5th September

Headed east crossing the the river Lima via the Eiffel double decked bridge,  yes it was made by  the Eiffel tower designer prior to his vertical period.

Eiffel’s bridge: Top deck cars & pedestrians, bottom deck trains

The first stop along the way was the vibrant town of Ponte de Lima also sporting a bridge of fame, this time it’s a medieval one with 37 arches. This town has an abundance of cafes combined with excellent patisseries and draft beer on tap, a one stop shop catering for all tastes, fantastico! Another point of interest was the bronze sculpture celebrating  working class toil.

Farm workers bronze with bridge in background

Our final destination for the day was the Peneda Geres National Park, Portugal’s most important national park. The road from Ponte de Lima winds and climbs along the valley terraced with vinho verde grape vines and studded with photogenic old villages and the odd castle before heading towards the mountains bordering Spain. The road then cuts south, zigzagging through dense deciduous forests of the national park (which once covered all of northern Portugal prior to the introduction of agriculture), bringing us to Geres our camping site for the night in the heart of the park.

Mountains viewed from Geres campsite

One of the lakes in the park

Friday 6th September

We planned on walking some trails in the National Park today but that didn’t happen, instead we had a Jesus sort of day, after taking in the mountain vistas we arrived at Rio Caldo where bus loads of pilgrims thronged the streets waiting for the miracle to come, we were surrounded by black clad widows and the infirm.

The next stop en route was Bom Jesus do Monte, set on top of a wooded pinnacle high above and to the east of Braga (Portugal’s third largest city), this extraordinary  piece of photogenic Baroque architecture was well worth the visit especially for its weird fountains of the five senses set in a stairway to heaven leading up to the church.

Bom Jesus do Monte

Linda and the 5 senses fountains

Bom Jesus turrets

Eyes & ears senses fountains,  (we didn’t do the runny nose one)

Our final destination for the night’s stopover was Guimaraes, this town is the birthplace of the first independent King of Portugal in 1110.  It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2001 and Portugal’s choice for the European capital of culture in 2012. Our campsite for the night was Parque de Campismo Municipal da Penha, perched on top of Monte Penha and is highly recommended 

(N 41.428248 W 8.268639).

We only detail campsite co-ordinates when it is an exceptional campsite.