After a lovely and ample breakfast, provided by the Quintas, we visited the Saint Clare Monestary. Since I was named after Saint Clare, it was very cool to be seeing this place! After our little walking tour of the grounds, we had a lovely coffee at the café there; sampling the special Clare Pastry. The pastry was small, light, and fluffy with almonds.
Queen Elizabeth decreed this monastery be build in 1314, for the Order of Saint Clare. The grounds are very extensive, in part because of the wealthy local citizens and royalty who contributed though out history.
Apparently, in 1677, the monastery was abandoned as it was flooded by the Mondego river. Between 1929 to 1940, it was restored. It was opened after the archaeological excavations from 1995-2000.
After St. Clare’s, we went back to the hotel. It was a hot day, so I wanted to spend a few hours poolside. On the way back to the hotel, we saw this very neato little car:
Dennis went in search of a laundry facility while I searched for the perfect pool lounge chair. It was luxurious reading by the pool. Eventually, the Germans from the day before came out and I chatted with them about Coimbra. It was nice to hear what it was like 20 years ago. They said it was much less built up, but it’s managed to retain the old-world romance.
For dinner, we were craving pizza. So, we ended up at Pizzaria Santa Clara, which is conveniently located adjacent to the monestary. We got a thin crusted cheese pizza with olives and some garlic bread. It was delicious. The young gal working there was in her early 20s and she had quite a good handle on the English language. We enjoyed talking to her, although her boss did not appreciate us keeping her from the other customers!
Tags: 10th Anniversary, Coimbra, Portugal, Santa Clara Monestary