Thank you! We’re off in just 3 more weeks!

Thank you Mel, Kelsey and Maribel, great info. Go Walks Portugal is definitely on the list for various tours/walks, glad to hear all the positive thoughts.
Mel, is 10 min enough for the library? Does this mean fewer people inside at a time and better photos?

It looks like 10 minutes is the amount of time allowed whether on a tour or not (though don’t know about private tours). And, at least from my reading, it looks like photos aren’t allowed. Is this correct (Maribel)?

Yes, I thought is was 15 minutes, but Mel's right, it's about 10 minutes (a short amount of time, in any event), that one is allowed to stay inside the top floor of the Baroque library. Just in and out with the large group. No photos. We were "herded" in, again in a large group all at the same time (tickets are timed), and just left to gaze but not to photograph and were given no history or explanations of the library, or mention of the colony of bats that live behind the bookshelves and make themselves at home at nightfall to maintain the books free of insects.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/trave...way-180969276/

We didn't have an audio guide.
This is why I felt that we should have hired a student or former student guide to give us more insight into the U buildings and into student life. My friends, who went around with a doctoral student, enjoyed their visit much more. He took them into the library during the lunch hour, when perhaps it was less crowded? but I don't know.

I’ve written twice to Go Walk and will see if she responds, I’m looking to book for a month from now so I’m sure she is busy but it would be nice to get a response!

Anyone have any other personal experience with guides for Coimbra, specifically for the university and library?

progol,
I hear you about not getting a prompt reply!
Go Walks does get great TA reviews and responds to these reviews, so don't know what's taking so long.

You might try leaving a comment for Sara on their Instagram.

Or on their Facebook
https://mtouch.facebook.com/GOwalksp...l/?__tn__=HH-R

Thanks! I’ll give Go Walks/Sara a few days and then try a gentle nudge!

Definitely no photos allowed in the library. We felt 10 minutes was plenty of time and our group was quite small. There are QR codes that you can scan to your phone and read explanations of what you're looking at while there.

Ouch! Read explanations on the cell phone? So I need to carry reading glasses with me??? I really don't like all this technology...

I feel your pain. I have the same problem...I wear contacts but still need reading glasses. And then of course they fog up due to the mask.

Getting old is hell.

Is the phone thing in addition to regular displays? Or maybe an audio guide? Or is that "it"?

xyz99,
I didn't see any audio guides available on our visit. If only....it would have made a big difference. But apparently there is a guided visit in English at 3 pm. Price: 20 euros/p
https://visit.uc.pt/en/program-list/30

Is the phone thing in addition to regular displays? Or maybe an audio guide? Or is that "it"?

No, it's instead of. It was the QR code or a guided tour. The QR code offers several languages. If it's any consolation, you can increase the size of the print on your phone easily enough.

Thank you both. Guided tour for us!

I just booked a tour for us on Sunday May 22 through GoWalks. However, do know that Sara said the actual business no longer exists as a regular tour company although she still does some tour guiding as well as other activities. She scheduled me with a colleague for 10am for the 2 of us to see the University and library.

Thanks for the update, progol, about Sara and her business. Glad you have a private tour, and at 10 am (early bird=worm and all that).:)

That's great, Progol. Good info about Sara, did you use the GoWalks web site (still up) or Sara's instagram account to contact her directly?

I did use both the site and the email on the Instagram account. She eventually responded to the GoWalks account. Her Go Walk business still exists in some form, it seems, as she has said that the tour I’m on is a public one and I couldn’t change the time, but she isn’t the one giving the tour. I didn’t clarify but I believe she does lead some tours, just not all of them.

Thanks! I'll contact her (and the GoWalks business) closer to our departure date, fingers crossed. You must be sooo excited!