THE WRITING ON THE WALL
The evening finds me in Coimbra, home to the University of Coimbra, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world and one of the oldest in Europe. I snap a few photos from my hotel's garden area before calling it a night.
In the morning I head into Coimbra proper. It's a holiday in Portugal, so foot traffic is light as most of the shops are closed. This makes for some nice solitary color and black & white photos. Being a college town, there is also some interesting graffiti to be found. Before leaving, I head out on to the bridge over the Mondego River to snap a few shots of the town as a whole.
Next is a visit to the Mosteiro Santa Maria da Vitoria, more commonly known as the Batalha Monastery, a Dominican monastery in the town of Batalha. The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385 and was completed in 1517. It is an amazingly ornate structure put up in limestone that has turned yellow ochre over time.
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