Good morning from Porto. We're just heading out this morning, to Braga.
We hear that Braga has some magnificent sites and we're really looking forward to checking
them out. They sound like they're beautiful so that's what we're doing this afternoon.
We're in Braga! Braga is a university town and apparently it was voted the
Best European Destination in 2021. Not only is it a university town
but it has the highest concentration of religious buildings in all of Portugal.
We've only been here for like 10 minutes and first impressions are that this town is totally our
vibe. We love university towns. All of the streets so far are these wide boulevards. Check it out!
The architecture is ridiculously cool. Oh my gosh.
Behind us is the oldest church in all of Portugal. It was built in
1089 and it established Braga as being a religious center for the entire country. Let's go see it.
The archdiocese of Braga is actually the oldest Portuguese diocese, dating
back to 1071 - which yes, means it predates Portugal being established as a country by
several decades. The parents of Portugal’s first king are buried right here in this cathedral.
Look at all the organ pipes,
and then the wooden roof off in the background, on the inside. Wow, it's beautiful.
The organ is even more spectacular from the other side.
Well, the oldest church in Portugal is absolutely worth a visit if you come to Braga.
That - we've been to a lot of churches here in Europe, and I have to say there were some really
unique elements that were part of that one. It's not very often that you see exposed wooden timbers
in the ceiling, and that's beautiful, but here they also had ceilings that were painted above
us - they were painted wood that were above us. I'm just not sure we've seen that anywhere, have
we? That is unusual, yeah. They were stunning. Then the organ was so ornate and beautiful,
with the stained glass, and then there were these stucco decorations.
It was really a unique church to the rest that we've seen in Europe. If you come to Braga,
I would say it's a must see. Gotta see it! We needed some sustenance, so
we turned to our favorite. We haven't tried them here yet, so we'll see if they are as good
as they are in Porto. Then we got a mystery one as well. We have no idea. He
told us what it was called, but even after repeating it, we don't really know anything.
The custard filling on this one, the cream filling, is really good, but the pastry is
not as good as the ones we had in Porto. How about yours, Bill? So, I think it's an orange custard.
It's pretty good. The other one is more like a dough
with something on top. It tastes a little bit citrusy,
but it is also heavily coconut. I think I might like this better than the Pastel da Nata,
at the place that we bought these. Even though this wasn't my favorite Pastel da Nata,
I will keep trying them here in the city of Braga and the nearby cities
we're going to be doing day trips to, just for you guys. Uh-huh. Do you believe that?
Somehow I don't think this gag ever gets old.
Yumm. It is warm and so much better than the other one, oh my gosh. So good. We got
these from the place called "The World Needs Nata." That's cute with the crumb on your chin.
We are at the base of the final section of stairs that lead up to the church, Bom Jesus
du Monte. This church dates back to the 1700s, but the story of this area goes back even further,
to the 14th century when a chapel stood up here. Pilgrims would make their way up 577 stairs only
on their knees, to experience a portion of the pain that Jesus felt while he was being crucified.
Nowadays it's a little bit easier to make your way to the top to today's church,
because there is a water-based funicular that will take you to the top. You can still climb
the stairs though; there are 577 of them if you start all the way down at the bottom.
This is the oldest water run funicular in the world. It was constructed in the late 1800s,
[possibly the only one] - yeah, possibly the only one.
If it's the only one, it's the oldest, it's the newest. Pretty easy way to come to the top.
Well, now we have two unique churches in one day, because I'm not sure that we've ever seen
the front of the church with 3D figures like that. That was really neat, actually. Yeah, that was
really unique. Two unique churches in one day!
It's official - Bill is the killer of dreams. We were in this cool grotto behind me
and he's all, "yeah, this isn't real. This is manufactured, made of cement, and there's a
pipe coming out of one of the stalactites." Dream killer, dream killer!
There are these chapels all over the hillside and they depict different times of Jesus' life.
This ice cream, that's the size of Bill's head,
was 2.50 Euro. Two scoops, giant waffle cone. It's nut and caramel, or toffee - we're
not really sure which. It was called one in one language and the other in another. Hmm,
the walnut is very good. The walnut's delicious - I already had some.
I don't think this counts as our 577 steps yet.
Well, we just enjoyed the sunset from the top of the stairs, just outside of the
church [it's right there], and this is a fantastic site to enjoy the sunset from. It's popular
too - a lot of people were here enjoying it with us. You've got the rolling hills, you've got some
mist kind of covering some of the hills... Quit dilly-dallying! We have 15 minutes to
go down 577 stairs to catch our bus. Come on! I'm talking to you!
You know, I don't think we've talked about the tile, but this kind of tile
that you see on the floor, is all over Portugal, and it's beautiful.
If you do climb the stairs, or whether you take the funicular, the views from here are incredible.
We definitely would recommend it, and there's gardens and chapels, and the church itself on
the inside is beautiful. Definitely a worthwhile bus excursion from the city old town of Braga.