Medieval Portugal Tour

 What I had thought was only a morning tour turned out to be a full day, so that was a nice surprise.  They called this a "Medieval Tour", which I suppose is true, but after Croatia it didn't seem that old to me.  Anyway, we began in the town of Guimarães (pronounced ghee-mar-aye-ja) for a stroll through the old town.  A beautiful town, it was much like Croatia in that it was very easy to take loads of pictures when the spring flowers are blooming!

We then headed to Braga, the capital of Minho province (pronounced mee-ni-you).  It was founded by Roman Emperor Augustus between 15-13 B.C. and was named Bracara Augusta.  Home to Minho University it still retains the gardens from the original Episcopal Palace:

Lots of lovely old buildings with tiled facades and flowers on balconies.  They used to pay for the land on which they built, so the old buildings are often skinny with several stories to cut down on the cost.

It was soon time for lunch, so we headed to an unobtrusive restaurant called Cruz Sobral.  It's the oldest restaurant in Braga and is still run by the same family that started it in 1926.  A delicious soup (possibly potato and cabbage, we weren't quite certain), roast veal and potatoes, a fresh salad (grown by the family), and a nice sponge cake for dessert.  

Back on the bus we made the drive to Bom Jesus do Monte which sits atop a 1,300 foot hill.  It's now  UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is stunning.  It's actually a huge architectural-landscape complex which they began building in 1494 and even in 1722 they were still adding things!

It's one of the most popular places  of pilgrimage in Northern Portugal, but since we weren't pilgrims we walked down (not up) the 500+ steps.  Definitely my favorite spot thus far on the trip!