One of the first excursions we had the option to take from our ship was a 30 minute bus ride to the town of Guimaraes, and then a walking tour. Lisa opted to do a little more shopping in Porto and Douglas went on the excursion.
Guimaraes often referred to as the “birthplace of the Portuguese nationality” or “the cradle city.” It was from here where lands such as Galicia where taken over and the country started to be formed. It is also believed that the first king of Portugal, Alfonso Henriques, was born here and near here was where the Battle of São Mamede was fought and won. The historic town center is a UNESCO heritage site.
The Castle of Guimaraes is where the royals lived, but it proved to be way too cold for later royal families, and they moved to a more modern palace. The church on site was interesting in that there was an outdoor altar so more people could attend services.
A secondary palace was built a bit smarter with hallow walls where fires could be built to keep the building warmer. There were something like 100 chimneys used to control the movement of the heat. You could also see the original stone work and the restoration stone work:
The village was lower on the mountain than the castle and palace (as it should be). All electrical and water is run underground these days and you can see from the photo the large granite cap stones that are removed to service them. Here are some village photographs along with one of the grand Brazilian Garden (very well manicured- consider yourself P-U-N-ished ;-)):
The next four photographs, not necessarily in order, contain a metal box that was like a cross between a phone and a doorbell. If you arrived at a convent or abby and you wanted to see someone from the region of Santa Cruz, you would look at the address book on the outside and, you would ring the bell ‘x’ times. Another photo is of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage marker. There is also a photo of the iron work to the old church that is now a museum. The village also has life-sized, 12 stations of the cross dioramas around the city for tourists to pose with but we all know that these were used as a teaching device since most were unable to read at that time.
