So in light of the fact that last night I really didn’t have time to even look at my photos, tonight I will be posting everything from this weekend. 🙂 later tonight I’ll make a post for day 50, but for now, please enjoy these photos!
Braga
The backyard of Rodrigo, my amazing host, where we shared our meals. Rodrigo’s family was so kind and his hospitality to Michael and I was truly mind-blowing. I’m so grateful to him for everything.
Our day started by riding this water powered Funicular: instead of CLIMBING the 1,000 steps up to the Bom Jesus do Monte church, we rode this crazy car thing. there are two cars, connected by a cable and a wheel at the top of the hill. Each car has a massive cavity underneath where water is filled in at the top and emptied at the bottom. The down-going car thus pulls the other car up as gravity takes hold and the brakes are released. It is much faster than I thought it would be.
The beautiful grounds of the newly-named UNESCO world heritage site
The artificial cave reminded me a bit of Quinta de Regaleira in Sintra… what is it with the Portuguese and their fake stalactites?
The inside of the glorious pilgramage site. It had a life sized crucifixtion site with a bunch of people around–which, of course, I neglected to take a photo of because I was too busy trying to see if the people were real or not (they were pretty lifelike)
An awesome view of Braga
The stairs we climbed down, not up, because we had a very knowledgeable and prudent guide. Rodrigo was full of fun secrets (“the tourists don’t know that you can park here, but I know that I can! I talked to the police!”)
I’ll never tire of the way the ground looks here, either…
The bold crew!
Then we walked around Braga!
The city hall
The arch-bishop’s palace and the Santa Barbara gardens that are adjacent to it.
See the woman in the smurf hat on the left? She was part of a crew of 8 (seven dwarfs and a bride) who were on a mission to take as many selfies with tourists as possible on their bachelorette party. There are so many here–it’s wild.
“a dragon! for no reason” lamented Rodrigo. I thought it was cool.
The backside of the cathedral.
Lunch–Frigideira, or a buttery pastry filled with ground meat. It’s small-looking but SO FILLING
Guimarães
Portugal’s first capital!
There was a castle and a palace!
Porto
We took some photos–and I had to say goodbye to Scott, Rodrigo’s family’s adorable Westy. Alas.
Then we went to Porto!
After the fiasco at the Bookstore Livraria Lello (google image search it–it’s awesome but the line went DOWN THE BLOCK), we visited some iconic churches. 
I listened to organ music for the first time.
After lunch, we went down to the seafront and the famous bridge. We crossed into Gaia, chatted and perused the stores of Port wine (see the port boats!), and then crossed back. We then hiked back up to the city center–seeing key sites such as the famously beautiful McDonalds, the Amazing Sao Bento Train station, and others along the way.
We then went to my favorite part of Porto thus far–the cathedral. We could even climb up one of the towers!!! It was so beautiful. 
Then we sat in the grass and had to say goodbye, and Michael and I made our way back to Lisbon.
I know this was a lot of photos–if you made it all the way here…. good job! 😉
Much love!
[…] Prev […]
“a dragon! for no reason” lamented Rodrigo.
***** (5-star review)