It didn't take 30 minutes before Judy Ostrow, my delightful traveling companion, and I had settled into a comfortable routine that lasted during our entire journey. But on this, the second day of our voyage, our mutual interest in libraries, book stores and reading seemed to find its natural culmination.
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| Coimbra University |
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| Statue of St. Michael |
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| Coimbra University |
After too little time in Lisbon, it seemed, we were off to Porto to begin our river cruise. On the way, we stopped at Coimbra, home of one of Europe’s oldest universities. Founded in Lisbon in 1290, it moved to its current location in the 16th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Each faculty (e.g. medicine, law, humanities) has its own building complex, most of them modern, but the law faculty has the privilege of residing in the buildings that formed the original campus. These were adorned and expanded during the era of Portugal’s greatest wealth in the 18th century. So, a lot of Baroque flourishes.
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| Chapel at Coimbra University |
There's a beautiful chapel here and a magnificent organ, but the outstanding feature of this lovely campus is the original library (see below) , two stories high, complete with its original books, stacked floor to ceiling. Ladders are cunningly hidden in the supports of the bookshelves, allowing readers to reach the upper shelves. The library tables are all inlaid – some of the most beautiful work of its kind I’ve ever seen -- and there are tiny carrels tucked away behind very short doors where books in use can be kept from day to day.
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| Coimbra Library |
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| Portugese guitar |
We had lunch nearby – salt cod with potatoes and onions
baked in cream, one of the many dishes the Portugese make with salt cod -- and utterly delicious. Indeed, our guide advised us it is possible
to eat salt cod every day for a year without repeating a recipe!
There was a fabulous fado concert that went along with it. A man sang this time, in a beautiful tenor voice, to the accompaniment of an acoustic classical guitar and a Portugese guitar, which has 12 steel strings and is a cross between an American 12-string guitar and a mandolin.
There was a fabulous fado concert that went along with it. A man sang this time, in a beautiful tenor voice, to the accompaniment of an acoustic classical guitar and a Portugese guitar, which has 12 steel strings and is a cross between an American 12-string guitar and a mandolin.
One of the things we noticed the minute we arrived at the campus was that all the students were dressed in black suits with white shirts and black ties (even the women) and over this outfit, each wore a black cape. “Why, it looks just like Hogwarts,” exclaimed my companion Judy Ostrow – and so it did. These capes are a medieval tradition that lasts to this day. Each student has one, acquired upon arrival, and kept for the rest of his or her life. Inside the cape, badges are sewn -- for example, the badge for the faculty in which one is studying, or for an academic honor, or for the year of graduation. And the cloaks are frequently passed down from parent to child as there are many families who have attended Coimbra for generations.
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| Livraria Lello, Porto |
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| Interior, Livraria Lello |
Jumping ahead a bit, we arrived in Porto, joined the ship –
and the next day found the rest of Hogwarts, a book store, Livraria Lello, that
has been around forever.
It has the most fantastical staircase, one that turns
on itself and might almost be said to be spinning. J.K. Rowling spent years in Porto as an
English teacher and must have known both the Lello bookstore and the traditions
of Coimbra well. Indeed, some say she
began outlining the Harry Potter books in one of the cafés nearby.
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| Turning Staircase, Livario Lello |
I could find only one English language book in the store, a
cookbook that began with – you guessed it – a whole chapter of recipes for salt
cod!
