Conimbriga

After a nighttime serenade at my hotel from the guest in the room next door, guitar in room and song in the shower, I was up. The morning seemed bright and full of possibilities as I peaked out my shuttered window and into the quiet streets two stories below. As my first non-Marriott breakfast in several days, I was excited to enter the dining area at my appointed 8am time. My dutch hostesses had prepared a hybrid Portuguese, American, and Dutch buffet that included American bran flakes (finally!), Portuguese breads, cheese, and ham, and Dutch somethings. I say somethings as my hostess was unsure of their exact nature. On initial description I took them to be a Dutch fiber or seed supplement, plopped on your cereal to provide good plopping. But in reality, these somethings were sprinkle – orange, purple, and other more primary colors - sugar pellets I am used to finding on a Dunkin donut.

After several failed attempts to catch the correct bus to my destination for the day, Conimbriga, I taxied it. As the best sight for Roman ruins in Portugal and one of the best maintained in Europe according to my guidebook, I was excited. I’ve seen Roman ruins before but never a fully developed locale as this was supposed to be. What I found was of interest but also some disappointment.

The thing about ruins is that they are inevitably in ruin. You find a stone here, a mosaic there, and but for some somewhat explanatory placards, it is difficult to make much sense of it all. They had actually done a beautiful job creating a museum on the site, which was long, low and architecturally muted in its serenity, but they appeared not to be stopping here. I found more than half of the ruins under construction. Yes, they were actually rebuilding the ruins in several parts with new marble and stone. I just couldn’t imagine.

There were a couple of really cool things – remnants of the old Roman road between Lisbon and Porto, mosaic floors, flowered gardens, and a tall, crumbling city wall. But with these I was the lone traveler to board the return bus to Lisbon – one per afternoon – and after thirty minute I was back at my hotel to grab my bags, to lunch at a converted church site, and to return to Lisbon, for what would be an almost end to my European adventures.

The old Roman road and the city's ancient defense wall.

The remnants of an ancient heating system.

Columns remain.

With a small creek just a few hundred yards away, Conimbriga's setting appears to have been a beatiful one.

Iris and water remain and active part of portions of the site.

Outside the site, graffiti takes an odd form here with past school groups having marked their waiting spot.