by Ian Usher

Created on: March 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

The Hotel Astoria is situated in Coimbra, one of the four major cities of Portugal. The other three are Lisbon, Oporto and Braga, and the Portuguese (bless them!) have a little ditty to describe all four. They say, in between mouthfuls of roast suckling pig, that Braga prays, Oporto works, Coimbra studies and Lisbon plays'. From that you can probably guess that Coimbra is the principal university town, their version of Oxbridge. It is, in my opinion the best-looking and friendliest major city in Portugal. The bulk of the city and the campus areas are on and around a dome like hill and is the usual Portuguese mix of white marble and redbrick squalor. The residential and commercial centre however is on the banks of a wide meandering river, the River Mondego. It is here that you will find the Hotel Astoria, overlooking the river and close to the main bridge.

Coimbra is almost exactly half-way between Lisbon and Oporto and to that end is easily accessible from both those cities' major airports. There is a high speed TGV style (Alpha Pendular) train service between Lisbon and Oporto which will get you to Coimbra cheaply in about an hour from both ends. There is also the main N1 north-south motorway (autostrada) if you have a death wish.

A friend and I had arranged our stay at the hotel over the internet and had no idea, bar the above photo, of what to expect. It was late June of last year.

Getting out of the taxi from the station, which is quite a walk otherwise, the outside of the building looked like any other grubby but majestic old colonial-style Portuguese building. The entrance, however, started to arouse my curiosity. It is one of those revolving doors, the old wooden variety that can only take one at a time, and creaks. Once we had negotiated that and got into the lobby we thought that someone had spiked our drinks on the train, for we had the distinct impression that we had just entered the 1920's. In front of us was the reception desk complete with smiling manager and his attendant livery-attired bellboys. To our right was a large dining room which has a high gallery having the function of a library and reading area. To our left was the lounge and bar. The whole place was decked out in wooden panelling, velvet upholstered armchairs and sofas, as well as ceiling-high mirrors. It could have been the Titanic or the Orient Express. There was a man smoking a cigar in an armchair with his back to me. I had the distinct impression that if I had tapped his shoulder,

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