Our journey starts from the lovely seaside town of Figuerira da Foz and takes us up into the hills of the of the Coimbra district mountains. There many archaeological structures in the area dating back to the Roman era. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. We start off at the beach with a height of 95 feet above sea level and up to a breath taking 1322 feet through many of the twists and hairpin bends, where there is many a vantage point to look down over towns and villages. The cooler months to visit the area is between November and February when the temperature ranges between 25 and 27 degrees, during the summer months it has been known to hit 40 degrees plus.