Falling For Portugal: A Mai Tai Tom “Trip” Report

Day Fourteen: A Stop In A Medieval City, Is That An Orange Julius?, Stairway To Heaven, Into The Forest I Go, Yet Another Karen Valentine Highway, “Best Drive In The World?”, Wrong Turn, Bus Stop, Maybe We Won’t Cross That Bridge When We Come To It and A Room With A View

After another delicious filling breakfast at Solar Antigo Luxury Coimbra, we collected our rental mobile from the parking garage and were back on the road with our destination being the wine country of the Douro Valley. About an hour north of Coimbra, we made our first stop in the medieval city of Viseu.  We parked near a World War I Monument …

… and walked along some of Viseu’s picturesque streets.

The street lamps hanging over the narrow streets added a unique touch, and this town, filled with charming squares, seemed to warrant much more time than we had allotted. Next time.

Reaching the heart of town, two churches faced one another. Although one had a much more magnificent façade, we chose the Catedral de Viseu (r) located cross the square from the Igreja da Misericórdia (which I would duck into for a couple of moments after exploring the cathedral).

Before entering we took a look at the imposing statue of King Duarte located nearby.

The cathedral dates to the 12th and 13th centuries and was enlarged in the 16th century.

The stone pillars stood out.. There also seemed to be a blue UFO in the altar (either that, or something with the Iphone)

Upstairs there was a better view of the interior (with no UFO) and we also took a look at the choir.

Fortunately for Tracy the ceiling was interesting …

… so she could work out a few kinks in her neck.

Don’t forget those azulejos.

The sacristy doesn’t have a whole lot to see, especially after seeing so much in (some may say too many) other cathedrals. However, we did catch a great view of the Igreja da Misericórdia, along with one of the cathedral’s bell towers.

We didn’t spend an over abundance of time in Viseu, because we had one more stop along the way to the Douro Valley. Still, it was a worthwhile stop.

Before leaving, I took a peek inside the Rococo-styled Igreja da Misericórdia, built in the latter half of the 18th century. I particularly liked the cool balcony below the organ.

It was about 45 minutes to Lamego. I found driving in Portugal to be very easy. We did have to keep an eye out for Via Verde lanes on the highways, where the transponder in the car would give a little ding to pay whatever toll was at that designated spot. In nine days of driving, despite a lot of dinging, the tolls added up to less than 15 euro.

In Lamego, after parking in yet another stadium parking lot, we searched along a tree-lined street for a quick lunch. We decided on the Com Unhas e Dentes Hamburgueria as it had a 4.9 rating on Google Eats. Tasty burgers and I had a tremendous fresh squeezed orange juice which tasted just like the Orange Julius of my childhood.

After lunch, my goal was to locate the Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, with its set of 686 zigzagging stairs, and I started looking up where to find it. Tracy laughed, “That shouldn’t be too difficult. Look behind you and up.” We had parked virtually at the bottom of the stairway of Our Lady of Remedies, although there was no remedy for my lack of observation.

In the old days, I would have eagerly climbed the Baroque staircase to Monte de Santo Estêvão (St. Stephen) where the sanctuary is located. Sadly, my “1,000 stairs a day” vacation mantra has faded into distant memory although after getting close up on top, I think it would not have been overly difficult). I had read that there was a pretty drive up to the church, which is what we did. A winding road through a forest area with camping and picnic sites ended in the parking lot, where we first saw a 700-year-old spreading chestnut tree, although I saw no village smithy standing, and it was more wide than a Longfellow.

We parked (free) and walked around to the front of the church. The current sanctuary was started in 1750 and completed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Taking the stairs down a level or two, the views back to Lamego were stupendous.

As we stood on one of the landings, an air raid siren started blaring, and I mean blaring. This went on for a matter of minutes, which was cause for, perhaps, a little alarm, although the thought of Lamego being attacked was certainly remote. Finally, after about about 10 minutes it stopped. Someone we talked with said it was for the volunteer fire department.

On one of the landings was a fountain/obelisk.

Numerous statues, some of kings, lined the stairways and landings.

The nine landings are decorated with spectacular azulejo friezes.

It was mid-afternoon by now, and we wanted to catch a glimpse of the church before hitting the Douro.

After taking a couple of photos, we learned that no photos are allowed. Sorry.

Apologizing at the tomb of the founder of the sanctuary, Canon Jose Teixeira Pinto, at the entrance to the nave (oops, one last photo), we departed.

And it was just in time, because a tour bus had pulled up, and the quiet sanctuary we had just enjoyed in relative solitude would soon be overrun.

In less than thirty minutes, we were near Peso da Régua, and found ourselves traveling on the Estrada Nacional 222 (N222), which we, of course, dubbed the Karen Valentine Highway (named in honor of the Room 222 star). We had not been on a Karen Valentine Highway since 2005, when we drove on the S222 in Italy.

The road, which runs from Peso de Regua to Pinhão has been awarded the prestigious honor of “Best Drive In The World.” It is undoubtetly lovely, but I would have to say “Best Drive In The World” might be overstating it a bit. Sadly, some portions of the river looked more like a stream as Portugal had been enduring a drought (as Californians, we felt their pain).