Obidos

Our last visit in this part of Portugal before we fly off to Madeira on Monday morning for our dose of winter sun; and what a lovely village to round of this section of our trip. The pic. above is the aqueducto used to bring water to the village many centuries past.

The end of the aqueducto in a plaza in the village.

The entrance into the village through the fortified walls.

The road into the village does not run straight through but does a dogleg, I suppose this was for better security.

Once inside lots of little streets and courtyards.

Little churches.

Very attractive houses.

More of the same, bit of a tourist trap but ever such a pretty one.

Top of the village - looks like the remains of Santa's Grotto.

The castle at the very top.

Walking back down through the back streets and alleyways.

Just as pretty as the Main Street.

Looking back, very impressive.

What a great view.

Approaching the main gate to leave the village.

Obidos a beautiful village with a long and rich history, settled by the Celts, Romans and Moors retaken by Alphonso the first king of Portugal in 1148. Scene of a battle in the Peninsula Wars and the meeting place of the April Captains during the Carnation Revolution of 1974. 

Castelo & Convento de Cristo, Tomar, Portugal

Same scene from hotel window of the castle at Tomar, taken after dark.

Saturday morning and no rain, well the heavy stuff held off for a couple of hours, just enough time to visit the outside of the castle. Built by the Nights Templers in the 12th century after their disillusion around a hundred years later became a convent and now a national monument.

 Quite some building, this is the main concourse inside the walls, leads up to the church with 16 sides.

 Very impressive doorway into the church.

More of the walls from the inside.

This part of the building extends from the church, part of the Convent.

Ruined section.

Another shot of the 16 sided church.

Lots of gardens to feed all the inhabitants.

Back in Tomar. Photo of a mill wheel.

The only pic I got in the town, the rain returned so we headed off to our next stop - Obidos.

 

Guimaraes to Tomar via Viseu, Portugal.

The weather has been getting worse by the day, rain, rain and more rain with high winds, we have just kept ahead of the floods, which are now causing some problems in Northern Portugal.  We are now just north of Lisbon, it's still raining but not quite as hard. Recap of the last few days - sorry about the rain drops on the camera lens.

 Guimaraes birthplace of the Portuguese Nation. This huge building is the Paco dos Duques built by the Duke of Braganza

 

The inner courtyard of the palace, the covered archway above opens into the private chapel - picture below.

 

The main reception room

Another one of the reception rooms.

The Dukes office

This wonderful desk in his office, there was a second one on the other side of the tapestry though not quite as flashy. Most of the furniture on display is from the 16th. to 18th. Century.

Statue of Alfonso 1 first king of Portugal.

Because of the weather we were unable to get any photos of the town itself, from what we were able to see its worth another visit.

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The next day we visited Viseu, again the weather got in the way but between storms got a photo of the Pousada de Viseu, where we spent the night - wonderful hotel.

 For the next night we were in Tomar, another interesting place. The rain stopped long enough for me to get this pic. of the castle on the hill overlooking the town.

Night scenes and others from Santiago de Compestela.

The Pazo de Bendana from the 18th. Century now the town hall and the regional government offices.

The rear of the Cathedral, the blue bit is part of the scaffolding round one of the towers.

The clock tower 236 feet high, known as the Berenguela Tower built in the 17th. Century.

The Mercado, we spent a very pleasant hour wandering round this market part of which was outside. The weather was on our side for this walk, the rain held off for over an hour.

Santiago is full of old buildings like this, a real treasure house of old architecture.

Rain washed streets.

The front entrance to the little hotel we stayed at, Hotel Literario San Bieeto, super situation with a parking garage one street behind. Most of the old town of Santiago is traffic free.

 

Moving on into Portugal, to,a town called Guimaraes.

Santiago de Compostela

We take the road to Santiago de Compestela after two days in Bilbao, and the weather changes from grey skies and showers to torrential rain, which is a real shame as this road hugs the coast on one side and the mountains on the other.  Just short of 600 kilometres over seven hours driving on a fantastic autovia the road goes up hills, round hills, down through valleys following the coastline but because of the weather you can't see much more than the road ahead. We will have to do this route again and hope for better weather next time.

 Santiago what a super place, the old town is not very big, you can walk round it in about half an hour, from one side to the other in about ten minuets. The building above is The Convento de San Francisco built in the 16th. century.

The Igrexa de San Miguel des Agros, not as old as it looks, built in the 19th. Century.

The Pazo de San Xerome built in the 15th. century home of the Vice Chancellor of the University.

The pilgrims to Santiago stand on this spot in front of the Cathedral, gazing at the building housing the remains of St. James. No pic it was covered in scaffolding - as its around 900 years old it requires a bit of tlc from time to time.

We had decided not to bother going inside, thinking the inside of one looks much the same as another but the heavens opened so in we went-maybe that was a message of sorts. What a surprise!  

This I think must be the Nativity Scene of all time.

More scenes of the Nativity.

The Altar, with a statue of St. James, the pilgrims walk up some stairs behind the Altar to embrace St James.

A side chapel showing the symbol of  Compestela in the top right hand corner.  

The scallop shell - coquille St. Jacques. The symbol is shown on all the routes leading to Santiago de Compestela.