At the evening of their arrival to Portugal, we've planned a trip for the next day, went to the car rental office and found two more never-tired and never-complaining people who'd like to join us. Luckily, Sercan and Nadir, whom we've invtited to go as first, didn't hesitate long.
On the next day, our extraordinary Polish-Spanish-Turkish crew, after picking up the car and doing shopping for the trip, went straight ahead to Alvão Natural Park. Most of the frequent visitors probably remember that I've been there one month before with girls. This time the water under the waterfall was warmer than previous time, so it was possible to swim there a bit longer. For me, this is the best place I've been to in Portugal - there are no other people, no civilization, only the sound of water going down, greeness of nature and heat of the rocks.
After hiking, swimming, hiking again and driving came time for a lunch break. We've stopped in Mirandela, which is famous for its bridge from the Roman times. The compagnion of our lunch was a brown dog that seemed to have some problems with leg so Nadir, future vet, tried to help it somehow.
The thing that I've found interesting was a monument of a giant girl, which we decided to call a monument of a Polish Girl. No idea what could be the official reason for making this kind of statue.
The next stop was Bragança, named after the celtic goddess Brigantia. The main attraction of the city is very well saved medieval castle. We were surprised by it's size and interior, which was available to enter.
The most famous building of Bragança is Domus Municipalis, a mysterious Romanesque building used in the pastg as a cistern and later as a city hall. Nobody knows what was the first reason for creating this construction.
On the city's outskirts, we've found an interesting monument showing the kind of road, pointing the castle of Bragança, with donkeys and farmers walking along.
After visiting every possible place in Bragança we still had a lot of time until the sunset so we decided to take a very curvy road to Chaves. It was a real trauma for everybody, especially for Daniel who was driving, but at the end nothing bad happened.
Chaves literally means 'keys' in Portuguese. It is the most famous for being a spa since the Roman times becuse of its hot termal waters. The city center is very picturesque together with the medieval castle.
The most characteristic pieces of architecture of Chaves are Roman bridge and Igreja Matriz a.k.a. Santa Maria Maior Church from XI century, which is reflected in the window below.
Oh, and "sapataria" is a Portuguese word for "shoe shop" and Mariazinha is a cute version of my name in Portuguese. I guess it's a very funny coincidence... I'm little Maria with shoe size 42!
This post would not appear if not pictures taken by Kasia, Daniel and Nadir.It was another lesson that my camera doesn't like water because it stopped working after the time by the waterfall.
It was soooooo great this day!!!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI also remember constant fight with the radio and air condition in the car;)
btw, pass the greetings to the guys!!
Oh yeah, I remember exactly 3 good songs coming out from the radio:
ReplyDelete"with or withooouuut youuu"
"forever young"
"take it eaaaasy"
Today is Sercan's bday so for sure I will pass the greetings :)
You know that, originally, the name of Chaves had nothing to do with keys: it's just a phonetic coincidence that came about over the centuries.
ReplyDeleteChaves' original name was Aquae Flaviae (Flavius' Spa), after the Roman emperor. But a phonetic phenomenon occured in the transition from late popular Latin to ancient Portuguese, whereby "cl", "fl" and "pl" all evolved to "ch". So, "Flavie" became "Chaves" and "clave" (key) became "chave" (plural "chaves").
Nowadays the town crest of Chaves displays two keys, though they are not originally related to its name.
That's interesting... and do you know anything about the monument of Polish girl in Mirandela?
ReplyDeleteI made a search on the Internet and here's what I found:
ReplyDeleteThe statue is called "A Menina e a Pomba" (The Girl and the Dove) or "A Menina da Pomba" (The Dove Girl). The girl represents purity, innocence and beauty, while the dove stands for peace; all those attributes are supposed to reflect Mirandela's aspirations.