Day 6- Pombal to Coimbra

What we liked about Pombal is that it is non touristic town in the interior of Portugal, architecture or the landmarks are not as remarkable as other places like Sintra, but the town feels more authentically Portuguese, some street musicians and nice bars made the stay very pleasant. We had a fantastic churrasco dinner at Pombal and managed to find a launderette and a comfortable and budget hotel.

We left Pombal after a very decent breakfast early for Coimbra, probably one of the hottest and longest journeys.

Arrival to Coimbra is definitely not thought for cyclist, we arrived through a really busy road to the other side of the river, it is a pretty view with the housed accumulated into the hill.

It was almost sunset and still very hot, to avoid traffic we crossed the river using the pedestrian bridge, from were some kids were jumping into the water.

After shower and freshen up, a sketch from the hotel terrace we went to listen to fado in a mediaeval church. Napoleon told us that the fado from Coimbra was different from the fado in Lisbon, more authentic.

Loureiro

Napoleon town

Pombal main square

Coimbra

Day 5- Ourem to Pombal

We left the pousada de Ourem quite late in the morning, after a sketch and a long complaint to the manager.

In the hottest bit of the day we headed for the famous "pegadas" dos dinosaurios. Beside the Ourem Castle and several quarries the area is very isolated, wind swept, there was no people to ask and the only bar in the area was closed for lunch. The road signs in Portugal most of them don't include distances to places and there are lots of little country roads that zigzag around the tiny villages making places more difficult to find. 

It took a while to find dinosaurs footprint place. We manage to arrive at the quarry where the dinosaur footprints were found, at the hottest time of the day, that's probably why we had the whole place to ourselves. The steps where clearly visible, from above the ground, marked into the layer of stone solidified, The care taker said there were more than 6000 footsteps. It is an impressive place you could actually imaging those massive animals, it is hard to comprehend how would the earth would have been at the time, with no humans, no roads no internet, a Jurassic wild planet...

Ourem

Ourem Posada

Ourem Posada

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"

Ourem "Pegadas dos dinosaurios"