General Details

• Country: Portugal
• Region: Silver Coast
• Town: Coimbra Area
• Property No: 46366
• Property Type: Apartment
• Cost From: €70.00 Daily
  
• Deposit: €0.00
• Breakages: €0.00
• Check In: 14:00hrs
• Check Out: 10:00 hrs
• Added On: 03/06/2011 13:09:42

Facilities

• Bedrooms: 3
• Bathrooms: 2
• Sleeps: 6

Amenities

• ADSL Connection
• TV
• DVD Player
• Hi-Fi
• Dishwasher
• Washer/Dryer
• Fridge/Freezer
• Microwave
• Fully equipped for 6 - cutlery / crockery
• Tarriff includes all linens, bedding

Owner Details

Please contact almedinaapartment@gmail.c using contact details below.

Travel Services

Flights	Car Hire
Insurance	Ferries

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Property Description

Almedina Apartment offers high quality self-catering accommodation, right in the very heart Coimbra. The apartment is located on the top two floors of a Seventeenth Century Portuguese town-house. Behind the fully restored façade, the building has been completely remodelled to offer the space, style and outlook required in the 21st Century.

Modern decor, a fully fitted kitchen and comfortable furniture and furnishings combine to provide a welcoming base from which to explore locally on foot, or to venture further afield. Perhaps to the seaside at Figueira da Foz, the preserved Roman City of Conimbriga, the Shrine at Fatima, or the snowclad mountains of the Serra da Estrela. Some of our guests even visit Lisbon or Porto for a wonderful day trip using public transport.

Being on the top floor of the building ensures your peace and quiet. That is except for when the famous end of academic year celebrations known as the "Quiema das Fitas" (Burning of the Ribbons) bursts onto the streets for a full week in early May. During the summer you can also hear the Coimbra Fado floating through the warm air into the open windows of the apartment. Better still, enjoy a rest in the apartment, and then go on to join in the street concerts that are held throughout the Summer.

The apartment has a fully equipped and modern kitchen, so you can visit the daily food and flower market held just up the road, buy freshly picked fruit and vegetables grown in the lush soils of the Mondego, and bring them back to enjoy the flavours and senses that you thought you had forgotten in this fast-food age. Local olive oil, cheeses, breads and wines of distinction blend with a huge range of fresh fish, vegetables and quality meat, all these can be found in the market against a backdrop of flowers sold by local Portuguese smallholders direct to you.

Perhaps you may prefer to visit a restaurant, or eat in one of the street cafes that surround the apartment. Visit the fascinating historical buildings that give the Almedina district a feeling of belonging to an age gone by.

Please remember that Almedina is a medieval location, and this means streets are narrow and parking is found 200m away. The Almedina Apartment is at the top of the building, being reached by a staircase, so this makes the Apartment unsuitable for those with mobility problems.
The Almedina Apartment is strictly non-smoking.

Seasonal Pricing

Area Description

Coimbra stands on the River Mondego, set on a hill. The surrounding countryside is forested or used as small-holdings and is beautifully green because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, only 30 miles distant. You could call the local area gently rolling, but as you go further from the City of Coimbra you will find yourself in one of the mountain ranges that create a protective bowl in which forms a sheltered micro-climate.The fertile land of the river banks and the warm climate produce famous Barraida wines, exotic oranges and figs, and local sheep and goats cheeses.

Coimbra controlled the Western seaboard of the Iberian Peninsula, so it saw historic changes which have left a legacy of ancient buildings and narrow street grids from Moorish times. Almedina is the Moorish word for 'town'.

Coimbra is the capital city of the Central region of Portugal; midway between Lisbon and Oporto. It is famous for its festivals and musical concerts, and is surrounded by a region rich in sights and activities to interest the traveller.

Perhaps most famous of all, at least in Portugal, is the Festival of the Burning of the Ribbons; known in Portuguese as the 'queima das fitas'. This takes place in May, after the University students have finished their exams. For a week, each night there are music concerts in the Green Park next to the River . These feature famous groups and a packed with students, in their thousands. During the daytime there is the procession of floats representing the different faculties of the University, and the Republicas (student residences), when the final year students dress in their formal Uniforms of cloak, dark suit and coloured top hat.

The whole city turns out to watch as they make their way riotously from the University to the Bridge, through the most ancient parts of Coimbra.

In September, the incoming students celebrate their own Festival - the Festival of the tin cans. They tie ten to a dozen cans to their legs and go round the streets in fancy dress begging for their keep - to show their lowly place in the University.

Every two years in June, 2012 included, there is a 10 day festival celebrating the local saint, Santa Isabela, starting with a formal procession from the Convent of Santa Clara with thousands of candle bearers, followed by a riverside firework display.

Each year Coimbra becomes a staging post for Catholic Pilgrims, making their way on foot to Fatima, about 40 kilometres away. The shrine is dedicated to the appearance of the Virgin Mary near the end of the First World War. It has recently been rebuilt, and was visited by Pope Benedict in 2010 on May 13th - marking the day the 3 children saw the first of their visions.

Near to Coimbra, Conimbriga offers history buffs a whole Roman City with spectacular mosaic pavements, that is under conservation. While in Coimbra you will find the Old Cathedral (Romanesque) and the Machado de Castro Museum, built over a Roman cryptoportico. In the ancient streets, with their medieval walls, arches and stairways, are the Santa Cruz Monastery (founded in 1131), complete with a busy cafe Inside!. The church of Santiago and the monastery of Celas, both 13th-Century, complement the Tower of Almedina which is nearby to the Almedina Apartment.

On the left bank of the Mondego stands the Santa Clara-a-Nova Convent (Baroque, 17th-Century) and the now restored Santa Clara-a-Velha - the 15th Century Convent.

If history and religion tire you, then in the summer you can listen to open-air jazz in the centre of the city, and hear concerts of Coimbra Fado set in romantic open air locations. Coimbra hosts rock and classical music as well. Famous bands such as U2 and the Rolling Stones have appeared here, and this year Mind da Gap, Sean Riley & the Slow Riders and Davis Fonseca are amongst the many artists playing by the river.

After all that, you can find a food festival most weekends somewhere in Coimbra, follow the locals to the restaurants serving spit roast sucking pig, 365 different recipes of codfish, and sample the high quality Barraida wines.

If you've got any energy left then skiing, golf, walking, sea swimming, adventure sports, x-trail biking, quad bike touring, canoeing, and sailing are all available within the region.

A region unknown to many non-Portuguese, but crammed with so much to see and do.

Accommodation Portugal

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