July 21. Braga and Guimaraes

This was originally written on iPad. It went somewhat wild on autocorrect.

Obviously we survived the night at the manor :) . We started the day in the garden of our manor. Serving lady locked up the dogs and we took a stroll around the grounds. It is a beautiful garden full of interesting statues.

There are several old stone pools, perfectly manicured lawn that gets used for weddings and a large zipped up wedding tent, and several chickens of the breed with featherless necks. Those almost looked noble. If not for the balconies of the apartment buildings overlooking the property would feel like in the depths of the country. Breakfast was served in the living room of the main house. We marveled the knick knacks. The lady brought out plates of bread varieties: gray and white for adults, little white buns para ninas, glazed croissants, hot Pasteles de Natas, and coffee and all the works. And she left a little silver bell to ring her if we need anything. Seriously. We never rang it but she came back every now and then to check on us anyway. We implored the kids not to break any china and keep the feet off the table.

First we went to Braga. Initially we had hard orienting after we parked because most of the old town is pedestrian and is not directly visible from the road. It was somewhat disappointing at first and then we stumbled onto the information office and then they gave us a map and we discovered the whole beautiful old town.

It is definitely worth the trip. We also got in on the Neanderthal fair and got to see fun food and goods kiosks. Neanderthal is kind of like Renaissance fair but they have everyone dressed in rough cloth and ropes and they even had a village with tents covered in animal skins.

Cathedral and the adjacent Mother of Braga are worth the visit. Check out its interesting history in the link above. We liked excavated architectural elements they had in the courtyard. Some seemed to predate Christian period and were really interesting. There was a wedding going on at the Cathedral and a funeral at Mother of Braga.

We had lunch at a little place near the city gate. Dan’s little French lady was much closer to the top ten ideal: used real bread and nice tasting hot sauce. I had a schnitzel sandwich and Georgia and Irina downed their omelets. After mostly eating sandwiches it was a nice break.

Next we went to a real treat of a place called Bom Jesus. It is a Kodak fairyland on top of the mountain with a beautiful church and other sites. Isabella went to sleep so Dan and I climbed the beautiful staircase to the gray and orange lichen covered church while Irina and Georgia waited in the car.

We visited the shop with an old tile painting with some pen graffiti that dated to mid 45s, and a pretty artificial cave that looked just like a real thing, and then headed down to a water funicular. They fill up the container below upper car with water and when it is full it is sent down. It pulls up second car that is on the bottom. At the bottom the upper car  empties up and then the cycle reverses.

The thing about the funicular is that took us down below where we had parked. So we had to run up three long flights of stairs to find Georgia and Irina in the car with Isabella. Next they went up the staircase. We decided to move up and park next to the church to make the return trip easier for them. Unfortunately that parking is only available to bridal parties. So we had to park higher up on the mountain, had to walk down with Isabella to meet Georgia and Irina and ended up going up the hill most of the time.

The next stop was Guimaraes, one of two capitals of Europe for 2012. Initially, we could not orient ourselves again. The city center is pedestrian so where the car takes you looks nothing like the pictures. After finding the information office it became clear again. The city is probably welcoming the lucky break it is getting from increased numbers of visitors but it is probably not going to help long term. It is small and provincial in spirit.  Here we got lucky to see the parade in national costumes.

We took a cable car ride to Pehna church, perched up on the hill among enormous boulders.

At night we had our sliced bread, cheese, and proscuito in a little waiting room next to our bedroom. We also drank 5 euro Port from the little plastic cups they had in the bathroom for rinsing. Real classy. Hope my college buddies from the wine club never read this post. After a busy day everything tasted great.

P.S. On account of Dan wanting the whole truth to be told, the room seemed a bit unsteady after two glasses. But that was the worst that happened. I guess it takes dedicated and consistent practice to get used to it. I am not sure I am up to the challenge. There are so many things left to be eaten.