7: The Conímbriga Ruins

02/20/2011

Get ready for a picture-heavy post! 

I had to edit my date above when I realized that most people reading this blog probably don't put the date before the month... I'm getting used to Portugal very quickly.

This weekend Amy took a extremely long bus ride to Spain and most of our buddies were off around Portugal, so Tatiana and I decided to do a day trip to the Conímbriga ruins.  According to Rick Steves (Who, if you didn't know, is the best travel book author OF ALL TIME), these ruins are impressive and second only to those in Rome.  Of course, reading that description, my Ancient-Rome-ophile mind desperately needed to see these ruins, and conveniently, they were only a 20-minute bus ride away from Coimbra.

The clock at the Coimbra A station.  At noon.

Public transportation in Portugal is, to say the least, a little worse than what we might be used to in America.  In America, for instance, we like bus schedules that are readable, expect buses to be either frequent or on time (probably has something to do with every single public clock having a different, and usually incorrect, time), and don't have the previously described circuit system that will either make your travel time seven minutes or an hour and twenty.   At least in DC, our bus drivers tend to understand a round-a-bout and don't almost get into accidents in any and every round-a-bout they enter.  Well here in Portugal, we experienced a whole new problem with buses: the width of roads.  While a little comparable to the roads in Annapolis, European roads are actually ridiculously thin.  If you aren't on a highway, there is a definite chance that your vehicle will be merely inches away from another vehicle passing in an opposite direction. Our bus to the ruins actually had to stop in the street because one driver didn't parallel park close enough to the curb and the bus couldn't pass.  We sat there for twenty minutes as the bus driver (who, in a fun aside, resembled contemporary Alec Baldwin) and the people in a nearby cafe tried to get in touch with the driver, and the cars behind us honked and honked.  Only in Portugal.

Finally we got to the ruins, and while it drizzled every now and then, the sights were incredible.  For only 1,60 € we were able to see the entire facility (I love this Euro26 program!).  

The swastika design

 
First, as Rick Steve's suggested, we saved the museum for last and started on the ruins.  The first area was what used to be a house with the most beautiful mosaic floors I've ever seen.  I could not believe that it was that well preserved, though I'm sure some restoration had occurred.  This house is referred to as a Casa da Cruz suástica, or the House of the Swastika, because there is a hallway with the design in the mosaic.  Of course, for the ancient Romans, the symbol didn't have much to do with Hitler, but was more of a symbol for solar restoration.

The furnaces for the ladies' bath

Right next to this was a small bath facility which they are still excavating.  I love how excavators can identify for what each room was used.  

The House of Cantaber (it goes on)

Down a little hill was this HUGE area where Cantaber, the main aristocrat of Conímbriga, had built his home.  The area was massive, even for modern standards.  Next to this was a home that had later been converted into a cathedral, but unfortunately the ruins had been pretty badly destroyed and they didn't know much about the church or its layout.

The Forum (now)

The original stone under the new

The Forum (then)

Then there was the Forum, which was highly reconstructed but still really neat.  I'm sure that many of the original stones had fallen over, but where original stone remained, the builders let it show beneath the newer white brick.  I loved that they did that.  They had even placed a few pillars on the side to give the tourist a better idea of what it had looked like.  In the museum, later, they had built a miniature replica of the Forum and the temple behind it.  

Indigenous ruins

Underneath the temple, the excavators had found all these destroyed structures from the indigenous people that the Romans had probably killed and replaced.  Two kinds of ruins for one!

The view from the Termas do Sul

The other huge area was the Southern Bathhouse (As Termas do Sul), which they have also started to rebuild a little bit.  It was massive and beautiful, and it has an amazing view of the valley and the river.  I could only imagine how nice it must have been to go there as a Roman.  

The garden of the House of Fountains

No matter what era, there will be fish in Portugal.

We walked back through the ruins and went to the "main attraction" of the ruins, A casa dos repuxos, or the House of Fountains, which was under a protective structure.  I had been so impressed by the mosaics in the previous house, but these designs weren't just geometrical.  There were gods, animals, and people in these floors.  Amazing.  Apparently there was some sort of fountain show in the middle, where the facility had planted a garden and flowers, but Rick Steves told us not to waste the money (you're the best, Rick).  

The (mostly) completely intact kitchen ware.

After a huge buffet lunch at the museum restaurant and some inspiration for a couple new dinner ideas, we made our way to the small but fantastic museum.  Such a well laid-out and marvelous collection.  Many of the artifacts that they found in the ruins are now housed inside, and the huge wealth of things that were in amazing condition was so impressive.  They had whole huge clay bowls and scissors!  The scissors absolutely blew my mind.  This is why I love going to see ruins and learning about history: because no matter how many centuries separate you and the people you are learning about, there are those little things that remind you that human beings are still pretty damn similar.

The scissors.  Blew my mind.

My new stone lion friend.  You know, because I have a lot of stone lion friends.

After the ruins and buying a few postcards, we went outside and waited for the bus.  The driver had told us that he was returning at 5 PM, but no bus came until about 6:30 PM (I'm adopting the "T.I.A." phrase from "Blood Diamond."  T.I.P.  This is Portugal).  At least Tatiana and I had a good time taking pictures and generally being ridiculous in the parking lot.  There was also a tour bus of young European guys who tried yelling to us from their bus in several languages to figure out where we were from.  Of course, each thing they yelled was along the lines of, "I love you!  Marry me, gorgeous girls!"  When they drove away, one of the guys popped out of this window and sang, "Goodbye my lover!  Goodbye my friend!"  After ignoring them for nearly half an hour, we couldn't stop laughing and I blew him kisses right back.  I think you have the guts to pull out James Blunt songs, you definitely deserve that.


That night we got back, made taco meat, black beans, and guacamole and watched Jane Eyre Part 1.  I might be becoming a little more European, but some things never change.