DAY 63: We continue our voyage of discovery in Portugal - Tomar what a magical town.

August 15 2024, Tomar, Portugal.

NOTE: Blogs for Day 1 to Day 62 of our awesome European Adventure can be found at: https://www.travelblog.org/bloggers/grantd

The original plan for today was to travel to Tomar, visit the Convent of Christ and Castle that was originally a Templer stronghold in the 12th century before coming under the Knights of the Order of Christ in the 15th century. from there we would head on to Coimbra to spend the night - putting us within striking distance of Porto.

However, our plans were thrown into disarray as the result of a strike. John (our guide) explained the reason the for the strike, in January 2024 the government transferred the guardianship to another state-owned organization but one with a profit motive (in New Zealand we would call them State Owned Enterprise). The SOE immediately increased the prices for a visit from 6 euro to 10 euro and cut out all penal rates for overtime or working public holidays (time and a half, double time etc). They believed they had the legal right to do this and there was no consultation with staff. The staff responded by refusing to work any extra hours or on public holidays and the matter is still unresolved. Unfortunately, our visit was on a public holiday, so the Convent was closed as the staff were on strike.

Reasonably confident the 'SOE' would lose more in lost ticket sales than they would save by taking away the overtime payments, but no doubt egos are involved and it all seems to have developed into a bit of a Mexican (I guess Portuguese standoff would be more correct) Standoff and we've been caught in the hypothetical crossfire! To be fair it was beyond everyone's control and Megane working with John our intrepid guide came up with a very adequate Plan B.

We were lucky John had such an extensive knowledge of the history of the area and beyond. We were able to walk around the outside of the Convent of Christ and Castle and got a good rundown on its history before heading down to the Old Town for a comprehensive tour including visiting what is a very rare example of a fully restored medieval Jewish synagogue (there are just 2 in Portugal). The building was active as a synagogue until 1496 when the Jews were expelled from Poland. Subsequently it had a variety of uses including as a prison (the bars were still on the windows) from 1516 to the 1560s. Eventually it was returned to its original state and now stands a very unique and interesting museum.

After the tour we had free time, and we found a lovely riverside cafe for lunch, a quiet drink and some people watching. Tomar is an extremely beautiful town with roughly 40,000 residents and continues our Portugal theme of discovering incredible places we wouldn't know existed without the tour.

At 3 we regrouped well satisfied with tour Tomar experience (despite the 34-degree temperatures), jumped in the van and headed for Coimbra our overnight stop for the day. The trip took around an hour, we checked into our Hotel (Hotel Oslo) and Megane took us on a familiarization walk on the Old Town at the conclusion of which we had a team dinner at a local Cod Fish Restaurant. Cod fish is the iconic food of Portugal and can be served in around 300 different ways!

Jeanette and I had Cod with ham and cheese on top. it was ok, dry on the outside but nice and moist inside. There were quite a few bones though and while I definitely enjoy eating fish the Portuguese style Cod won't be high on my 'must have again' list.