She kept climbing up the hill. Like the water, she found her own way through this medieval town. All of a sudden, thunderstorms started as if the rain wanted to push her back downwards the cobblestone paved slopes. She leaned with her body on a window when she heard a Portuguese guitar playing from the inside. Very few things had such a fascinating tone on earth. She had listened to many wistful Fados sang by women from Lisbon, but nowhere else in Portugal had she listened such a proud and gentle appeal to faith. For centuries, Coimbra Fados were composed and performed solely by Coimbra college men wearing their long black capes. She sat on the pavement just so. Line by line, she whispered her emotions into the wrinkles forming on her clothes. Then the song said: 'Coimbra has more charm, when it's time to say goodbye.