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THE TENNIS TACTICIAN, LLC

Themed Cardio Tennis Clinics in the Fort Lauderdale Area

cardio tennis class South Florida — the Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag combined with the national flag of Portugal
cardio tennis class South Florida — Paço das Escolas and the Biblioteca Joanina, Universidade de Coimbra in Coimbra, A walled courtyard of pale stone on the very top of the hill above the city, entered under an ornate arched gateway, with a tall free-standing baroque clock tower on one side and a low library block with heavy carved doors on another
cardio tennis class South Florida — Sé Velha de Coimbra (the Old Cathedral) in Coimbra, A squat fortress-like Romanesque church of golden stone with crenellations along its roofline and narrow slit windows, standing part-way up the hill on a small terraced square reached by steps
cardio tennis class South Florida — Mosteiro de Santa Cruz in Coimbra, A church with an elaborately carved Renaissance stone façade rising directly off a busy square in the lower city, flanked by a triumphal-arch porch and adjoining cloister buildings
cardio tennis class South Florida — Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, A roofless Gothic church of grey stone standing on the low left bank of the Mondego, excavated below the present ground level so that visitors look down into it, with the river close behind and the hill of the university opposite
cardio tennis class South Florida — the Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag combined with the national flag of Portugal

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag

Coimbra, Portugal  ·  Bags > 0-3

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag

This one-chamber duffle runs like a well-oiled escapement — wide mouth, two frames, shoes, a towel and whatever came off the court damp. Coimbra has business with you first: a hill, a cathedral built like a fort, and a library that will quietly ruin every other library. Sing it back to me afterwards.

↓   Tour Coimbra, Portugal

Four stops before the checkout

Coimbra, Portugal
01
cardio tennis class South Florida — Paço das Escolas and the Biblioteca Joanina, Universidade de Coimbra in Coimbra, A walled courtyard of pale stone on the very top of the hill above the city, entered under an ornate arched gateway, with a tall free-standing baroque clock tower on one side and a low library block with heavy carved doors on another
Stop one

Paço das Escolas and the Biblioteca Joanina, Universidade de Coimbra

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag: Sorry — I'll be quick. The University of Coimbra was founded as a studium generale at Lisbon in 1290 and was definitively moved into the royal palace here in 1537, which is why the courtyard is a former king's residence, which I've always thought was rather — sorry, I'm going on. The Biblioteca Joanina was built in the eighteenth century under King John V, and it holds its books in gilded shelving behind a triple set of chambers, and — you'll think I'm inventing this — a colony of bats has long been kept in the reading rooms, to eat the insects that would otherwise destroy the bindings. Bats. In the library. Deliberately. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. I'll stop.

02
cardio tennis class South Florida — Sé Velha de Coimbra (the Old Cathedral) in Coimbra, A squat fortress-like Romanesque church of golden stone with crenellations along its roofline and narrow slit windows, standing part-way up the hill on a small terraced square reached by steps
Stop two

Sé Velha de Coimbra (the Old Cathedral)

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag: Sorry to have dragged you uphill for this one. It was begun in the twelfth century under Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, who took the royal title after his victory at Ourique in 1139 and made Coimbra his capital. And the battlements aren't decorative — everyone assumes they are, I assumed it too, and I was wrong: the city stood close to the shifting frontier with al-Andalus, and the cathedral was built to be defensible. It served as Coimbra's cathedral until the seventeenth century, when the see was transferred to a new church higher up the hill, and it survived largely unaltered as a result. Being left behind is what saved it. Sorry, that's a bit bleak. It's a lovely building.

03
cardio tennis class South Florida — Mosteiro de Santa Cruz in Coimbra, A church with an elaborately carved Renaissance stone façade rising directly off a busy square in the lower city, flanked by a triumphal-arch porch and adjoining cloister buildings
Stop three

Mosteiro de Santa Cruz

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag: I do apologise, there's rather a lot in this one. Santa Cruz was founded in 1131, in the reign of Afonso Henriques, and became the most important monastic house in the young kingdom. It holds the tombs of Portugal's first two kings, Afonso Henriques and his son Sancho I; their present monuments were commissioned by King Manuel I in the early sixteenth century, when the whole church was rebuilt and the sculptor Nicolau Chanterene worked here, bringing Renaissance carving into Portugal. And the monastery also ran the school from which much of the early university's teaching descended, so it all joins up, which I probably should have led with. Sorry. Two kings and a school. That's the summary.

04
cardio tennis class South Florida — Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, A roofless Gothic church of grey stone standing on the low left bank of the Mondego, excavated below the present ground level so that visitors look down into it, with the river close behind and the hill of the university opposite
Stop four

Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag: Last one, and thank you for staying with me. Santa Clara-a-Velha was refounded in 1314 by Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, who retired here and was buried in the church. But the Mondego flooded the site repeatedly, and in 1677 the nuns finally abandoned it for a new convent on higher ground, leaving the church to silt up; for centuries only its upper walls stood above the mud. Then archaeological excavation drained and recovered the buried building, and it is open to view now, sunk at its original floor level below the modern riverbank. You are standing above a floor that spent three hundred years underwater. Sorry. I find that extraordinary. Thank you for listening.

The Coimbra, Portugal track

Wilson Blade V10 Duffle Bag

Written for this world alone.

Everyone who walks through my door is carrying too much, and they all say the same thing: it is only for one night. Give me the bag. I have never once been wrong about the bag.

The Wilson Blade V10 Duffle is the right amount of bag for most people, which is a genuinely underrated virtue. Duffle format means one wide-mouthed main compartment rather than a narrow racquet tube, so it swallows shoes, kit, a towel, a change of clothes and a couple of racquets without a fight, and you can actually see what is in it.

There is a separate vented pocket for shoes so they are not sharing air with everything else, accessory pockets for grips, balls and keys, and an adjustable padded shoulder strap alongside carry handles. It is the bag for a player who trains and plays regularly but is not hauling nine frames to a tournament — the honest middle.

If you have been using a rucksack and a carrier bag, this is the upgrade. If you own a fifteen-racquet tour case for Tuesday doubles, this is the sensible retreat.

Coimbra has been putting people up for a very long time, mostly students, and it shows. The University was founded as a studium generale in Lisbon in 1290 and moved definitively into the royal palace here in 1537, which is why its courtyard is a former king's residence — and the eighteenth-century Biblioteca Joanina is one of the most beautiful rooms in Europe.

Downhill, the Sé Velha was begun in the twelfth century under Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, who made Coimbra his capital; the battlements are not decorative. Santa Cruz, founded in 1131, holds the tombs of the first two kings. And Santa Clara-a-Velha was refounded in 1314 by Queen Elizabeth, abandoned in 1677 after the Mondego flooded it once too often.

You will carry this bag everywhere from a morning hit down by the river to the sleeper train home, and it is also perfect for a night on the Rua da Sofia, when the students come out in their black capes and somebody, inevitably, starts to sing.

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