Porto & Braga

Last week Bobb, Bri, Terence and I ventured north of Lisbon to the city of Porto for two days. Porto was previously the capital city of Portugal and is currently known for its production of Port Wine in the nearby Douro Valley. We all thoroughly enjoyed the visit, seeing many of the sights and just enjoying the "slower" pace of this smaller city. While Porto's architecture seems a bit more run down than Lisbon, I loved the city, its feel and my time there.

Located on the Douro river, Porto has six bridges giving access to and from the city. The above bridge is one of the older looking bridges and was my favorite giving cars and pedestrians access to the Gaia side of the river on the lower level and the metro and pedestrians access from above.

A view of Porto's river front from the Gaia side of the Douro

On our second day in Porto we climbed the over 200 steps of a church tower for this view of the city. Yes Grandma I did count them but I don't think their published number was correct. Then again, they didn't let us go up that last flight of stairs.

Inside the church I was really struck by all of the religious statues and how vivid and even gruesome some of the biblical characters are depicted. Mary above has blood running down her forehead because of some sort of spear hear. Next to her in the church was a statue of Judas with an axe.

On the third day of our trip Bobb, Bri and I headed to Braga. It is one of the cities most influenced by the Catholic Church. The church pictured above is from Bom Jesus, a large religious sight just outside of Braga. In addition to the many religious scenes and statues displayed throughout its grounds there are also several restaurants, hotels and gardens. This was one of my favorite sights both for its own uniqueness and it view of the city.