Moved on, and arrived at the ancient University city of Coimbra:


rather like this


It's graduation day, and apparently the colours represent faculty. I was a student once, but we never did it like this!

Why can nobody design a decent hotel shower?

Why can nobody design a decent hotel shower?

I find the issue is not so much that there are no decent ones (Though I have experienced some truly awful ones!) but that if you are moving around a lot, every single one has different controls and techniques needed to get the best out of them.

The latest one has two settings: "thunderstorm directly overhead" or "handheld wand". You can't use them both together.

'Thunderstorm' I can accept as a choice - not my preferred usage, but OK. The handheld wand has only one parking position: pointing 90 degrees from the wall, at about belly-button height. And it's fierce: I currently have the best power jet-washed belly button ever.

'Thunderstorm' I can accept as a choice

If it comes with electricity and water then please pass me by as a choice. But maybe it does wonders on your hair.

The shower room has both electricity and water - hallelujah. I can fill my travelling kettle and boil it in the same room. Not allowed in Britain. But it's safely separate from the actual shower - that uses hot water from elsewhere.

Most bathrooms have a grounded wall outlet so you can electric shave. I just meant, your "Thunderstorm" shower head, you don't want it to have the electricity coming out (lightning) while you shower. ;-)

I've encountered some really great hotel showers :-)
and some even worse than dire :-(

Here you go. Welcome to the navel jet wash.


The best I ever had was a tiny hotel in Paris, chosen because it was half way between the RER from the airport, and Gare Montparnasse for my train the next day. Just a stack of rooms, really, with room for a single chair for the porter at the bottom. The best all-over body wash - jets coming at you from all sides and all heights.

Found out today that the picture I took from the hotel roof (follow reply link) was the fabled Biblioteca Joanina itself. Vistted this morning - it lives up to the billing. No photography, unfortunately - even from the open doorway on the way out.

Here you go. Welcome to the navel jet wash.

.... The best all-over body wash - jets coming at you from all sides and all heights.

Would that be like a drive thru car wash experience without the car🚗? 🤔

Or with the car with the windows open.

Would that be like a drive thru car wash experience without the car🚗? 🤔

Pretty much, only without the spinning furry rollers. Adding those would have really made things interesting.

Who says you can't incorporate some high tech fun and mystery into a low tech past time?
This $30 puzzle gives you a shot at $1,000,000

Created by street art collective MSCHF, this puzzle goes a step further than its popular One Million Dollar Puzzle by having not one, but two one-million dollar winners. Seriously: All you have to do is complete the 500-piece puzzle to have two shots at one million dollars.

Others will probably be glad about this fix as well: https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-banish-those-irritating-pictures-from-your-windows-search-bar/

Exploring the Douro. This:


close as a pleasant shock to the system after:


So far, I've found the beer fridge (better than port for this time - and heat - of the day.

Last lap. I think I ought to be able to find my way from hotel to station in the morning?


Mind you, it's not a patch on last night...


Back home tomorrow evening, all going well - and it's gone fantastically well so far. I'll fill in the gaps - assuming anyone wants me to - after a few sleeps and a few ales.

Get the sleeps in then tell us the gaps.
Looks like a great trip so far.

Well, it was going so well... Here I am, still at Gare du Nord, an hour and a half after I should have left. "Fatality near Lille" - I thought that was the English excuse. Still, they've bumped me forward to the first train out, and I'm onboard, baggage safely stowed. Just got the warning about the automatic closing doors....