Northern Coast Loop

Despite the disappointing news from the Cap. Jackson from earlier in the week, last weekend Ann and I decided we weren’t going to let the news stop us from continuing our explorations.  So Saturday we fueled up the Renault (still with a quarter tank left after a whole month’s worth of driving) and decided to finish our drive through the north - this time heading towards the coast and then up north.

Our first stop was to near-by Barcelos.  It’s famed for two things - it’s outdoor market and . . .

. . . its chickens. 

While I’m sure there are plenty of real chickens in Barcelos, it’s the statutes that garner all the attention.

We didn’t plan on actually arriving on market day so we wandered around the market to see what was there (definitely need to head back for fresh vegetables and fruit) and then wandered around the city a bit.

There we came across the most familiar of the Barcelos chickens sitting in front of the tourism office. We saw that the office was advertising an exhibit of  . . . you guessed it, Barcelos chickens.  We definitely have to come back when they’re open! 

We wandered a bit though town to get a feel for it and know we’re definitely going to return.

It’s an old romanesque town that has plenty of narrow, one way streets that our GPS decided we really needed to go down.

Barcelos is on the Cávado River and we followed the backroads until we hit an estuary near Esposende.

When we opened up our doors we breathed in that fresh salty ocean air that was a whole lot cooler than what we’d been breathing for the past week in Braga.

From that stop we drove up the coast towards Viana do Castelo.  We’d considered an apartment there (as we had a house near Esposende), but didn’t make the trip (to either place) after we saw what is our current home in Braga.  

Before we left Braga we went into our GPS and turned off all the functions that want to put you on highways and the fastest route to get places.  So the drive was slow.  But it had its benefits.  For example, as we were driving some tortuously twisting roads through hilly areas, we wizzed by this church that looked really interesting, so we pulled over.

Pretty much in the middle of nowhere (well, you could see the highway off in the distance) was a graveyard and a lovely church.  

Across the street was a shrine of some sort up a very long climb (that seems to be a thing here in Portugal - make people work to see the shrine).  We opted instead to look at the easy site

It really had a lovely façade . . .

. . . and the roof-line cast an interesting shadow on the forecourt.

I even found a wall that spiked my curiosity.  But not enough to pull out the real camera.  Still, the phone did its job.  

We eventually arrived in Viana do Castelo and after finding the streets packed, entered the underground parking garage only for the exit stairs to pop us up to an interesting view of the old customs house? and a summer palace (with personal house of worship) off in the distance.  

We checked out Tripadvisor and found a highly rated restaurant.  When we arrived just before noon, there we were the third pair of customers.  An hour later they were packed!  The roast turkey there was excellent!

Not to be outdone by our GPS, I followed all of the thin lines on Google Maps on my phone, which rewarded us with a stroll down some lovely alleys.

Yeah, I can see wandering the back streets here with my camera.  

On our stroll we stopped by a cafe for coffee and a small dessert before hitting the road to continue our drive northward.  

At one point we saw a pull out area that we decided to go down, and then drove down a secondary road from there.  Ultimately we came across a boardwalk that made its way through some sand dunes.  I was in photo scouting mode, and the location, while not perfect, at least gave us some ideas.

We now have at least one location on the coast to try out once we get back to photographing.  

It was interesting having turned off all of the “efficiency” settings on our GPS.  While it did try to take us down some really narrow alleys in towns, it took us on back roads we never would have thought about taking.  And, of course, that leads to coming upon scenes like this as you pass from one valley to another.

We eventually wound up in Ponte de Lima, an old Roman town.  We’ve found out that most towns have an area where you can drive and park for the day, letting you walk into and around town.

We walked up-river a bit to photograph the historic Roman bridge and to get a feel for the area.  Like Barcelos, it is a town we’ll surely return to . . . when it’s not quite so hot.

It had been quite the drive and we were ready to call it a day, so we switched the GPS back into normal mode and took the highway back to Braga.  Our outing confirmed we definitely have a lot to explore in the north of Portugal.