One of the things that you see in guidebooks are admonitions not to drive in Portugal. Various reasons are given for the stated warnings. The main warnings focus on the insanity of driving in Lisbon where the streets change names, the drivers are said to be crazy, and where the lack of street signs to offer an...y guidance leave you doubting the GPS.
There are other reasons however not to drive in Portugal. Take the city of Coimbra as a for instance. Just down the hill from the ancient university located in Coimbra is the old cathedral, the old Se. There is a one-way street that runs from just below the glorious and ancient library of the University down to a square where the old cathedral and several sandwich shops are located.
On the day that we were exploring the University we discovered the challenges of navigating that street. A car had come down to the Square from up near the university. It was something small like a mini Cooper or a Fiat 500. When the car reached the corner where the cathedral is located the driver about freaked out. The distance between the cathedral and the building on the opposite side of the corner was so small that the tiny car’s mirrors had to be folded in. One of the passengers had to step in front of the car and act as an air traffic controller waving this way and that to navigate the car through the narrow slot. The driver was making adjustments centimeter by centimeter. If you look at the walls on the building across from the cathedral you can see that that process has not always worked well.
After watching several cars being navigated through the space we headed back up to the university. About 10 car lengths up from the passage, and at a point well down the one-way street that leads to it, a nine passenger van was just parking. Jokingly, but not really, we told the driver of the van that to exit the area he was either going to have to back up the hill, or simply walk away from the van and tell the rental agent that the van had been stolen.
Much laughter ensued. The driver was basically giving us a manifestation of a no sweat attitude. The passengers were Brits, French and English. As we watched them walk down the hill we started to hear words that we were familiar with. Merde stood out and I believe there was a bloody f&@king hell as they actually saw the space. Wonder if they filed a police report?
On the day that we were exploring the University we discovered the challenges of navigating that street. A car had come down to the Square from up near the university. It was something small like a mini Cooper or a Fiat 500. When the car reached the corner where the cathedral is located the driver about freaked out. The distance between the cathedral and the building on the opposite side of the corner was so small that the tiny car’s mirrors had to be folded in. One of the passengers had to step in front of the car and act as an air traffic controller waving this way and that to navigate the car through the narrow slot. The driver was making adjustments centimeter by centimeter. If you look at the walls on the building across from the cathedral you can see that that process has not always worked well.
After watching several cars being navigated through the space we headed back up to the university. About 10 car lengths up from the passage, and at a point well down the one-way street that leads to it, a nine passenger van was just parking. Jokingly, but not really, we told the driver of the van that to exit the area he was either going to have to back up the hill, or simply walk away from the van and tell the rental agent that the van had been stolen.
Much laughter ensued. The driver was basically giving us a manifestation of a no sweat attitude. The passengers were Brits, French and English. As we watched them walk down the hill we started to hear words that we were familiar with. Merde stood out and I believe there was a bloody f&@king hell as they actually saw the space. Wonder if they filed a police report?
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