Our adventurous friends that visited us in Porto were headed back to Spain in the direction of a city we were curious about. To the north and west of Porto are several cities (Braga, Ponte de Lima, and Guimarães) that we learned about from a traveling show. At one point I had googled Braga vs. Guimarães and what came up was that both were amazing but if you only had a day, choose Guimarães. Braga is the third largest city in Portugal and we were more interested in a small town anyway. Another vote for the smaller town, though it didn’t materialize (pun intended), was that I found out a major linen textile mill is in Guimarães.
I mentioned it to our AirBNB hosts who said there is a Friday market there as well. As it all shook out, our friends were headed out on a Sunday but Guimarães was literally right off the highway a mere 50 minutes up the road. Road trip.
First off, now that I know how to pronounce it, it is fun to say. Gwim-ah-raysh. It is considered the birthplace of Portugal because it is where the first King of Portugal was born. It is a UNESCO world heritage site due to its well preserved medieval sites including a castle. The old part of the city is really amazing, with narrow, cobbled streets and tight, askew buildings full of character. I reminded us a bit of the old part of Riga, Latvia. We also crossed the Camino route indicated by shells in the pavement.
After a great morning with friends, they headed off west and Trev and I wandered a bit more. We walked up on, or next to, the old wall, reminiscent of walking the wall in York, England. We had a nice lunch in a plaza and made our way to the train station for an easy train ride back to Porto.
