In the East of Central Portugal is Coimbra, the region's main city, home to Coimbra's biggest university. This is a wonderful city of culture and recreation, ideal for a few days exploration and play.

Coimbra fizzles with that same crackling energy that all university towns do. It is that energy of the youth, that seems to come when any city has been handed over to the youth. Not content to stay in, to be bored or docile, they demand things to do and be interested by, and anyone passing through can not fail to be entertained by such a bustling resistance to slowing down.
 

The university is the oldest university in Portugal, and one of the oldest of universities still in operation over the world. It has nearly twenty thousand students, who bring with them a lot of noise and excitement. For them the year begins with Festa des Latas (The tin can parade), the homecoming festival taking place in the beginning of the academic year in November. Tin cans are tied to the back of the feet, chiming raucously along the streets of Coimbra, and the new students dress in the creative costumes designed by older students. The festival accumulates with the new students being 'baptised' in the Mondego river to mark their initiation into the Coimbra academic fraternity. The university year ends with an even larger festival taking place at the end of the second semester, shortly before graduation, the Quiema das Fitas (The Burning of the Ribbons), one of the biggest student parties in Europe. It signifies the end of the year and severance from study, lasting eight days long, a day for each faculty. Yet it is more a prolonged party, stretching out as three days of sport activities, parades and concerts running long in to the night, flowing with beer and cheer. The city becoming truly alive.

Sunset Over the Velha Universidade (Old University) of Coimbra, Portugal Buy at AllPosters.com

They really know how to party here and it is estimated that so much beer is drank at Coimbra's Quiema das Fitas, it surpasses that at Munich's Oktoberfest.
 

Market and Buildings in City Street, Coimbra, Portugal Buy at AllPosters.com

Though there is much more to Coimbra than partying and its student life. It also has a very rich and old cultural side, adding a certain credence to the city as a stimulating academic setting. The city is rich in notable of Manueline architecture constructions, with the Santa Cruz Monastery boasting a splendid Manueline facade and many of the university faculty building serving as notable examples of the form. A traipse round all the religious buildings of Coimbra as a travel round the architectural styles of the second millennium, in staunch contrast to the Santa Cruz Monastery, the Old Cathedral of Coimbra serves takes a Romanesque efficiency, while the New Cathedral of Coimbra sits somewhere between the two with a beautiful baroque design. At night Coimbra really becomes animated with a bustling bar scene to hop between. A Capella bar is a wonderful little joint for experiencing the very Portuguese Phenomena, the music of Fado, yet this is a distinctively Coimbrian take on the form.

Jumping between bars it is easy to feel the sense of energy of Coimbra, the appetite of the city to have a good time, there are many bars and drinking wells, it is easy to find a charming spot. Then afterward there are some colorful night clubs fizzing with excitement, most recommended is Vinyl, one of the finest clubs in the city.

After the busy days of this city, it is wonderful to have your own space to relax, lounging by the pool, perhaps nursing that hangover with one of the region's famous wines, a glass of 'Bairrida'. With villas in Portugal you can take central Portugal at your own pace, relaxing in your vacation home, walking round these glorious planes of land, back in to the city with your new plans, for more culture, more fun.

Europe is often said to be the center of Medieval and Renaissance arts of the western world. Portugal shares in the distinction with some of the finest artists and architects the continent has produced over the centuries.

Notables

The country's rich folk traditions are well-respected and include the uniquely Portuguese Fado, considered the country's national music. Its most noted exponent was Amalia Rodrigues, the "Fado Queen" whose death in October 1999 prompted three days of national mourning.

In addition, one of the country's noted writers, Jose Saramago, gave the country its first Nobel Price for literature a year earlier. The cities known for its Port Wine, Porto was declared the European Capital of Culture in 2001.

Cinema

Its cinema is no Hollywood but is more an industry of cinematic artisans that enjoy a small but avid market for artistic films. The oldest living direct, Manoel de Oliveira continues to make one film a year at a ripe old age of 100 and has figured in international retrospectives like in the Los Angeles Film Festival of 1992 and the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1994 to showcase Portuguese film noire.
 

A new wave of Portuguese cinema is spearheaded by Joao Cesar Monteiro with films like A Comedia de Deus which won the Jury's Special Award at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. Architecture The best of Portugal can be seen from a landscape dotted with ancient ruins of once mighty structures that date back to the Roman conquest of the peninsula. Its medieval castles are second to none in the continent.  The country is best known for its Manueline architecture that evolved with richer more intricate designs than the common architectures during the country's age of discovery in the 14th to the 16 centuries. The Azuleo ceramic tile work is unique to the both Iberian countries that include Spain and can be seen in most churches, palaces and train stations.

Rio Mondego and Ponte De Santa Clara, Coimbra, Beira Litoral, Buy at AllPosters.com

"Fado" Singer and a Guitarist Entertaining the Audience in the Lisbon Nightclub Buy at AllPosters.com

Music A country's tradition is best gleaned from its traditional folk music that has echoes in its contemporary popular music. Portuguese traditional music uses instruments like the Arab adufe which reveal its cultural heritage from the Moorish conquest of the peninsula.  The poetic nature of its music is best heard in the Pauliteiros de Miranda to the Corridinho which are preserved to this day as a testament to Portugal's rich history. Its native Fado is an entire music genre of its own that dates back to the early 1800s in the cities of Lisbon and Coimbra. With mournful tunes often about the poor and played with a shawl, a guitar and a beautiful voice, the Fado is esteemed as the country's national music.

Approximately one and a half hours from Porto and two hours from Lisbon.