Temples & Tourists- part 2

Hi kids,

Yeesh! I don’t write for weeks and then I write a novel. 🤦‍♀️ Well, here’s Part 2…

After the Peña Palace, we went to the Regalerra Palace. It has a more “traditional” look.  

Fancy entry bridge into the castle

Tiny chapel used by the royal family

After wandering a bit, we found the Initiation Well (Dante’s Inferno). It is such a unique thing! Here’s the view going down. Down, down, down…

And the view looking from th bottom to the top.

Then we explored the gardens and found this rock formation bridge and tunnels.

Then we stopped in at the cutest little restaurant and had a really yummy meal with rice pudding for dessert (thought of you, Jas!) 

We had walked a lot that day, so when we saw the tuk tuks, Dad said “Let’s take one back to,our car.” And we did. Mr. Toad ‘s wild ride down the tiny, narrow streets - inches from the cars. 

The next day, we headed to Coimbra. It has the oldest university in Portugal - founded in 1290.

Crazy huh? 
We went up 184 teeny, circular stairs to the top of the clock tower. 

Then we went to the chapel and Voilá!, it was being used for a wedding! So, we hung around for 15-20 minutes, so we could see the bride’s arrival. And a glimpse of  the inside of the chapel. The flower kids were cute and their mom made sure everything was tucked in and took lots of pictures.

(Maybe I’m Portuguese ;)

Since we couldn’t go inside the chapel, we visited the student prison. This was a real thing until the 1800’s! If students broke the rules or damaged a book, they had to go to prison. It was pretty bleak inside but the ceilings were so cool! They were made of rough-hewn sticks placed together in a cool pattern.

This lecture hall reminded me of something out of Harry Potter. Amazing tiled ceiling. It was huge! 

A typical classroom. They still using the original wood seats - but with cushions now.

They had a science exhibit and dad told me to stand here. I didn’t realize what it was til I saw the front of it. It made me think of Jeff Goldblum. ^^

An hour later, the wedding was finished and we went inside the chapel. The hand-painted ceiling was gorgeous!

 The organ pipes

We walked around a bit. Here’s a fun triangle building that reminded me of the skinny, triangle one in New York.

We think these were student apartments.

We left Coimbra, but we stopped on the way, in another city, Viseu, for something to eat. And we happened to see these guys. The shorter elder is from Puerto Rico and he’s a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. The taller elder is from Brazil and has only been here for 3 weeks. Both of them were so nice! It was fun to visit with them for a bit. 

We looked and looked for a restaurant to eat at, but none of them were open. The Portuguese like to eat late (and stay up late) and restaurants don’t open until 7:30 pm, after closing at 3:00 pm for “rest time.” We finally found a cute restaurant that looked like it was 100 years old inside, with stone walls and really low ceilings. They were still getting the tables ready, but welcomed us in.  All the tables were set with paper bags. Inside was our plate, silverware, and napkin. We don’t know if it’s the restaurant’s tradition, or a COVID thing, but it looked really fun, like you had a surprise waiting for you. 😃  The food was so good! Most of the time, the meat here is quite tough and bland, but this was like a tender pot-roast with so much flavor. Maybe our best meal yet. The waiter saw me trying to take a selfie and offered to take the picture. But he cut dad out of the one with the food. Not many people have I-phones here… 🤷‍♀️

After dinner, we headed home, with the sunset outlining the wind turbines.

The next day was a 5th Sunday, so I told the sisters in Primary to go to the adult meeting and I’d do Primary with the 2 out of 3 kids that were there. They’re both so funny. The older one, Cecilia, is 5 years old and learns English at her kindergarten, so we play “Que isso?” (What’s this?) and she tells me the word in English. If she doesn’t know, she shrugs her shoulders and then I tell her the word and she repeats it. She’s a little parrot. Marie Julia is 3 and is Pres. Hugo’s little girl. She’s as good-natured and energetic as her dad, so I have to keep her distracted and watch the door, or she’ll zip out. 

After church, we came home, grabbed a quick bite and then went to pick up the elders to go to our little group in Chaves, an hour away. I was driving and took a corner too sharp and hit the curb with the tire. I must’ve caught the edge just right because it slashed it. Five minutes later, we got to the elders and it was dead flat. :( How any people does it take to change a tire? Apparently, three. :)   The elders were way nice to get down and do the dirty work and put the spare on. We laid our grocery sacks out to keep their clothes clean. 

We had to call one of the members, and ask him to call everybody (all 5 people :) and tell them that church was cancelled because our car couldn’t drive that far on our toy-sized spare tire.

And that was our “going to the temple & being a tourist” week! 

Love you a lot!! 

❤️ Mom