Saturday in Coimbra

Saturday – Coimbra, Portugal
I am writing this in the car enroute from Coimbra, Portugal to Salamanca Spain. Interesting that these are both major universities. Internet connectivity has been problematic in Portugal. I think once we get back to Spain it will no longer be a problem.
Portugal is beautiful – the countryside and the towns. It is definitely poorer than Spain and the buildings, even the prominent once are not well maintained. For instance we stayed in a 4 star Relais Chateau hotel last night and the outside of it was covered with black mold. Almost all the buildings everywhere here are tarnished with black – I think it is mold but it probably could be from coal smoke.
Coimbra was my favorite place in Portugal. We arrived yesterday afternoon. The name of our hotel Quinta de Lagrimas. Lagrimas means tears. It was originally a manor house on this property dating back about 200 years. Many years before this (not sure of the exact dates) the area belonged to a family whose oldest son was De Castro (not sure of her lineage). They were deeply in love and had some young children. For reasons that I don’t know, Don Pedro’s father arranged for her murder. Don Pedro was devastated. This is a famous story in Portugal and there are many plays and art about it.
Outside the hotel there are beautiful gardens, ponds, and hiking trails. The oldest of these ponds is the Fountain of Tears, supposedly fed by Inez’s tears. The legend has it that her ghost haunts the old manor house and gardens. The night of our stay was Halloween so we thought that if there was any chance of an Inez sighting it would be last night. None of us had a sighting though.
After we arrived yesterday around noon we walked into town. The hotel is located across the river and there is a pedestrian bridge. There were lots of kayaks on the river and a “Batou Mousche” kind of boat. The town was pretty typical looking but small and easy to get around. It has the major university for Portugal which is very old and on top of the town’s major hill. It has apparently been very influential in the history of the country. The man who was the dictator until the late 1950s (I can’t remember his name right now) was a professor of economics there for a long time. (That doesn’t mean that he was popular with the students though and apparently the University’s students were very active at the time he was deposed. I want to learn more about this.) The students wear black capes at official functions and apparently also wear them “proudly” at other times as well.
The guidelbook said that Coimbra was a center for “Fado” the famous music form for this country. On the guidebook map it showed an area that was known for Fado. We walked to this area and there is a town square with a Cathedral and lots of steps. The square is called Santa Cruz after the Cathedral. We stopped for an espresso at the café adjacent to the cathedral and inquired of the waiter if he knew where we could hear fado that night. He told us that his café usually had fado but it was closing that night for its 2 week vacation. Instead he recommended that we go up the hill to a place called Capello and said that they had fado every night. We managed to locate Capello but it wasn’t easy. It was off a tiny street, down some steps, didn’t have any sign except small writing on the door, and looked like it was a chapel.
We returned last night at 10 pm to Capello. It was a chapel. There were small tables and chairs facing the front of the room. There was an elevated platform with two chairs and then high above it another platform with a grand piano. An movie was showing against the back wall which showed some fado singers and musicians interspersed with old newsreel footage of what looked like demonstrations many years ago.
Even though the performance had not yet started, the audience was very quiet and was watching the film. The place felt like a place of worship, “fado worship.” The performance began at about 10:30 pm. Two young men dressed in black came on stage with guitars. They began playing absolutely beautiful music. Their guitars were Portuguese which sound very unusual. Much different from Spanish classical guitar. Then the fado singer came on stage. He was probably in his late 30s, very handsome, and dressed in a brown suit. He gave a brief welcome, first in Portuguese then in English. He said that this place is the only one that has fado each night and then something about its ancient origins. Then he began to sing and we were awestruck. The melody was unbelievably beautiful and his voice was an operatic or Irish tenor like. The music continued with short breaks during which more film footage was shown.
The experience was hypnotic. At Capello the fado was like a religious experience. The songs, and melodies, were plaintive and haunting. There was nothing at all like the rhythmic clapping or let’s all sing along style of the Lisbon fado. The last song of the last set we heard was the most amazing. The singer put on his University black cape and in his introduction he said that the song had to do with freedom and student’s role in getting freedom for Portugal. Before we left we talked with the singer. He was delightful and said that his love is fado. In his other life he is an engineer but hopes someday he can retire from that and just sing. We bought a couple CDs and left Capello thoroughly mesmerized with this beautiful music form and anxious to learn more about it.
As we walked back to our hotel (it was about 12:30) a crowd of students walked past us obviously having a great (and somewhat inebriated) time many of them (including females) wearing their black capes.
This is a night that I will always remember.
This morning when I was briefly able to get an Internet connection I googled Fado. The description in Wikipedia was very interesting.
http://www.acapella.com.pt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fados

Also here is the website for the place we went to. You can hear fado music there.

We are now driving though hill country and approaching the Spanish border. That is all for now…..