We loved our visit to the incredible city of Guimarães which has a significant historical importance due to the role it played in the foundation of Portugal. It's often referred to as the "birthplace of Portugal" or "the cradle city" (Cidade Berço in Portuguese) because it is widely believed that Portugal's first King was born here. It took about 1 1/2 hours and cost 6 euros each roundtrip!
Can I just say how amazing the trains in Europe are and how much of a missed opportunity this is for the United States. The trains run to so many places, are convenient to book and use, are affordable, have large windows for great viewing and comfortable seats. Some of them have a/c and some have windows that can be opened for fresh air during the ride and for great photography. Most of them have bathrooms and some have a food car where you can buy a few things. On some trains you are assigned a specific seat, but others are just open seating. What's so incredible is the fact that a huge percentage of the population here doesn't ever drive. They may not even know how to drive or have ever learned because they don't need to! They can utilize the public transportation system (buses, trams, trains, subways, funiculars) and get wherever they need or want to go without a car. That's really awesome.
When we arrived we wandered toward the Old Town and stopped at Café Oscar for yummy coffee and breakfast. It was near this amazing church with colorful flower beds.
After mapping out a game plan we decided to ride the Pinhau Mountain cable car (1700 meters up) which sits right next to town. We had heard you could get some great panoramic views and wanted to catch the cooler morning temperatures. It cost us each 7.50 euros for a roundtrip ticket. Some people hike their way back down instead of riding both directions. We didn't realize how many things there would be up at the top: a church, park, hotel, stone chapels & structures, restaurant, viewpoints and lots of trails. We ended up spending a couple of hours just enjoying ourselves.
Then we wandered through the historic town centre which according to Wikipedia has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement into a modern town" in Europe. I really felt like I was walking through a fairy tale village.
We climbed the streets up to the Paço dos Duques de Bragança where we got a combo ticket to get inside here and two other spots for 8 euros. This was the medieval estate and former residence of the first Dukes of Braganza. It was started around 1420 and lived in until the 16th century when it was abandoned and fell into ruin. Then during the 19th century residents hauled away parts of it to use for other things which made its' condition worse. An architect was commissioned in 1936 to complete a radical restoration. The design was based on other medieval palaces of the time period but the architects also travelled to Brussels, Antwerp and to the Loire region for ideas. It was later transformed into an official residence of the President of the Republic, opened to the public in 1959 and currently operates as a museum. It was really one of the coolest palaces I've ever visited and totally different than the typical European opulent ones I've been in before. It really felt medieval and we loved it!
Next door to this is the Castelo de Guimarães which was built in 10th century to defend the monastery from attacks by Moors and Norsemen. It was an important part of defense and military usage until the 16th century when it was used as a prison. It was classified as a National Monument in 1881. There's not much left of it but it's pretty incredible especially when you consider it's age. It was neat to look over and see the palace and also up the mountain to see the church where we sat!
The last place we visited with our ticket was a church turned into the Alberto Sampaio Museum. The building itself was pretty with arches and stone but it was filled with violent religious art which I really don't care for. However, they happen to be holding European Vespa Days in Portugal this year so they had various models scattered throughout the museum. It was so odd to see them there parked next to the tombs and religious artifacts! Now we understood why we had been seeing people all over driving super cool Vespa's.
We ended the day with a little more wandering and some yummy pizza then rode the train home tired and happy.
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