The Iberian Wandering - Day 16: Valladolid

Monday, May 5

We woke early as usual, but still found the breakfast room crammed with bus tourists before scheduled serving times.

Oh well.  As we ate, a tour guide came and made announcements, one tour group slowly filtered out and a second one crammed in!

We left and checked out the staircased series of balconies which lead down the hill.  This is the path pilgrims of yore would walk up (some on hands and knees as penance/devotion) to the cathedral.

We walked down to the large plaza at the bottom, realized there was more to go down wooded pathways and decided to return back up to the cathedral.

Martha preps to run back up...

We then drove about four hours, with a rest stop about halfway, to the city of Valladolid.  We were curious to do a brief checkout as we'd read and enjoyed CCjon's posts, during his stay here.  Check it out! LINK

We got there around 3 p.m. and located an eatery recommended by CCjon, the burgers were great.

Valladolid's old city center is quite lovely in terms of its architectural styles and vivid colors.  I liked it's lines.

City Hall

Our hotel room view

Of the Cathedral

We're enroute back to the eastern side of northern Spain.  We probably should have only driven a couple of hours today.  My mistake mostly.  I guess my finally getting over the cruise ship crud had me underestimating how tired I'd be.

Tomorrow is a shorter drive to a Moorish Castle.

The Iberian Wandering - Day 15 part 2 & Day 16: Bom Jesus de Monte

Sunday, May 4, Evening 

Here's some pics of the Bom Jesus de Monte Church Complex.  It's apparently one of the more iconic churches of Portugal.

We were staying at the Hotel de Parque, right next door to the church.  The pics were taken in the afternoon/evening.

Golden Hour

Longinus

The sunset proved spectacular....best one of this trip so far.

Besides two bus loads of South Korean tourists, not sure the hotel had any other guests.

The Iberian Wandering - Day 14&15: Barcelos, Portugal

Saturday, May 3

Rest Day.  We're both at the hopefully end stages of what Martha believes is Bronchitis.  So we rested all day, venturing out for food only.

Sunday, May 4

A great day for us!

First, we drove to the town of Barcelos, known for its signature Rooster sculptures.  Martha has a thing for the Rooster motif so it was a given we'd go there.

Greeted by a band

Martha's main goal today, check.

We visited the Pottery Museum:

Wine Containers

Some of the exhibits Martha and I found interesting.  There were a lot more....the place is worth a visit, especially if you're into this kind of folk art.

There was a special exhibit featuring Devils and Beasts.  A bit disturbing overall, here's some of the PG stuff.  Most of the other stuff you might not look to closely at, shall we say.

After the museum, we wandered about the historic town center:

A quick peek inside the above church:

Tile work...nice eh?

Older version of the Rooster

We arrived in town at the end of this festival and missed the huge crowds.  Darn.

The view from the town's medieval tower:

Inside the tower, there were many clay sculptures/figurines, etc for sale or just to enjoy:

Today's Moto content

The following were definitely for sale, just a few hundred Euros each...

Santiago 

More knick-knacks

After leaving Barcelos, we went to the nearby town of Braga:

The building near where we parked, a palace of the King back in the day.

Lunch today was the best meal I've had this trip I think.  Cruise ship meals not included.

Roasted Veal

Lunch locale, oldest purveyor 

of Frigideiras or skillet dishes.

After lunch, some wandering around:

Check out the tile facing on the buildings.

Apparently something Portugal is known for.

Pretty soon, it was time to go to the hotel where we were overnighting at tonight.  It's close to the Bom Jesus de Monte Church.

More on the church and it's surroundings in the next post.