Walking it was hard enough - Portugal Road Trip Part 4

 Braga, Bom Jesus and Citania de Briteros

There are a few mishaps to report so far, some could have been serious and some minor in the grand scheme of things. Thankfully Pete falling out of the hammock and scraping his arm quite badly has been the worst of it. Bits have fallen off Daisy’s awning because of the bone shaking roads, but the most inconvenient was breaking the corkscrew in a bottle of wine and being in wine country!

Our vineyard home for tonight has either given us a corkscrew or wants it back, we are not sure and google translate is not being so helpful in this situation…so we are waiting to see what happens in the morning… 

To catch up with events and travels though I have to go back a ‘short while’ to leaving the National Park and heading to our first metropolis, Braga; this was a gentle introduction to civilisation and having other people around. A quick mention of another huge religious site in the mountains that we just happened across as we drove to Braga. There were coach loads of people everywhere so we had to stop to see what what going on, it was difficult to see inside the church as there was a mass taking place, but the beautiful tiles on the outside of the church and around the buildings made up for not getting to see inside in detail. The church was Sao Bento da Porta Alberta and was just above Rio Caldo on the edge of the National Park.

Coffee stop at Rio Caldo

Azulejos tiles depicting the monks’ life and Adam and Eve

Inside the sanctuary

Braga, we discovered, is easily walkable and so pretty it didn’t feel so bad doing more touristy things. The city has Roman origins and was originally called Bracara Augusta and was where Salazar, the fascist leader of Portugal until 1975, gave a speech that began his coup in 1926. None of this is evident now in the city, at least not to the tourist, other than the many roads commemorating the 25th April Carnation Uprising.

Portugal’s love of big letters…actually we quite like it too!

You can kind of see the toga.

It was lovely and hot, in fact too hot, so after a short walk around we found the Fonte do Idolo, which had pre-Roman origins but you could make out a toga clad figure, believed to be holding the horn of plenty. We managed to spend about 20 minutes here after watching the introductory video.

One of the most surprising and beautiful elements of the city was the Jardim de Santa Barbara, a beautiful garden full of flowers maintained by the municipality. 

Braga Cathedral

A visit to the Se (cathedral) was in order as this area of Portugal has some of the highest number of churches and cathedrals, Braga has the oldest in Portugal. The portal below has many scenes carved into it including the medieval legend of Reynard the Fox. The organ was the most impressive I think I have ever seen, in fact it is twin baroque organs held up by many different figures including mermen.

Twin baroque organs

Looking up to the organs

Praça da República

Praça da República

Praça da República

Porta Nova

A wander around the city showed some lovely areas and we enjoyed sitting people watching, one of our favourite pastimes. Finding art and seeing what is going on politically teaches you a lot about a country… the posters and graffiti help.

The campsite for the evening was a municipal one (Braga Campsite)and having read that many Portuguese are slightly gruff on first meeting, our reception couldn’t have proven that suggestion more wrong. Three men managed the site and they chatted to us for ages and secured us the third last spot on the site. Whilst it was tiny and looked like Daisy may go over the edge we have never seen showers or a kitchen block like it. The kitchen for campers use has induction stoves, ovens, microwaves and all with stainless steel surfaces, it could have been a restaurant kitchen. The showers were hot, not to be taken for granted in Portugal, and super clean. All for the small sum of around 13 euros.

Escardaria do Bom Jesus do Monte

The landing after hundreds of steps to this point.

Although not sunny the next morning, it was dry enough for us to walk up the 580 steps to the sanctuary Bom Jesus on the hill above Braga. Another religious spectacle that has to be seen to be believed, more so as the very steps we climbed some believers do on their knees. Thankfully we opted to walk and were met with many residents of Braga using it as some kind of outdoor gym. I think we passed more runners and people exercising than we did pilgrims! A quick look around, an ice cream treat and then the climb back down. Having had a quick look at Lonely Planet and reminding myself of all the things I had researched before coming away, I had found a fascinating historical site. Next stop was Citania de Briteiros. 

Citania de Briteiros

This is one of the largest Celtic hill settlements, dating back over 2500 years and one of the most important sites in Portugal. It looked like we were the only ones here, the site was huge, thankfully as the afternoon moved on more people visited as it seemed a travesty that other people were not getting to see this site. For only 5 euros you get to see three sites, one a museum that was dedicated to the archaeologist who found and worked on this ‘city’, the other unfortunately was in Guimarães and we didn’t have time to visit this. The first site alone was worth the entrance fee. Lots of walking and climbing around allowed us to throughly explore this ancient archaeological site. Pete did a great job of map reading and telling us all the facts about the buildings we could see. It is so incredibly well preserved and was a real pleasure to visit…glad that early research paid off.

The hill top site showing many of the structures found

Public bath entrance stone

Apparently to stop the steam escaping people squeezed through the hole

Reconstructed stone houses in the distance

Circular buildings all over the site

Off to Guimarães for the next night’s camp and another hill climb for Daisy and Pete, both of whom are being tested on these roads. Then winter arrived overnight, for one night anyway…the rain and fog meant we couldn’t see anything at all and Daisy was covered in leaves. The decision to pack up and move on was an easy one…unfortunately that meant missing out Guimarães as a city visit but it did mean Porto here we come!