Portugal was the next stop on our trip to Europe. We went to Porto, Portugal to see Matt's parents, Chuck and Liz, or as their missionaries call them, President and Sister Walton. They will be serving as Mission President and missionary for the next 2 and a half more years in this area and we hope that we can go back again this year.
After a good nights rest, we traveled south to Coimbra were we visited the sister missionaries that were serving in the city there and then went to see the University which was established in 1290! It is actually the school which J.K. Rowling based Hogwarts school after and many of the details on the buildings were similar. We explored the rooms were students meet before the professors and take their final test before graduating and even saw some students wearing their traditional school attire with black robes, white shirts and ties.
Liz, Me and Matt in the main square. These buildings are the oldest ones with the newer facilities closer to the city. In front of us was a view of the river and the city below.
We were told by one of the sister missionaries in Coimbra that we had to go see the old school library because it looked like the library from Beauty and the Beast. We knew, once we walked in, that she was right. Old books lined the walls and a second floor with ladders which slide out from between the intricately carved bookcases. Beautiful marble floors and gold trimmings on everything! No pictures were allowed, but Matt was able to take one without a flash from his jacket pocket. We had to have a picture of this beautiful and ancient room! The walls of this library are 3 meters thick of stone to keep the room at a consistent temperature and the doors and shelves are made of a particular wood which actually is toxic to bugs to protect the books dating back to the 16th century.
The next stop of the day was Coimbriga, close by Coimbra which is known for their Roman Ruins! I have never seen any Roman ruins before and was quite excited to see what Coimbriga had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to find rooms and rooms of old homes with different intricate mosaics on all of the floors! The patterns and colors were amazing! Here, Chuck is on a call with a missionary, even though they were on a little break from their weekly duties, they were still on call and got quite a few of them over the next few days.
Chuck trying to lift part of an ancient Roman pillar. I don' think that it would move that easily:) For being such an amazing place, the ruins are not very well protected and we saw only one other group while we were there. It is a beautiful place and one that we would recommend to anyone traveling to Portugal.
A Roman aqueduct, still standing and beautiful in the sunset. This was a very fun first day in Portugal.
The next day was rainy but that was ok because we spent it walking around Porto. We walked down to the river and rode on the world's only above ground subway and did some souvenir shopping.
This is Douro River and one of the many small boats which, in the past, carried wine from inland, to the coast. Another cool thing that we got to do on this trip was to see two structures built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The first in Paris in the form of the Eiffel tower (did you guess that one?) and the second is in Porto, Portugal in the form of a bridge! Kind of cool, hu?
That night, we got to go to the FC Porto futbol game as they played against Chelsea. (A super good soccer team from England if anyone is like me and has no idea about world soccer) Although FC Porto did not win the game, the only goal scored in the game was scored right in front of us!
Since this was a big game, they had large plastic sheets of blue and white that went down all of the rows in the lower bowl of the stadium for fans to wave above their heads as the team came out onto the field. One very different thing about this futbol game was that instead of "boo-ing" when the refs or players did something bad, the fans whistled. I would have to say that it is a lot nicer sounding than a bunch of "boo-ing".
The 3rd day in Portugal was Thanksgiving, and so we had to have our traditional American football game that morning! The elders got the ok to play on this day only so they found any scrap of grass (or in our case, sand) to play on. Matt and Chuck were pretty sore at the end of this game.
This is a picture of our football field on the beach in Porto, you can kind of see the outline of lots of overturned sand where we played and no other markings in sight.
The 4th day we visited several different beautiful cities. The first was Guimaraes, were we visited some elders there and then went to the castle on a hill in the middle of the city. The views from the top of the surrounding hills were beautiful! And we could see dark storm clouds heading our way.
Chuck, Liz and I in the streets of Guimaraes.
Our "Engagement Photo" at Viana Do Castello ;) Sadly the beautiful ocean view is washed out but I liked it anyway.
This is Santa Luzia, the church on the hill overlooking the city of Viana do Castelo. There are stairs all the way from the city to the top but we chose to drive up instead:) Nothing special inside but very pretty stained glass on the outside.
The word in the Porto Mission is that the Bolo's in Viana do Castelo are the BEST, so we had to try them. :) Liz said that they were like a cream filled doughnut covered in cinnamon and sugar so I was skeptical (I hate cream filled doughnuts) but once I had the first bite, I almost didn't let Matt have it back! It was SO good and sweet, but not too sweet and still warm (we got there just as a batch was coming out.)
Then we sat in the town square and waited for the Christmas lights to go on which was well worth it. This concluded our 9 day trip around Europe visiting Paris, France and Porto, Portugal and stopping over in Amsterdam along the way. And a special bonus was that we got to see Mom and Dad serving the people and missionaries of Portugal and doing what they will be doing for the next 2 and a half years. We can't wait to visit them again!
