts, passionate, friendly and breathing memories of the past” -I agree fully.

The next day was also very saturated – this was the day when I almost crawled home on my fours, how tired I was…Because we visited the biggest museum of all -the Anthropology museum, metro stop Chapultepec. It is a big park, a huge park, lots of fountains and all grounds are well taken care of. There is a botanical park on the way and a museum of Modern Art:

But we had no time for it. Another modern art museum is called Rufino Tamayo, who was one of Mexico’s outstanding fresco painter and evidently he built this museum:

I expected to see some of his art, even stood in line there and what we got to our astonishment and delight was an exhibit of Yayoi Kusama – a Japanese avant-garde artist, who does different strange things besides being a good artist. She is really “big” and this exhibit is traveling around the world, so it was very useful to see her creations! Lots of installations, of which one was the most impressive -a dark room with mirrors filled with lights that change color – it creates the feeling of infinity and magic:

Then there was this room from her period of liking penises…(That is what the notes on walls said) :

Thanks God they took her to a psychiatric ward and healed to the extent taht she started making really good art, which reminded me of Matisse, big pieces:

Interesting how a person is born creative, evolves through many styles and still any of them can’t be called “the one” – she is still changing, creating, singing, playing music, etc… Her personality is really very inspiring!

Close by in the park – there is a pole and we were lucky to see the performers – some strange way of performing – attaching themselves to ropes while high up on a tall pole and little by little while the pole turns around – lowering down to the ground with their heads down all the time – not a healthy way, I think, but popular in Mexico:

And here is the famous Museo de Antropologia, which I would call – too big, too much:

It is its inner garden, the museum halls are around it and there is a lot of them! It has even a pond with natural plants, attracting wildlife:

There are sections of each part of Mexico, each bigger Indian tribe – fantastic, so much beauty in one place! So much so, that I couldn’t take it all, had to take some pictures for later “consumption” and sharing with you:

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This is one of their “stars” -the Aztec calendar:

What impressed me a lot, were groups or classes of kids brought by their teachers to get them acquainted with their roots – all the kids were so nice and cute and bright – but the funny part – they were more interested in us, very few foreigners than in what they were shown. They were enthusiastically taking their selfies, taking pictures with some Swedish blond ladies, and wanted to take with me while I had a hard time not managing to communicate with them, no habla Espanol…

Here is at least one Rufino Tamayo fresco which is in the entrance hall in this museum -two symbols of Mexico – a snake and a leopard, sun and moon, day and night:

It was a peculiar black squirrel that we noticed while walking back through the park:

Paseo de la Reforma -the skyscraper street starts right by that park, with an agave blooming:

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WP_20141205_018 WP_20141205_019 And that was too much for a day 🙂

Mexico 2014 – Mexico City – Part 1

Now I am in love with Mexico. Didn’t expect to get such a good feel from the biggest city in world, as some say…We flew there on December 3rd and planned to stay for 5 days, but extended to 7 and still it was not enough. And I am not a fan of big cities. But Mexico city has not only its bigness, noise, but also some quiet islands that look like rather rich and cozy communities with all this colorful colonial architecture, houses-museums, small parks and churches and street performers. And the museums… an endless number, one better that the other. All the churches are free to enter (unlike in Italy), they are very fancy inside, everywhere in those spaces it is so clean that it makes you feel clean! All in all Mexico city can be a destination on its own. There is a street lined by skyscrapers, there are nice parks with fountains and happy people resting on benches, there are concert halls, a variety of nice restaurants and best of all – a very good climate! We were in December and it was a perfect temperature for sightseeing, no rain whatsoever. They say that it never gets very hot and very cold – based on the flora we saw there they definitely have no frosts. Everything was good except for one thing- we don’t speak Spanish…And you need at least to understand some. We met several Mexicans, who luckily have spent a year or two illegally in the US and learned some English, good for us :-). But the majority doesn’t speak any English. In museums you seldom see information written in English, so I used a Travel guide for Mexico and the internet to find out about what we saw in the museums.

So here it is -a flight form Las Vegas is 3.5 hours only, on Mexican Airlines. Then you buy a taxi ticket in one of many kiosks in the airport – you show the address and pay based on the distance (in our case it was 224 pesos). Then you stand in a line for the taxi company you have the ticket (we noticed there are several companies) – Mexicans are so good in standing in lines, so patient and orderly. Then your taxi comes and takes you to the very door of your destination. This time it was a room on top of a cafe – Tea House -right by the metro station Villa Cortez. The owner is Chez and she speaks English. We found the place through Air B&B and were happy about it. All the time you come from the city – there are workers in the cafeteria and they greet you, the feeling was you came home. All in all the location is fantastic and there was a very good pastes shop across the square, also- fruit sellers, also – some other cafe if that was not enough. On Thursdays they have dancers dancing Aztec dances in the square and you hear the drums all evening long but that is not disturbing. Here is the house, our room was on the right with a balcony:

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The garden wall gad some distinct drawings, looked very modern and the garden had enough greenery and flowers. Here is the view from our window:

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It would be a very big blog if described all the museums we visited during those 7 days. But I’ll try to mention the ones that impressed us most. And also to give as much useful travel information. The main point of traveling in Mexico city is the convenience of the metro! I remember getting much more tired in Barcelona, versus here- the stations are in good places, approximately 1 km from each other and a ride costs 5 pesos (we got 13.4 pesos per 1 $ at the time), not bad. The place we stayed was about 6 metro stations south from Downtown and its main square Zocalo, on the the same metro line. They were building some constructions I guess for Christmas in Zocalo, so we don’t even have a picture of the whole square, it is so big. We even didn’t take a picture of the Cathedral, for there was no place to stand and get it all. So here is at least the facade of another church by the Cathedral, and then the interior of the Cathedral:

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And from there we started our walks. The churches and pedestrian streets with some old mansions turned into museums, with their different inner gardens, very cleanly swept so that not a single leaf is lying where it should not, like little oasis with orange groves, you go right and left, never boring, always nice treats for the eyes. The only thing that I think is strange for us, living in mountainous area, is the flatness of the city – you never see more than the street you are at. It is built in place of a lake, so no wonder. Also -in most churches a strange feeling would make you feel you are loosing your balance, you feel like thrown to one side – they are leaning…Some do that because of the soft clay under them, the “lake” effect and some, as they mention in books -because of that big 1995 earthquake. Anyway -here is a Leonore Carrington’s sculpture -in one of the mansions-museums we entered on Moneda street:

Jose Luis Cuevas museum and his sculpture -he was a very good artist, lots of good paintings there:

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Yes, that is the name of the street. And this is what they like to have here and there on their streets:

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I guess they are called La Katrinas. We had our Sopa de verdura – vegetable soup overlooking this church in the same Moneda street: DSCF0908

Here is St.Domingo church and square. They have trees growing from their roofs, sad…

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Here we are enjoying the big statue-chair by the bank in this square – never change money there! they give the lowest rate possible. And pay attention to the feet of those beasts:

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Here is the old central post office:

And here you can see the Cathedral dome and the old Aztec city ruins right in the very center of Mexico city – the old city was on an island in a lake. We ran out of time and didn’t enter the ruin museum…

1st New Year Day of 2015

This is what we saw in our yard when we woke up on the first day of 2015:

We rushed to Zion NP to admire, enjoy and share with you:

A Trip to New Mexico & Arizona – Part 2

Because it was December – what can you expect of the weather? Thank you God for a a still warm and sunny day in Chaco. but in two days it was snowing like hell and they closed Rt. 25 from ABQ to Santa Fe. We lost the chance to see the downtown of Santa Fe…Though we tried – and after driving north some30 mi – we were blocked from driving further. So we returned to downtown Albuquerque and walked in the rain -it wasn’t so easy to find the old downtown there either, but once we found it – it was nice, had some galleries and the church, as usual in Mexico.

The next day was sunny again and we drove to see Acoma -a live Indian Pueblo on a cliff – but it was Friday and it was closed for visitors. How it works – you have to go to the visitor’s center (which is nice and modern. built by feds):

and you pay for an excursion with a guide to be taken to the pueblo.You have to pay additionally if you want to take pictures. So we lost that opportunity, next time. From there we headed to Truth or Consequences- a strange long name for a small town which some 50 years ago had a name of Hot Springs/But then they changed the name in order to be advertised on that popular show, and never changed their name back. So now they are usually abbreviated to TOC. Boy. we liked it! The hot pools at River Bend hotel and spa were fantastic! On the bank of Rio Grade, literally:

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The sun was setting, the colors were warming and the shades were getting wider and longer, even a Blue Heron came to look for food in front of our eyes – and we were dipped in the warmth of mineral waters – what else can a person want? _DSC0520

Here is a “jazzy” artist’s gallery and home, and the next picture is the decors in their museum fence, which is worth visiting! _DSC0535

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After enjoying the pleasures of TOC for an eve and a morning. where they were carrying coffee to all who were meditating ion the pools, we figured out that the windy weather is not good for visiting White Sand dunes NP, and changed our plans – drove on mountain Rt. 152 to Hillsboro and Kingston – two semi ghost towns that had some Christmas celebration that day. This old but very well refreshed truck was for sale at $6000:

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We reached Silver City late afternoon, had some walks in its countless galleries (somehow many mining towns nowadays are turned into artsy towns with lots of happy retirees). And the next morning we proceeded towards Arizona through back roads.it took us pretty long.but we didn’t hit any big cities. just enjoyed the mountains, the views and at last, saw the saguaras:

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_DSC0629 After sunset we reached a town close the the highway and close to Sedona, that was enough for the day. Next morning in Sedona while looking for a map of their famous energy vortexes at an information center we were toldweshould have stayed in Sedona for free…for they are still catching whom to sell time shares…Are there still people who have too much money to throw away? But at least we found out where the closest male energy vortex is and stopped to see or feel it 🙂 and to take pictures of the surroundings in Sedona:

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Then we rushed home, drove through the snows and more beautiful views: _DSC0664

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Until we reached the Eastern end of Zion and the pictures we took there are posted in the previous post!

Till next time!

A Trip to New Mexico & Arizona – Part 1

Years ago we read about Chaco culture, saw a movie about Chaco canyon and the historical park there. It was in the back of our minds to drive and see it, all shrouded in mysteries. At last we found a chance to fulfill the dream. My neighbor Sharon Hatfield is literally mesmerized by that canyon, she has read everything and done the trails there several times each.So we felt that for the beginners we will spend at least a day there. On the other hand – December is not the best month to go on trips – the days are short, one can get into winter storms, not recommendable… We left on December 2nd – it was still warm and nice here. much colder towards New Mexico. First stop – Toadstools, past Page:

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We were driving towards Farmington, NM, and the sun was setting while we approached Monument valley – so we turned to the side and drove for a while till we could “catch” this beautiful rock:

and another one:

And then we already had to drive in the dark till a hotel in Farmington. The town has a nice little downtown with some nice restaurants, even a Thai one. Is is a good place to stop in order to investigate ancient Pueblo Indian sites, of which two are by the town – the Salmon Ruins and the Actech Ruins. This time we had no chance to see them, we headed to Chaco canyon which is maybe 2 hours drive, of which 16 miles were on a bad desert road. But the weather was good and the views were very wide and undisturbed. The first object that came into sight was the Fajada Butte – it is in the middle of the canyon and known for its astronomical markers. There are three rocks leaning against the wall on the top of it and they are aligned in such a way that a thin “dagger” of sunlight shines through the slabs and onto the cliff face at noon each day. There, people carved two spirals into the rock. On solstices and equinoxes the sun dagger falls onto the center or edge of those spirals -based on that they knew when to start their religious rituals and celebrations.

Then there are several “Big houses” scattered by canyon walls – really big houses, with several hundred rooms each. They were built during the period of A.D.850 and 1250. then they were abandoned, thus creating a big mystery. the canyon is pretty dry, how could such a civilization sustain itself? How could they build such big houses without having metal or wheels, using only stone tools?And no trees there – they carried thousands of trunks by foot from forest as far as 60 miles…What had to be their religion or other unifying force to make them work like this for next to nothing. There are evidences that the builders didn’t even live there…Only very few people inhabited the big houses, otherwise they were used for rituals and maybe some trade? Only questions, very few answers still. Scientists analyze how their building styles changed, how they were aligned to the four cardinal directions and also zenith and nadir, how they could built without any design and came up to similar patterns all over San Juan River basin, how they tried to align the Big houses to the so called sacred geography, the travels of the sun and moon through the sky at different times of the year, and maybe therefore enjoy their lives harmonized with nature better than any people living now.

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The idea of their sacred geology was to find the center place where all 6sacred directions converge and where symmetrically opposing forces are balanced. There they built a pueblo,and Chaco pueblos are their way the center for all the surrounding pueblos:

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The round structures are called kivas and it is there where their rituals were performed:

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There are around 11-12 ruins of Big houses and many small ones, it is hard to see them in several hours but to get an idea how it looked like and to hike a couple of trails – it is possible. The biggest house is Pueblo Bonito – with hundreds of rooms, some parts of it 5 stories high. WE saw it only from the bottom, didn’t climb the very narrow and steep trail to the canyon edge to see from the top. Not this time. But it was impressive to walk in it:

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Why the windows arranged so strangely in the corners? To get the sun rays at certain times of the year and of the day: _DSC0376

Chacoans also had their sacred time. In our so called Western world ordinary linear time outweighs the sacred time, whereas in traditional cultures the opposite is often true. As one Chaco scientist J.McKim Malville writes: “Sacred days commemorate great events of the past. Because the earth keeps revolving around the sun, these days , such as winter solstice, keep returning year after year.At these times the sacred seems to enter the ordinary world”. _DSC0379

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That evening we reached Albuquerque. New Mexico has such open spaces and wide horizons that to me it is a state of the most beautiful sunsets. Well, maybe not “the most”,maybe “one of the”. Our next drive was through a very spectacular canyon through Jemez Indian reservation on Rt.4,passing Los Alamos and reaching Santa Fe. It is a long drive.

Some hot mineral springs come out by the river and form hose rock formations:

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Our friend Dalia Narbutas from ABQ participated in this trip: _DSC0413

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We stopped and ate on the Musem Hill in Santa Fe and then had a nice gallery walk in its Canyon road. _DSC0433

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In Dalia’s neighborhood some enthusiast has a knack for decorating his house:

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The end of 2013 in Zion

November was nice and warm. We used the sunny days to see some places close by,but that we never had time or chance to visit. The volcano in the nature reserve in Hurricane was one of them. Here is a mushroom – podaxis pistiliaris- I picked them after big rains at the end of August, in that same place, literally in the desert. Very tasty. This specimen came out very late, nobody could expect it to show up, therefore still there, almost dried up:

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Our next small walk was in Santa Clara, past St. George – at the very end of the town you get to the edge of the rising desert and see Santa Clara river way down:

Then you walk along that edge and look into the rocks -and you are amazed – every other of them have ancient Indian petroglyphs of different varieties!

This bank of the river is eroding and poor Indian petroglyphs, they are falling down into obscurity…or maybe poor us, who will not see them and appreciate them…

Our next trip was in Zion – Emerald pools. It is a very main stream trail, but Andrei bought a new camera and wanted to try it. First – The Middle pool, then the upper and the view of Zion canyon from the trail:

So it seemed such a warm and nice late fall and the beginning of December, even butterflies enjoying our still blooming flowers outside:

while a winter storm was just behind the corner! Oh December 8th a record amount of snow fell onto Zion and for a while it looked like never before!

The magnificent Watchman!

We came back form a trip and found our house like that -had to dig a path to the door! Never had in our 13 years of living here:

Rockville street – they even had to invite a snow plough:

Here is Rockville community center during one of the coldest days ever.

Portugal 2013 – Lisboa

On the way to Lisbon we turned to the side from Rt. N3 and walked some in a cute town of Alenquer – it is by a small river, there is a working monastery on a mountain and a cemetery by its side, there was a wedding going on in the chapel and on the whole – the town was nice for walking in solitude:

Those are real flowers blooming in December by a chapel:

What a crop of oranges!

And then it was Lisbon. The first might we slept in Belem – because there are some museums on that end of the city and it was worth visiting St.Jerome’s monastery:

There was an extensive strike going on close to the monastery by the president’s house and a parade on this main street, go and guess…

This is the view from our window in Belem:

We tried to visit the palace of Queluz – it is very close to Belem by car, but ran out of time. just saw the gardens and the buildings from in front (reminds palaces in St. Petersburg in Russia):

In Belem across the street from the monastery there are huge modern buildings, with lots of space that seemed to me useless, that seemed the European money “laundered”. Just empty halls and a modern art museum. also useless. The only interesting spots seemed those “Japanese” gardens and the Christmas tree made from recycled plastic bottles:

The next day we found a hotel in the very very center of the city and would highly recommend it, called Albergaria Insulana. It is a small hotel sharing the building with some other businesses, but rooms and breakfast there were really good, and the location was especially good! So we returned the car and spent a day in Lisbon, walking different directions and admiring its different districts Baixa, Bairo Alto, Estrela, Alfama. THis is the elevator that lifts you to the upper part of the city:

Here is a different house in Alfama, now a museum:

A church in Alfama that got the only rays of sun we saw that day:

Alfama left me the best impression though it is considered a poor area. But the walks were the best. The narrow streets are cute, you always see the water -the sea or the wide river delta, lots of churches, restaurants and we even listened to Fado music there. Wonderful! It is a pity it was our last eve, we would have gone to listen more.

I also have to admit that it was raining a lot while we were in Lisbon and that didn’t add much charm to it. There are usually artists in the main street, of whom we saw someone evening. which was still bearable, but the next eve – poor guys, they prepared to perform and had to rush to gather their stuff and run away – the rain was non stop. But at least we saw some Christmas lights:

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Here is the famous Brasiliere – the cafeteria, beloved by Lisbon’s intellectuals, in Baixa:

Before we returned the car -we used it to get to some museums that are not in the very center. One of them was Museum Arte Antigua – very worth visiting, lots of good art, Diurer, Bosch, Bregel including. Here is two pieces of H.Bosch’s “Hell” – the whole triptych is too big to be photographed:

This museum was not hard to find and drive out of the are, for it is close to the river. But the Museum of Gulbenkian…it is a collection of modern art.,a very good one, collected with good taste and displayed well, with walls even painted in different colors, very attractive! Why I said “but… ‘ because to find the way back from there to the center – it was painful. We missed a turn to some main street and that was it – drove for an hour in steep little streets with high rising apartment buildings and they all looked the same and it seemed there was no way out. Until some kind guy stopped by me analyzing the map on a corner and led us out of this maze. So here are some pictures from Gulbenkian and some jewelry and sculptures done by Lalique -the outstanding French juveller:

I’ll finish Lisbon’s description with a view from one of it’s parks and a typical inhabitant of those parks:

We left rainy Portugal but still 17C warm to the super cold Lithuanian winter – it was minus 12C and felt very very cold. Those were nice murals on the walls of metro station leading to the airport:

Portugal 2013 – Tomar, Alpiarca, Santarem

The next day it was raining cats and dogs, nonstop. Normal,Portugal in December,what can one expect.

Drove to Tomar – the monastery is on a hill, which we climbed under an umbrella. The color of the sky and therefore everything wasn’t good for pictures, but after some enhancement here they are. Te monastery there is outstanding and if I had to choose only one monastery to visit in Portugal – Tomar’s would be the one:

Yes, it looks like a fortress. Maybe they had reasons and enemies to protect themselves… But the most amazing aspect there was a maze of inner yards, some with orange trees, some not, so many corridors and cells and the church itself was out of this world. It had an altar in an altar; it had only one organ pipe left, but the size of that pipe is like a chimney; it has an impressive chorus chamber and some other chambers that I already forgot what were they and what for.

This is the altar. constructed from three photos, for you can’t get it in one, too wide.

Monastery’s canteen with pulpits on both sides – no time should be wasted:Monks had to walk long ways to their cells:And it rained and rained…

Here is where the architect of the monastery left his portrait – under a Manuelin window.

Wet Tomar…

We still tried to ignore the weather and walked around, looking for a place to eat. There is a spectacular river and a bridge, worth some artist’s attention. But not in such rain. On the other side of the river we found a very nice restaurant with the best views one can want and very good food. The Monastery is seen on a hill in front:

After that we rushed to Alpiarca through Golega. where everything is about horses. But when we saw how small horse corals are – we decided not to even get out of the car. Too cruel. In Alpiarca we couldn’t find a hotel. Strange as it is but small towns in Portugal not necessarily have a hotel. So while it was still time and Casa Museo Dos Patudos was still open – we took an excursion there to the guide’s dismay – we were the only visitors. But Casa was really good, interesting and beautiful it is a fancy house of their politician, who was broadly educated, loved music, art, etc. It was really worth seeing it. But photography was not allowed. So it was dark when we headed towards Santarem to look for a place to stay. It took us several stops at bars and shops inquiring about one. By the books there should be two hotels…only two in a city which looked pretty big. And the hotel which we found only walking by foot and asking and looking attentively – didn’t have any lights at the entrance at all. Inside it was modern and nice, but how are GPSless people supposed to find it ? So then in the morning we looked around in the center, which is known for its farmer’s market decorated with tiles (azulejos):

Then admired the modern sculpture:

And saw some more churches in the old town – Columbus is buried in this one:

Portugal 2013 – Coimbra

We left Fatima for a day, to visit Coimbra. But maybe that was not a perfect idea. Fatima has a very good atmosphere, which is understandable, a pilgrimage town, lots of good energy. Therefore we decided to stay another night in the hotel of Sao Antonio in the very center – where we were the only guests. And the trip to Coimbra and back didn’t look a long trip. Well, it got long, because on the way back we got lost in Leiria…Completely lost in the dark of a December evening, coming and coming to the same place somewhere in the outskirts of Leiria. No signs, no directions, and the nice and helpful people in roadside cafes were useless. Whatever they told us – we did and came to the same place. It was horrible. had to go back to the highway and go to Fatima through the long way on the roads that were marked. So it goes…

On the way to Coimbra the smaller roads were marked well enough and we stopped in Pombal – named after their very big figure Marquez de Pombal, or vice verso. A cute town, a nice museum of folk art, very recommendable!

Then on the way we had to find Coinbriga – which was not very easy, but we did it. It is an ancient Roman ruin site – there was Roman city on the way from Rome to the sea shore, turned now into a museum. But because of the lack of funds, only partially is covered with roofs, lots of precious mosaics that were the floor of the mansion – are now under the elements…

While looking for Coimbriga and driving the main road back and forth we were astonished to see prostitutes here and there literally standing by the road. In the middle of the day and in the middle of nowhere, o big city around. We wondered – who are their clients?

At last we reached Coimbra, the city of the oldest university in Europe, or maybe only in Portugal. Here is the view from Santa Clara side. There is some interesting Santa Clara monastery there. but we couldn’t find a way to it…Several hours in Coimbra are definitely not enough, I would allocate a couple or three days.

So then we drove to the very center, easy to find, on the other side of the river and parked pour car immediately there, a comfortable location for university visitors. And went up the old winding streets:

The university plaza is spectacular, as well as all the corridors and halls that one can see entering the most of the doors. But some are for ticketed visitors only. Which is understandable. I saw the library in Rick Steve’s Europe. But in our case- wegot so tired. especially me, while climbing this rather steep hill, then looking frantically where they sell tickets for the visit – that when I saw where, which was on the other side of the gates, I lost interest in going all the long way back. Visitors usually come from a tram or bus stop, few of them climb, so maybe that is why they sell tickets from tat side:

The buildings there a huge and it takes a lot of walking to see the old town. So I went towards Nova Se -New Cathedral, saw it inside and also the museum there and then noticed an art museum close by, which was so worth visiting! There are many stories of different collections, from all ages and countries, but the most impressive were the cellars – the very bottom part of the museum – the ancient roman ruins,maybe of an ancient city.

Walking in Coimbra is a little more impressive than in other Portugal towns because of the spirit and creativity of young people -you never know what you see on the next corner:

And the buildings reminded mes some of Barcelona.