Coimbra I

In Coimbra, where the fair Inês de Castro cried for the last time as she met her end at the hands of her father-in-law's assassins, there is place called the Quinta das Lagrimas (The Estate of Tears). Today there is on the grounds a luxury hotel of the same name, set amid gardens and fountains where the late Queen shared her last happy months with her husband, Dom Pedro I and their children.

We spent a night at this hotel, in the same room in which the poet Ezra Pound had also slept. Here is a photo of the door, beside which the proprietors have taken the trouble to paint the poet's name. Pound was quite a character, having been a propagandist for the fascist powers during World War II.