When planning this trip, I had set aside time for two daytrips. The first one was today to Braga, a town about 42 km (26 miles) north of Porto. We took a train--not an express--so it had a lot of stops and took about 1.5 hours from São Bento Station. And it was just about $4 apiece!
The old Braga station.
The Braga was somewhat smaller, but they had a nice little cafe where we had some coffee and pastry. Fe's was sweet, mine savory.
Braga Station
We caught a bus (with some local help) to the first place which was a bit out of town, the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte. The church was built in 1784 and you can climb a stairway with 17 landings to reach it.
View from the foot of the stairs.
Do you think we took the stairs? Think again. We took the funicular (incline) which gets you to the top in three minutes. It was opened on March 25, 1882 and is the oldest funicular to use a water counterbalancing system.
At the top
Front view of the sanctuary
Cloudy, rainy view
A better view a bit later from another point
The altar. Unusual to see Roman soldiers on one.
It wouldn't be a Portuguese church without blue tiles.
Grotto (man-made)
As you may have noticed, it was pretty rainy. We left here and went to lunch in the old town. Portuguese (Europeans in general, really) don't rush lunch. With it really pouring down we didn't either.
We made it to the tourist information center to get our bearings a bit better. Nice place and great staff. The guy we talked to highlighted the Braga Cathedral, so we headed there next.
Braga Cathedral
Painting on the wooden ceiling. Pictures don't do it justice.
The huge pipe organ (one side).
View of the ceiling with the organ pipes from both sides. Didn't get to hear it play.
View of the nave
Arco da Porta Nova (Arch of the New Gate)
It was really coming down now as we hurried back to the station to get back to Porto. It was late afternoon so the train was much more crowded. I had to stand a bit but eventually got a seat for the rest.
We really liked Braga--small town vibes with easy access to Porto, good public transportation network, great little restaurants, and not too hilly! We could live here.
Costs in Portugal: you've read my comments about the low cost of public transport and Portugal does have one of the lowest costs of living in western Europe, but it's not like living cheaply in Mexico or the Philippines. Gas is about $8/gal and you can spend a lot on food if you're not careful. What we have found however, is that the food quality and portion size is somewhat better than the US. At least for where we've gone to eat. Produce seems lower, but household items are about the same. It's all relative, I guess.
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