Welcome back Sister Donkin!

From the Azores we flew back to Lisbon, rented a car, and drove the 200 Km or so to Coimbra, an area where Jackie spent about half of her mission. As you will see, Coimbra is a lovely town with all of that old, European charm. The biggest attraction there is the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest universities in the world today. It was started in 1290 by Dom Dinis, moved between Coimbra and Lisbon and then finally settled permantely in Coimbra in 1537. Two other places we went that you'll see pictures down below include Portugal dos Pequinitos (Little Portugal) and Quinta das Lagrimas. Portugal dos Pequinitos is a theme park where they have shrunk all of Portugal's famous buildings and statues and put them in a park. It also includes little sections of all of the different countries that Portugal establish around the world. Quinta das lagrimas is the place where one of the craziest stories in the world took place, hands down. I'll explain the story through the pictures.

Here is the family we stayed with in Coimbra. They are an amazing and wonderful family. They absolutely love "Sister Donkin". Beatriz, the mother, called me "Elder" for most of the time we spent there. Thanks for letting us stay at your house, the bed, the food, everything. Foi muito bom!

The ladies of the house didn't let "Sister Donkin" out of their sight. Not your typical honeymoon, I guess.

An old church on campus

A street Sister Donkin used to walk down a lot

The old plaza, or in other words, Pass-a-long card central

A corner in the Pass-a-long card central, where Jackie is reenacting a scene from her mission. (A bird pooped right on top of her head in this spot)

Jackie on the cell we borrowed for those days in Coimbra. This is the campus square at the University of Coimbra.

King Joao, who moved the school to Coimbra permantely

What time is it?

Jackie, just chillin in the school's dungeon

"Honey, people want me to take a picture without my sunglasses, let's try"

That's more like it

If you go inside the old library, don't take pictures. Oops.

Here's the door to get inside the library

Here's the door to get inside the library at Portugal dos Pequinitos

Here I am at real the University

Here I am at Portugal dos Pequinitos. Sweet, huh?

Knock, knock

Chillin in the African section at the theme park

"And if there was more world, there we would arrive" They sure are proud of all of their discoveries.

Little Azores. We were just there!

"Where in the World is, Carmen San Diego?"

Here we arrive at Quinta das Lagrimas. They charge to go here now, like one Euro a person but we were out of cash so we had to sneak in when the guy at the gate was distracted. The quick story goes like this: Prince Pedro was married to a woman but fell in love with the maid, Ines de Castro. The picture below shows a little stream where Pedro and Ines supposedly sent love letters in the stream. The forbidden love was discovered by his dad, the King, to which he had Ines killed.

Supposedly she was killed here, and that is why the rocks are red in some parts. Anyways, Prince Pedro turned into Pedro the cruel and killed his father and anyone who had something to do with Ines' death. So, he became King, and now is where it gets crazy. He had Ines de Castro dug up from her grave and removed. He claimed to have married her and then required that everyone in the court come and swear allegiance to the proper queen by kissing her hand. (Yuuchkk!)

Here we are at the waters of Luso. There is a natural spring here where people will come from nearby to fill up their water bottles, as seen by this family. I didn't want to take a straight up picture of them so I had Jackie pose and then I snuck this picture.

Filling up the bottle

Let me at it!

On the drive back to Lisbon, we stopped by some ruins that date back to six or 700 hundred years before Christ. I'm guessing this is the old school jacuzzi.

An old entrance way

The Roman influence. Tiled floor