Day 6, train to Coimbra

It rained over night and the clothes we hung two days ago aren't dry. Yesterday I asked someone at the tourist office how to get to the train station. She suggested a bus or a taxi. "How about walking?" I asked. "Um, uh, I guess you could walk this road", she replied, drawing a line on my map, "but it's a long way, maybe 20 minutes". I told her that it's ok because we are walking to Santiago. She smiled, but her eyes said, "that's crazy talk".

It was almost exactly 20 minutes down the hill, through yet another almost completely abandoned neighborhood. Not for the first time, I wondered how the richer countries ever agreed to the Euro.

I watched the ticket agent select adjacent seats but when I looked at the tickets later, I was worried by the non-sequential seat assignments; 82, 88, 91. On the train, I was surprised that our seats were together. The is a clear pattern to the seat numbers but I have no idea why they are arranged this way:

…
W 94 96 A 98 92
W 97 95 A 83 91
W 84 86 A 88 82
W 87 85 A 83 81
…

W- window, A- aisle

Any ideas?

Gyu eon started reading a book but soon fell asleep and reminded me of a line from a Monsters of Folk song, "I guess I'll rest my head against my elbow and the window and let my wheels go…"

JH quickly got engrossed in an ebook but I just looked out the window at land that was definitely getting hillier. We passed through many small villages, some with only 10 houses. More than once, I saw a pedestrian bridge, complete with elaborate ramps crossing the tracks, just to accommodate one or two houses.

Photos

1 down the hill to Santarem train station
2 the station