We got up super early so we could eat breakfast at the hotel and take the metro to the airport to pick up a rental car. When we got to the rental car counter, we realized we had left our passports back at the hotel, and they were required for the car rental. Since the metro between the airport and the hotel takes 35-40 minutes, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel, but there was so much traffic in the city that it ended up saving us zero time and costing us about five times as much as the metro. We learned our lesson there, so after we got our passports, we took the metro back to the airport. Forgetting the passports was a costly mistake because we ended up wasting so much of our morning!
When we were finally back at the car rental counter, the employee informed us that they did not have any cars in the category we had reserved, so he was upgrading us to a Mercedes convertible. Now, that's great and all, but I didn't really like the thought of driving an expensive rental car in a strange city. However, we just wanted to get on the road after an already crazy morning, so we agreed to the car and were on our way.
We drove from Lisbon to Coimbra to visit the historic university library that was built in the 1700s. I've written before about the many libraries we've visited during our travels and libraries are such magical places to me, so I was really looking forward to this visit. We had to buy tickets ahead of time because they restrict the number of people entering at any one time and we drove about two hours to get there. We parked at the town's train station and took an uber (yes, uber works here!!!) up to the university.
I've got to admit that I was pretty disappointed with the visit overall. This is the point where I wish I had fifty photos to share of the library, but other than one small section of what seemed to be the "outer" library room, no photos were allowed! Argh! The main library was ornate (bordering on gaudy, to be honest), but incredible in its details. The first two pics below are mine, taken in that outer room; the third is taken from Wikipedia so that you can get a sense of what it looks like, since I don't have any of my own pics to share!
After our visit (which was extremely brief; they shuffle you in, through, and out very quickly), we took an uber back to the train station and then continued our drive. It was about an hour to get to Nazare, which is known for its extreme waves, and as you can see, it is a beautiful place! We didn't go all the way down to the beach, but instead stayed in the town area above and just walked part of the way down to the water so we could admire the magnificent views!
After the beach, we made the return drive to the Lisbon airport, dropped off the car, and took the metro back to our hotel before venturing out for some dinner. Even though we had a bit of a rocky start, the day turned out to be pretty great!
One final thought...I've noticed that people we've encountered here tend not to say, "have a good/nice day," but rather, "Enjoy the day!" as a farewell message, and I just love it!
Happy Tails to you!
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