Long beautiful day in Portugal. Slept till 8:30.. near record for me. We headed to the car around 10 ..  got to see a little of Porto on the way. Headed to Braga to see the Bom Jesus Cathedral and grounds. Well worth the drive . 

 

these stairs were amazing.. small chapels and fountains at each level.. we walked down them first. 

 

each chapel had statues depicting part of christs last days.. here’s the kiss of judas

 

here’s the last supper 

 

then we turned aroudn and walked back up. THe statuary and fountains were even better to see as you moved upwards

 

there4 were fopuntains depicting the five senses.. here is hearing 

 

and (creepily) seeing 

 

tasting 

 

smelling 

 

and soemhow this is touching 

 

the three virtues 

 

we snuck in a samstone 

 

the view from the chathederal was stunning 

 

there were two weddings there whiule we were hiking !

 

we snuck inside to catch part of the second wedding.. what a beautiful building =x

 

then a quick stop for lunch 

 

cheese and olive paste.. yum !

 

then back on our way north. We stopped in villa verde to see a small church with a beutiful grave yard

 

what a view from that place !

 

next stop was Monção .. a small town on the border with spain .. this is a large private vinyard that makes the regions prized Vino Verde. 

 

i coulnd’t resist 🙂

 

the town itself was very beutiful .. and not very touristy at all.. 

 

 

we stopped at the tourist office.. . Luckily the woman there spoke spanish.. so i was able to get good advice on things to see,  where to eat and where to drink. Her freind up stairs spoke english and gave us a very nice wine tasting of the Vion Verde.. it was really delicious. 

 

 

 

on the advice of maggie.. we drove in to spain to eat.. 

she had given us the name of a small place.. the people and the food were really wonderful.. and it was nice to beback

 someplace  I could communicate. 

 

here’s ourt wonderful wait=person cutting down grapes for us to eat with dinner. 

 

dinnr was fabulour.. scalllops 

 

octopis 

 

and an amazing fish platter..  i wont be hungry for a week !

 

\\coffee liquor for dessert 

 

there was a very nice barkign dog nearby.the cook gave me soem meat to give him.. His name was Ambegue.. or soemthing like that.. what a sweet guy ! 

 

then back to portugal for the drive back to porto 

 

we got home around 10.. o it wsa too early to go to sleep.. so we walked down town in search of music. We did;’t fdind any we liked.. but we had a nice drink on the river. Heres’ lookign over at all the Port makers. 

 

on the way back we foudn a marker for the San Juan Capistella trail.. so we left a samstone 

 

we passed a building that used to be a synagouge.. I learned that all the jews were forced out of here in the 2nd world war.. 

gives me such a strange feeling . 

 

by then it was midginght.. time to walk home. soem cool buildings along the way !

 

OK..almost 2am.. time to sleep..

 

more tomorrow

 

nite all, nite sam

-me