SPAIN: THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA AND THE CATHEDRAL MUSEUM

 June 29-30, 2022

As noted in the previous post, the current Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built in Romanesque style in the 13th century, with Gothic and Baroque additions in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It is a massive structure, and no doubt gets its notoriety from being the reputed burial spot of St. James (aka Santiago) the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. However, it is a magnificent edifice of its own accord.

By the way, the only other churches in the world built over the tomb of an apostle are St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica in Chennai, India, and the Basilica of St. John in Izmir, Turkey.

A sign of the importance of this cathedral is that it was visited THREE TIMES in a span of 28 years by two different popes--Pope John Paul II in 1982 and 1989 and Pope Benedict in 2010.

The interior of this cathedral is about 310 feet long, has a transept that measures 206 feet, and stands 72 feet high, making it the tallest building in Europe when it was built. Today it is still the largest Romanesque cathedral in Spain. At first glance it looks rather austere.

But then you see the main altar, and the closer you get, the more opulent it is.

PORTUGAL TO SPAIN: SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA - THE CATHEDRAL PLAZA AND THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO

 June 29-30, 2022

We left Porto around 9:00 AM and headed north to the Spanish border and Santiago de Compostela on the other side, a 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hour drive.  The scenery was really stunning--hills became mountains, and forests and farmlands were dotted with homes and towns.

I made Bob stop so I could photograph the profusion of colorful wild flowers. I also liked the sign for those on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail recommending the use of reflecting material: "See and be seen."

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART IV - ORDEM DO CARMO AND RIBEIRA

 June 28, 2022

We were nearing the end of our crazy, too-fast day in Porto, but we still had a couple of places on our list.

The first was Ordem do Carmo, or the Order of Carmo, a rococo church built between 1756 and 1768 as a convent for the Carmelite Order of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Like several other churches we saw in Porto, the exterior walls are covered in blue tiles that are not original to the structure but added in 1916.

 In this case, the tiles depict the history of the Carmelites.

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART III - CAPELA DAS ALMAS, IGREJA DE SANTO ILDEFONSO, MAJESTIC CAFE

 June 28, 2022

After lunch we made our way back to the more interesting part of town. When we passed the church on the left, I thought, Wow, how beautiful is that! But then we came up on the church on the right, Capela das Almas (Chapel of Souls). Oh. My. Goodness. 

Yeah, take a look at those tiles. How can you not be overwhelmed at the first site of THIS?

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART II - CATHEDRAL, CLERIGOS CHURCH AND BELLTOWER, AND A LUNCH DETOUR

 June 28, 2022

The Portuguese word Sé is used to mean "cathedral" or a diocese with a bishop. Typically, the word Sé is reserved for the main or ruling church of the community. 

We could see the Romanesque Sé do Porto, located on a hill in the middle of the historical city center, from all over town. 

On our way there, we passed the Fountain of Mouzinho da Silveira, built in 1875 as a monument to a Portuguese statesman who died in 1849. This landmark was dismantled in 1920 to make room for two businesses. In 1966, however, the businesses were gone and the fountain was reconstructed after a model of the original one. I'll bet it is beautiful when it has water in it (if it ever does).

Did you notice the cool reflection on the vehicle in the lower left corner of the photo above?

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART 1 -- SAO BENTO TRAIN STATION, PALACIO DA BOLSA, IGREJA DE SAO FRANCISCO

 Tuesday, June 28, 2022

We got up early and drove just under two hours to Porto, a city I was very excited about. According to many sites, it is loaded with interesting things to see and one of the best places to visit in Portugal.

However, once we got to the city, it took us almost two hours to get to our hotel because of construction in the area. We called the hotel twice for advice for how to get there because our GPS kept sending us to the construction zone and blocked streets. When we finally found a way around the mess, we had to park our car several blocks from the hotel in a parking garage. 

The street on the left (as seen from our hotel room) is the way GPS really wanted us to access the hotel, but the street on the right is the way we were finally able to come in. It was blocked off to cars, but they let us in to unload and then sent us away to park.

And then Bob forgot to grab his camera, and I left my sweater, and we our nerves were already frayed by the driving, and both of us were unhappy.

The huge delay meant that we got to the first place on our list 2.5 hours behind schedule, and it felt like we were playing catch-up all day, speeding from venue to venue. It was a great disappointment for me. Porto is a city where "meandering" would be fun. We did very little of that.

However, the very first place we took a look at was NOT on the schedule--the São Bento (St. Benedict) Train Station, built in the early 1900s. About 20,000 exquisite azulejos cover the walls and are topped by a border of polychromatic tiles. Together they tell the story of Portugal's past.

PORTUGAL: AVEIRO, THE (NOT) VENICE OF PORTUGAL

 June 27, 2022

Our last stop on a very full day was the city of Aveiro. Photos of the city that we saw online were beautiful, and we were excited to visit. However, Aveiro turned out to be the biggest dud of our trip.

First of all, we parked in an underground parking garage that at the end of the day we had a very hard time finding. We would learn more than once on this trip (or maybe we DIDN'T learn) that we need to pay more attention to where we leave our car. We rarely had main streets or grid-like streets to help us navigate. Luckily, I took a photo of the above-ground portion of the parking garage, which saved us in the end.

As we made our way from our parking spot on the hill down to the canals that the city is famous for, we passed some interesting sites. The sign on the left let us know that this city is on the pilgrimage trail to Spain's Santiago de Campostela Cathedral, a place we would visit in a few days.

Like every city we visited in Portugal, there were churches with beautiful azulejo tile facades and streets with intricate cobblestone patterns.

PORTUGAL: COIMBRA

 June 27, 2022

From Batalha we drove about an hour north-northeast to the university city of Coimbra, where we had a private tour scheduled. We had about an hour before we were supposed to meet our guide and were starving, so we found a parking place within walking distance of our meet-up point and conveniently located near the Café Santa Cruz. We lucked out because this café has been open since 1923 (although the building itself dates back to 1530) and is a Coimbra landmark. 

Photo from here

We arrived at lunchtime and the place was packed. They had a buffet-style set-up, and they couldn't keep the dishes stocked, so the line was moving pretty slowly. We paid 18€ for both of us, and that included drinks, and when we finally got through the line, we discovered that the food was quite good. The tables were full of what looked like university professors and students, and it was fun to be in that atmosphere.

Photo from here

Just outside and perpendicular to the restaurant was a wonderful "trash art" mural of a baby owl by the Portuguese artist Bordalo II. The left side is more or less traditional, its claws digging into an old wall, and the right sight is much more futuristic.

PORTUGAL: BATALHA MONASTERY (AKA SAINT MARY OF THE VICTORY MONASTERY)

  June 27, 2022

I thought it would be hard to top Alcobaça's Monastery of Santa Maria, but our next stop, only 12 miles away, was even better--Batalha Monastery. Built between 1386 and 1517 in the "Flamboyant Gothic" style, it looks very French from the outside--lots of gargoyles and buttresses. 

It seems that the Portuguese kings had a habit of bargaining with God. If he would give them victory in battle, they would build an over-the-top cathedral and monastery as a thank you. This one was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory of the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. Seven kings, 15 architects, and 131 years later, it was done. It was granted to the Dominican order.

Like the Alcobaça Monastery, Batalha is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

PORTUGAL: ALCOBACA, MONASTERY OF SANTA MARIA

 June 27, 2022

Our first stop of the day was only a seven-mile drive from Nazaré--the city of Alcobaça, and more specifically, the Monastery of Santa Maria. The church that is the centerpiece of the monastery was built by order of the first king of Portugal to commemorate a victory over the Moors in 1147 and as a gift for the Cistercian Order (a Benedictine branch) under Bernard of Clairvaux. It took 76 years to complete the cathedral, and another 60 or so to add on the cloister. They are the first Gothic buildings in Portugal, and the church itself was the largest in Portugal at the time of its completion (and still is). The complex was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.

The central church facade dates to 1702.

The interior was completed in 1269. The church was consecrated for the monks and the public was not permitted to enter until the 18th century. 

The dramatic nave is over 325 feet long.

The best things in the monastery are the twin tombs of Pedro I of Portugal (called both "Pedro the Just" and "Pedro the Cruel"), who died in 1367, and his mistress, Inês de Castro. The story of their affair is a little long, but worth your time.

PORTUGAL: SANCTUARY OF OUR LADY OF NAZARE AND DOS VENTOS RESTAURANT

June 26, 2022

There is a story that in the 4th century a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary was brought from the city of Nazareth in the Holy Land to a monastery in Spain, and then in 711 it was brought to the Portuguese seaside by a monk and the current king of Portugal. They promptly became hermits, moving into a small grotto in the cliffs above the sea. When the monk died, the king left the Madonna statue on an altar in the grotto.

Flash forward 400+ years. As mentioned in my previous post, sometime in the 12th century a local official was chasing a deer during a hunt in the fog, and he chased the deer over a cliff near the grotto. Just as the hunter's horse was about to follow the deer, the hunter called out to the Virgin to save him, and, miraculously, his horse stopped abruptly on the very verge of a death drop. 

To honor this miraculous intervention by the Virgin Mary, a chapel was built over the grotto in 1182.  A bigger church that could accommodate more visitors to the Virgin was built in 1377 by King Fernando I, and it was remodeled multiple times between the 16th and 19th centuries. Today, this beautiful baroque Sanctuary of Our Lady of Nazaré still houses the miraculous statue. The name Nazaré (pronounced Na-zuh-RAY) is the Portuguese version of Nazareth, the city in the Holy Land from where the statue came.

Unfortunately, when we were there the statue itself was out for repair and restoration, but there was still a lot to enjoy in the rest of the church.

PORTUGAL: NAZARE, PRAIA DO NORTE

  June 26, 2022

The small town of Nazaré (population 10,000) is known for two unrelated things: surfing and a miracle. I'll start with surfing.

The town was very crowded the afternoon we were there, and we had to park a fair distance from our first stop, the famous Praia do Norte, or North Beach. I'll get to why it's famous in a minute.

We noted a definite hipster/surfer vibe as we approached the beach--street signs covered in beach bum stickers and a giant marble and steel statue that has the head of a deer and the body of a surfer.

The deer has a story that actually ties in to the Nazaré miracle, so I guess my opening statement that the surfing and the miracle aren't related isn't entirely true.

There used to be a lot of deer in the area, and the legend is that on a foggy day in the 12th century, the mayor, Dom Fuas, was hunting and chased a deer over a cliff. Just as Dom Fuas was about to follow suit, he cried out for help to Our Lady of Nazaré (whose story I will tell later). At that moment his horse stopped abruptly, saving itself and its rider from a fall of more than 300 feet onto the rocks below. See the depiction of the event below, painted by Portuguese artist André Luís.

Picture from here

We were walking towards those very cliffs, but first we passed through the gate that welcomed us to the the site of the Biggest Waves in the World.