Braga and Dom Jesus

Braga is a large town in the north of Spain.  Its near Porto which we will visit tomorrow.  We walked the old town with the most interesting site being the Cathedral.  The above was a room that had been painted.

But this is where it was really interesting.  The guy on the left was buried in one of the back room vaults but at some point his tomb had cracked and timing or elements worked out perfectly that he was mummified.  Creepy looking at that old a guy.  On the right is a picture of the two organs in the church.  They are from the 1700's and very impressive.  One is still played on Sundays.

These two guys were facing each other.  Not sure what they are but they were rather unique and I liked the style.

The cathedral was a big area with buildings.  Its like a house gone wrong with additions.  I will say it was one of the stranger layouts that I have seen.  But it all makes sense as you see behind the walls.  Who knows how many rebuilds this thing has gone through over the centuries. 

If walls could only talk.

After Braga we went a few miles out of town, up a hill of course to a sanctuary of Dom Jesus.

They has a hanging garden that looked like a cave.  it was very well laid out and served as a nice sitting area.  The church is similar to the one was saw a few days ago but even more stairs.

Here is a look down at the city of Braga from the top of the stairs.

This is the very bottom of the stairs.  You go through an archway and slowly work your way up.  Hitting stations of the cross on your way to the main staircase.

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These are the little temples that house the stations of the cross.  Similar to the last ones they have statues in them.  But different from the last one they are much more detailed and the paintings make the scene really pop.

I was tempted to take a drink from this pool the bull just looked so satisfied and after climbing half way up the stairs this was looking real refreshing.

Portugal : Ponte de Lima and Senhora da Peneda

Ponte de Lima translates to bridge across the Lima river.  This particular bridge was built by the Romans.  Its a pretty impressive bridge, the river is not super deep but its is wide.

On the main town side of the river they had a nice park with some statues in honor of their culture.  On the other side was this little church and then some other type of temple.

Next stop we went to which was actually on a different day but trying to group the Portugal pictures together.  This next stop was up in the mountains along the Spanish Portuguese boarding.  The road was a single lane road through town that were on the edge of a skinny valley.  The side we were on was Portugal the other side of the mountain was Spain.  Luckily it wasn't a busy road so we didn't run in to anyone until the road widened to a car and a half wide.

Will have to do some research on this style of sanctuary.  Its the first of its style that I remember seeing but in my next post we see another similar.  The church is at the top of the hill with fancy switch back stairs leading up to it.  And then below the switch backs are more stairs with little temples that house the stations of the cross.

The stations of the cross were statues depicting the different stages.

As part of the stairs they have statues on each level.

Nice view from the top looking down the valley and initial stair case up to the sanctuary.

Galicia : San Cibrao, Vigo and Ourense

Another road trip day.  I like architecture and history so as usually there is a theme.  Our first stop is a huge town that use to be, San Cibrao.  It was originally Celtic but then later was taken over by the Romans.  They adjusted smaller houses to larger ones.

 The old roads are still there and just as bad a many of the new roads and walk ways they have around here made out of rocks.

This town was located up on a hill like everything else.  It is still an active archeological place that I think when they get funding they unearth another section.  The first picture you can see the rocks are white.  They did this section the most recently.  Its kinda fun as you walk around you see a mount and wonder what could be under all those weeds and dirt.

Next stop was a larger city in the area we are in called Vigo.  This place we went to see the main castles ruin that of course was way, way up top.  Its always fun taking the old stairs, but watch your step they are not level.

 Views from the top are very nice.

Not much left of the original castle but a lovely park to sit and relax after the climb.  Reminds me of a recent climb up in San Francisco to a little park.

 This has to be one of the strangest and ugliest (in my humble opinion) statues I have seen in quite a while.  Its just plain weird.

Another town we hit is Ourense.  It is on some thermal bed area that has lots of hot water around it.  In town they have turned one of the host springs into a public pool.  Not real big but you just walk through the gate and your there, no ticket no nothing just enjoy.

So all I can think for this next bridge is people must like their exercise.  Not sure why else you would go so high to cross the road or so low to cross the bridge.

Church we stopped into had a very ornate alter.

Galicia : Monte Aloia & Castelo de Sobroso

This part of Spain reminds me of Oregon.  Everything is green, which also means everything is humid and wet.  Trying to dry cloths or get rid of the musty smell just isn't easy.

This was a road trip day.  We started the day with lunch up on top of Monte Aloia.  This is a forested national park area for picnicking, hiking and all that out door stuff.

Up on the mountain was a church and shrine area that was in good condition but I don't think used very much.

In the states where there is an abundance of land and trees we make a lot of things out of wood.  Here there is an a lot of granite.  This particular picnic bench was longer than I am tall.

The next set a pictures where from a less wooded hill top where there was a Castle called Castelo de Sobroso.  It was nicely restored with a cute little chapel inside its stoned walls.