September 18, 2017
Looks like a nice morning … Annie made up some delicious scrambled eggs with presuntois ham (very similar to prosciutto, rather inexpensive) and some giant croissants > not airy and dry but lumpy, sweet, and deelicious!! In any event, we are taking a day trip, so once again we are on our way to the Sao Bento train station, about a 15-minute walk downhill (the fun part will be on the way back as it is a rather brutal uphill march). Pics and commentary for our Porto days will follow in one collective post…
Guimarães is a charming and historic city that is regarded by the Portuguese as the birth place of their country. This ancient city was the first capital of Portugal and the birth place of the first true king of Portugal; Afonso Henriques. After a 1 h15 min ride costing 7 Euro (10 Cad) ride > trains are decent and cheap, it is about a 1 kilometer walk to the Centro Historico ….. a charming area with cobbled streets, tiled and colored houses and squares begging one to slow down and “smell the roses”….
There is however a fair bit to see and we headed first for the Palace of the Dukes of Braganza (Paço Dos Duques De Bragança) his grand 15th Century palace, built by the first Duke of this region, it is set in its own beautiful grounds on the top of Monte Latito. We opted to take a self guided tour > entrance fee of 10 Euro (15 Cad) for us both. The tranquil grounds and elaborate state rooms, decorated with tapestries and furniture of the era were well worth the fee…
…chimneys were different from anything we have seen before, unfortunately the person we asked had no decent explanation…
….the chapel had a super intricate wooden internal roof construction…
Whilst in the area we took the opportunity of walking around the Castle of Guimarães, built under the orders of Mumadona Dias in the 10th century to defend the monastery from attacks by Moors and Norsemen. It has had many changes since it was built and although it is largely in ruins, it was interesting to think about the various influences that flowed over this land since that time…
……statue of Alfonso Henriques….the first king….
With spirits flagging a bit, we decided it was time to feed the corpus and headed for the Largo da Oliveira one of the most popular squares with open air cafes and restaurants….touristy yes, pleasant even more so….
…….lunch al fresco at the Buxa Restaurant was very good > we both ordered the plato de dia opting for a litre of fizzy water, figuring if we ordered wine we would probably while away the balance of the afternoon….even so we dragged out lunch as long as possible…
After lunch meandered through the streets resisting the temptations of several cafes featuring alluring tarts and the like in their windows…….
…….before returning to the train station for our return trip to Porto. All good, then a trudge up the hill to our digs ….all in all a very pleasant outing and well recommended.