On the third day of our journey, we left Porto and headed south. A morning train ride, a stop in Coimbra, and our arrival in Nazaré divided the day into three chapters, each with its own rhythm. From the buzz of the city to the waves of the ocean.

Departure – goodbye Porto

Today a shift to the south was waiting for us, so we got up early to pack. In nine days we would be sleeping in three different locations, so we decided to travel with backpacks. Carrying everything on our backs is definitely more practical and far easier than dragging suitcases around. Especially when you realise that Portuguese cities are anything but flat.

The metro stop close to our accommodation saved us from a wet start to the day, since it was still raining. At Campanhã railway station we caught our train. I had bought the tickets about a month earlier, since they are more than half cheaper and also allow you to reserve seats. Good thing too, because I hadn’t seen so many people on a platform on a Saturday morning in a long time.

The Train Ride

As you leave Porto by train, the outskirts slowly give way to a wide plain, where the tracks almost touch the Atlantic for a moment. Eucalyptus plantations dominate the landscape, dotted with patches of pine forest. On the higher ground you can even spot a vineyard or two.

After about half an hour on the train, the landscape turns into a network of lagoons, canals and marshes. Because of all these waterways, Aveiro is often called the Portuguese Venice, except that there are no gondolas gliding through the canals — instead, there are larger, brightly painted boats called moliceiros, which were originally used to transport seaweed. We didn’t see much of them from the train window, though, because the rain was coming down in sheets.

Why a stop in Coimbra?

The train doesn’t stop anywhere near our final destination, so I planned a break in Coimbra, since we would have had to switch to a bus anyway. Why Coimbra? Well, here the little magician in me stepped in again. This is one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe, founded back in 1290. For a long time, as the country’s only university, it shaped the Portuguese elite.

The university complex stands on top of a hill — nothing in this part of Portugal is ever really “flat”. The symbolism is clear: knowledge is something you have to climb towards. As for us… we climbed it by taxi.

Which brings us to the real reason we came to Coimbra: Harry Potter.

Students wear traditional black uniforms with flowing capes — the very look that inspired the wizarding robes in Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling herself confirmed it.

A Library with Special Protection

There’s something truly unique here — the Biblioteca Joanina, an 18th-century baroque library built as a self-contained microclimatic space. Its walls are incredibly thick, its wood is a special type, and the windows let in very little light. All of it designed to protect the paper and book bindings from humidity. Photography is forbidden, so I’ll try to paint it with words instead.

After climbing steep steps with a 20-kilogram backpack, you enter a room that holds around 70,000 books, manuscripts and maps. The space is smaller than you’d imagine and rises high — eight to ten meters — just enough for three levels of beautifully carved shelves, accessible through hidden doors.

And then there’s the library’s own “night watch”: a permanent colony of bats, Miniopterus schreibersii, who feed on insects and have been acting as a natural protective system for centuries.

It really is just like the saying goes: you arrive as a visitor, but you leave as someone who’s taken a piece of this place with you…

Towards the Atlantic

We took a taxi down the hill to catch the 1:30 p.m. bus that was supposed to take us all the way to the ocean. The hills soon give way to gentler terrain, olive groves start appearing, and here and there even a vineyard. The bus passes through Leiro, a place that at first glance doesn’t promise much. Just a town like any other — shops, apartment blocks, a small factory — and then, between the facades, you suddenly glimpse a hilltop with something on it. But you can’t quite make it out.

When the view finally opens up, you realise that you’ve been riding beneath a castle the whole time — and it looks truly impressive. I later read that the whole area used to be known for vast pine forests. It was from here that Portugal sourced the timber for its ships during the era of discoveries and conquests. Definitely worth a stop some other time!

The ocean isn’t far now. You step off the bus, grab a coffee and a sort-of chocolate pastry, load up your backpack again, and quickly check Google Maps to see where you’re supposed to go.

And here’s where we messed up. Or Google did. Or probably both. We ended up walking almost half the coast before we found the right path to our accommodation. But honestly, it wasn’t exactly suffering. Quite the opposite.

First came that unmistakable Portuguese wavy pavement we’d already walked on in Porto… as if it went on forever.

Then, on the right, a vast, wide beach, reminiscent of Copacabana – but empty, and because of that, even more beautiful. Truly. Pure suffering.”

Transit Home No. 2

This was honestly one of the nicest places I’ve booked through Booking in the past few years. I’m pretty sure the little balcony with its ocean view had something to do with it — the kind of spot where the photo basically takes itself.

Port Wine and a Walk into the Dark

Over dinner we tried some port wine — similar in aroma to blueberry liqueur, sweet in taste, but smoother to drink. Here they served it as an aperitif. As we’d already noticed in Porto, it’s quite a bit stronger and usually closer to 20%.

Of course we couldn’t resist ending the day with a walk along the beach. The only lights are by the road, while the beach itself is nearly 200 meters wide, so once you’re in the middle, you’re standing in complete darkness. And when you finally reach the end and hear the waves you can’t see, it becomes a little eerie — and somehow even more magical.

The City of Waves

Nazaré is famous for having the biggest waves in the world. Not on the side we were on, though — those are on the northern side. If that’s really true, we’ll find out tomorrow.