Porto Wednesday 16 September

Another good night's sleep and 27 plus again weather wise so we are in for a great day of sight seeing on a pre booked small group tour of Braga and Guimarães. We are picked up at our hotel right in the scheduled time of 8.20. Felipe is our chatty driver. Already in the van are Gilbert and his wife. He's originally from Brazil but had been living in USA California for 45 years. It didn't take long to decide that he was a typical Yank who wouldn't shut up and carried on like he was on a private tour, endlessly talking to Filipe about Brazil, soccer and California! Next pick up was a couple from Montreal, Canada and finally 2 English women from Cornwall. That made up our little group and of we set at 100 miles an hour! Felipe must have been Ayrton Senna in another life. We were zipping in and out of the lanes with centimetres to spare between cars on a highway that did not appear to have any upper speed limit. He was just as crazy in the city where traffic was even heavier. But having said that, he never hit anyone, and it seemed totally acceptable to the other drivers. Anyhow, when I was game enough to open my eyes, he was a very accomplished driver!!! So our full day for today is to the heart of Northern Portugal. Our first stop was at the iconic Bom Jesus do Monte Sanctuary, high up in the hills. Some pilgrims detoured here from their Santiago pilgrimage and it developed into a magnificent landmark. It is a UNESCO World heritage site. The gardens and natural surroundings are beautiful. the views were breathtaking.

Im not Catholic do you have to ignore my ignorance but if I understood the information correctly, there were 7 cupolas around the grounds, and in each were depictions of the stations of the cross.

The baroque staircase consists of 573 steps, known as the sacred way. It is simply besieging but I only managed about the first 50 and then got back in our van for our next stop.

We then continued on to Braga which is Portugal's 3rd largest city. Braga boasts a rich history as the oldest archiepiscopal seat and pilgrimage site dating back centuries.

We then visited the Sé Cathedral with remarkable architecture from Romanesque to Gothic to Baroque styles.

We then had a walk through the city to a lovely restaurant where a 3 course meal was included in the tour, along with a glass of the local Vinho Verde wine (not to my taste but I drank it!) made from very young grapes.

After a lovely lunch that I couldn't eat all of, we are back on the van and off to Guimarães which likes to claim itself a the birthplace of Portugal, and also on the UNESCO World heritage site. It certainly had a medieval atmosphere. We start with the impressive 10th century Guimarães castle.

Clearly it is just the ruins, but we could walk around it and it is an unusual feeling treading the same steps of people from more than 1000 years before! The little chapel nearby had a stone floor which may have been the tombs of the knights, but as no one has attempted to dig underneath them, I'm happy to accept the possibility and we all walk aims the edges.

Next we see the Dukes of Bragança palace which is supposedly a symbol of Portugal's noble heritage, but as Felipe informs us, it has been added to so many times that there is very little authentic about it. Certainly the concept of chimneys and turrets didn't exist when it was first built.

He then tells us the story of the first King of Braga which would make a wonderful Days of our Lives story. The earlier king and queen had a child who would have been made king of Braga. the boy was about 6 years old and sickly so was sent to a convent where supposedly there was the chance of miracle to survive. Aamazingly the boy was cured and returned to the mother to become the first King of Braga. However the boy grew into a very tall man who looked like neither patent(who were both short) and the story goes that a mum was aware that the original boy did but the king bought another child of similar age and passed him off as his son and heir. The poor nun allegedly wrote a letter stating what she knew, but was killed and so no one knows for sure if the first King of Braga was a legitimate sin and heir or an imposter. there are no paintings of him just this statue at the foot of the castle ruins... and it is only the creator's impression of what he might have looked like!

I love this story.. especially when you know my thoughts on royalty and heirs' rights to succession. Don't ever count on me to 'Save the King'. We then walked through some more of the city and stopped at a little shop where we were offered a pastry. I'm still too full from lunch so ask for mine to take away!.

We then had free time to have a look around while Felipe went back to collect the van up by the castle ruins.

Back on the van and it is time to head back to Porto. I had spoken to Felipe to let him know that although we were enjoying the tour, the reason we weren't asking questions was because of Gil taking over all the conversation with him. He was aware but didn't know how to stop him short of telling him to shut up. He said that Gil was like most Brazilians he had met. I said no, he's like most Americans, and he laughed. We then start the race track driving again and aim for Porto. There is a major pile upon the freeway once we are getting closer to Porto (at least 5 cars were involved) so that slowed us down to an almost stop for a long while, but eventually we got past the cousin scene and were zipping along until we got into the suburbs and then it was major traffic congestion again. Although we had been picked up from our hotel, were given the option of 2 different drop off locations so Felipe told us what was closest to our hotel and then gave us directions of how to find our way back to the hotel. He kept waving his arms about and so I gave up and said I understood ...not understanding at all. Anyway we headed off in the general direction and took some more photos along the way.

We clambered up the very steep 31 January Street (no idea why it is called that) and see it little church at the top so knew we were close to the hotel. There was a little pop up market in the square that we had a look through and then back to our hotel where we collapsed on our beds! It was after 5 and e were exhausted from a great day of seeing Northern Portugal. How's this for a view from our window.

Dinner consisted of chips, cheese, crackers and wine. The pastry I had brought back with me was exceptionally sweet so didn't get finished. But we did finish the wine.

So after an exhausting day of great sightseeing, it's now shower time, jammies and bed but not before one last shot of the view out of our hotel window.