Peneda Gerês
Finally I can present you one of my trips that lasts more than one day. I called it trip to Peneda Gerês.
This trip was a bit weird. First of all, because it started late afternoon. Usually, we get up so early and start a trip, but not this time. We hit the road around the 5 o’clock at the afternoon on 1 April 2019.
After a not long ride, we stopped to stretch paws, and see some cool roman shit… oh I mean thing.
We followed the signs to the place called Aquis Querquennis, and can you believe it? We didn’t get lost.
Aquis Querquennis, also known as A Cidá (in Galician "the city"), is a Roman archaeological complex formed by a Roman camp and a road mansion, located in the parish of Baños de Bande, in Galicia, on the banks of the Limia River in the Conchas reservoir.
The camp was established on the site for the construction of Via XVIII or Via Nova, a road connecting Bracara Augusta and Asturica Augusta. In the month of September of the year 2018. it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.
What is so amazing about this place is that it has a Roman baths with termal waters, with free access, which Romans used in their times. But the main problem is, if you ask me, that the site completely covered by the dammed waters of the Limia River. This happened to us, so we couldn’t see roman baths. Why do they let that happen? And especially to a site of important heritage!
The things we could see there were the main entrance to the compound, hospital, storehouses, west door, and barracks for the troops…
After sniffing more than 2000 years old history, I was ready for my beauty sleep. We went to a touristic apartment El Valle. Beside of being super PET FRIENDLY, they were treating me like I was a queen, and I felt like I was home. Place is amazing, fully equipped with everything you need! It has its own parking, access to a river… that is super cool for a fast morning walkies. We picked up some tips for the days ahead of us, and we also bought homemade honey here!
Then all of a sudden it was a new day. We decided to make a whole day hike. We got in the car, and after a bit of driving, I couldn’t even sleep how short it was, we get to the start of our trail. It is a place called Mirador de Ermida. It has a small parking, and a small house of touristic info nearby.
Naturally, I had to see the view.
Not bad at all.
Ok, so I am ready to go hiking. We started… well, let’s just say we started. It was a good trail, not too hard, with wide paths trough the forest… up until the moment when my humans saw one pine full with the nests of pine processionaries . Nevertheless we kept going.
But it started to get worse. More pines, more nests, and of course more panic from my humans. This time I had to go with the leash on. Ok, it is a little bit uncomfortable, but we get to the one point of interest, viewpoint of a valley.
But unfortunately my humans saw this on the ground:
They were all over the place, in the groups or individual, moving, burying themselves. Is it strange if I say that “panic alarm” of my humans was just off the charts? I don’t know if we passed 2km, but all of a sudden we are going back! Practically running!
Ok, so day is officially ruined! Now what?
We get to a car, and we used plan B. In other words, we went to a route that we had saved for the next day.
And here we are, at the Portuguese- Spanish border, or what it used to be, Portela do Homem.
We parked just there at the border, near the fountain Fonte de Portela.
Let us see if we have more luck this time. So far so good. The trail we are going to follow is Ruta das Seis Pontes or translated Route of the Six Bridges, and it is pretty easy one.
You are guessing now what we are going to see? Yep, you are right, we will see six bridges, and maybe repeat some of them.
I will let the photos speak for themselves.
And there it is, in all its glory, our first bridge!
We cross it, and the road continue trough the forest. Not so far from there, there is the second bridge. It is a small one and looks like handmade.
From there we came to some stones that my humans said are cool, by pretty wide path. No problems there. I was not interested in those. I mean a rock is a rock. But my humans said that those are milestones. Or to explain, those are the stone poles that served to mark distances in Roman times. This road from 2000 years ago joined Bracara Augusta (current Braga) with Asturica Augusta (current Astorga).
Now it seems cool, right? This one on a photo is mile XXXIII (33rd).
Romans were placing them on the edge of their roads to indicate the distances each thousand passus (Roman double steps) that is, each Roman mile, which is equivalent to a distance of approximately 1,480 meters.
We continued our quest for more bridges. Walking the Roman roads, we get to our third bridge.
And there we are.
This view was breathtaking. That much, that my human spent minutes and minutes taking photos, trying to find best angle, best composition… I am not that patient, so I just stepped away.
Even though I have to admit that this time I understand her.
So don't mind me now, because I will swamp you up with photos of this amazing place.
We actually couldn't decide which photo to show you, so we decided to put a lot of them. Smart idea, huh?
I will not take any more of your time, but I will just say....
.
.
.
.
.
ENJOY!
OMG, and my human… so boring! I needed to turn my head away. But she doesn’t seem to get it, is she?
And then, as you could guess, we continued. The whole route is so comfy. My paws didn’t notice any effort.
In front of us there was another bridge. The fourth one. And so close the fifth one.
The last one was a bit big. I mean, I saw some cars passing over it. That can only mean one thing. The rest of the road is like a highway comparing to the one we came here.
But first we made a little stop. Well, you see a river, and I see motive for have fun.
It looks like I am messing around with my humans. I just cross this side over a bridge, and now I am going back crossing the river. They looked at me so confused. I wonder why.
After I crossed one more time the River Meceira, we continued walking down the “highway”. Just look at how wide is the road.
We passed by various fountains. All with crystal clear water. The thing that my human liked the most about them is that they all have their name written.
And look at that. We stumbled upon another milestone. This time it was XXXII (32nd).
And then I said: “Should we have a lunch here?” So we did.
After a little break, we started following our route. We had one bridge left, but we found it fast. Not so spectacular like some of them, but hey, we don’t judge.
The last part was a bit tricky one, but not hard at all. The thing is that last few km are all uphill. But that is not so bad. The tricky part is that there were too many bushy plants that are bothering you. Let’s say that I came out of that part of the road well combed. The thorns and thickness of the bushes did the most part in that. And if you add all those fallen tree logs to the road, I could easily say I did one decent agility contest there.
Moments when I dive out of those bushes were worth all the trouble.
Having that much trouble passing by the path that is officially route, on some crossroad we decided to go back to a waterfall that we saw at the beginning. And we made it.
Because we finished the route fast, we had some free time to spent. We decided to go to a town nearby.
Vila do Gerês is a touristic village that is integrated in the Peneda Gerês National Park. It counts with a spa and famous bathes which entrance you can see behind me on a photo.
Next stop was a small beach, or at least at the moment was a small, at the Cávado river that is called Praia de Alqueirão. Houses that you can see from the point where I was making bubbles in the river is Vilar da Veiga.
Officially, the day was over. We went back to apartments to charge energy for the next day.
It was the day of going back home and it started really good! First on our list was castle of Lindoso. I can’t help it but to show my photo bomb of very first photo of this place.
The castle built on this small hill overlooking the Lima River was always related to the defence of the portela of the Amarela mountain pass, and the valley of Cabril, and the port of Lindoso, because besides being a border place, the Lindoso was also, and still is today, a transit point.
I have to admit I liked it. I started sniffing, exploring and climbing. You couldn’t stop me. Ok, maybe my human can, because if I see her with camera pointed at me, I escape far away from her!
This is important Portuguese military monument and National Monument. As never assumed residential functions, only military, the castle was occupied occasionally, especially in times of regional or national conflicts. Here you can see view of Lima river.
In front of the castle you can see these marvellous group of granaries, here also called espigueiros, which are so typical for northwest part of peninsula. Here, in the highest point of the village there are 64 espigueiros.
They are made of stone and they are pretty old. The most of the Lindoso’s espigueiros were built between XVIII and XX century. Some of them have date inscribed above the door, and the oldest marks 1787 and most current 1870.
Its function was to store agricultural products, especially corn, away from moisture, ventilated and safe from wild animals.
I know I put too much photos. But if you wish to see more, you can go to gallery.
The other village famous by its espigueiros is Soajo. It has 24 granaries from which the most ancient one goes back to 1782. But the most significant thing for me from this place is that they have a coat of arms with two dogs on it! How cool is that?
The pillory of the Soajo is a curious monument and about which there are still no certainties as to the date of construction. Some authors think it may be from the XVII century.
Legend has it that the slab on the top of the pillory represents a stuck bread on the end of a spear, but I can only see a smiley face.
Ok, enough of the granaries and smiley faces. We are about to go way more into the past.
One more stop was in Núcleo Megalítico do Mezio.
Núcleo Megalítico do Mezio is an archaeological area that has 11 monuments. 8 of them are mamoas. If you ask me what mamoa is, I googled it for you.
A mamoa or tumulus is an artificial mound that covers a dolmen chamber. It may be made of earth, clad in a breastplate of small imbricated stones, or be only made of stones, and is then usually termed 'cairn'. The mamoas or tumuli usually have an oval or circular shape. They were built with stone and sand and had the purpose of protecting the dolmen, covering it completely.
The name mamoa originates from the Romans when they arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, which gave the name of mammulas to these monuments, by its resemblance to the womb of a woman.
So, basically it is a tomb… Ok we can continue now.
On our way to church Santuario de Nossa Senhora da Peneda, we passed by the viewpoint Miradouro de Vale de Peneda. But I just stayed in the car… I mean wtf? Go out, go in. When you have something to show me, call me.
This Sanctuary is located in Gaviera, in Arco de Valdevez. It was probably built in the end of the 18th century, as it is engraved in a column on the top of the access stairway.
So complicated, so many stairs, and my tummy empty. Well hellooo! Humans! I want to eat!!!
Instead of food, I got to go up and down these stairs twice, because my smart humans left car upstairs.
And just like that I am out of luck. The only restaurant that was there was closed. So, hit the road Aby… again.
Our quest for food continues. This part that I am about to tell you is complete disaster! We stopped by in a place called Castro Laboreiro looking for a restaurant that will allow me to be with my humans on a terrace. This place has only 3 restaurants. We didn’t consider the firs one because it has terrace on the first floor, so I am more than sure that they will not let me in.
In the next restaurant, that is called Miradouro do Castelo we didn’t have luck as well, even though the terrace was set and ready for costumers. I mean, what is hard there to respond on a question: “Can we eat on a terrace with the dog’”. There are only two choices: yes and no! Is that hard? Well, obviously for the weird employee (let’s go with the weird, not to offend anyone) it was a bit hard. First she asked how many people will eat. I don’t get it. If the answer is seven, or twelve you would serve us, but if it is only two no??? Her final answer was: “There is no service on the terrace. You can tie your dog in front of the restaurant, and you can eat here.”
Of course we went straight away from SO NOT PET FRIENDLY restaurant and kept searching for other. As I always say: if they don’t want our money, somebody will be smart enough to take it. And that was not the case with the next restaurant.
This was our only hope, restaurant called Restaurante da Serra, also in Castro Laboreiro. Looking reviews on the Internet about the restaurant after this unpleasant situation, I am not surprise that they have low rating. I would give them rate that goes below the zero.
Approaching to a restaurant we saw that there are three used tables in front. I mean, that would be enough for us. And seeing that tables are used, it means this one has a service on the terrace, right? As I stayed in front with my human, waiting to sit there and start eating, my other human entered to ask if they will serve us. Again, we had the same problem. On a simple question if they can eat with the dog outside, the answer was: “Can’t you just leave dog in a car?” Well, I have a news for you sir. Nobody asked you if they could leave me! Being unable to answer straight, my human was so pissed off, he just stormed out of the restaurant without saying a word. Another EXTREMELY NOT PET FRIENDLY restaurant was marked for good!
Of course we went to a car and went for a search of a place where we could eat. Something like park or so, and that is on our way home. Just there, there was this one restaurant that we didn’t consider at first, because its terrace was completely covered. Having no other option we decided to stop by and ask. I was waiting in the car with my other human. After a few minutes, my human came and we were all shocked. They let us enter the closed terrace to eat!!!
The place I am talking about is Restaurante Vidoeiro, and here it is its exact address: Porto Ribeiro - Lamas de Mouro, 4960-170 Melgaço, Portugal.
Not only that they were so kind. I had a feeling that they had kitchen open only because of us, because we came so late, and all other costumers were finishing their lunch. The service was excellent! We ordered food, and with it came a plate of salad, that they didn’t charge. I mean if it was only a simple lettuce (and it wasn’t only that) it is a king and thoughtful service that counts. Beside the food, they served us a big plate of traditional rice with beans. So delicious, my humans said! I was more of-a-roasted-and-grilled-meat kind of a dog, and I ate both of these delicacies of course. At the end, we did find a PET FRIENDLY restaurant, where we were more than welcome, and where we were treated well, so my humans decided left tip that is 25% of the bill. The waitress was surprised, and with the smile said: “Until the next time!”
We will come again there for sure when we are visiting Portugal places nearby.
You guess now what happened next. Yep, we went to a car, and before going home, we made one more stop. It is the last one, I promise.
The Melgaço Castle is located in Vila parish, Melgaço municipality. In the XII century it was main defense of the crossing of the Alto Minho river to Galicia, and the most northern sentry point in Portugal.
And here I am, all tired and exhausted, climbing the walls of some medieval castle. But whom am I kidding? I liked it!
Just be careful, all of you doggos who decide to go here. Walls are pretty high and if you are just a little bit overexcited, you can hurt yourself, and we all know that nobody wants that, not you neither your humans.
After pretending that I was some anointed knight, I went for a fast tour around the place. On my way I saw Matriz Church, also known as Santa María da Posta. It already existed at the end of the XII century, and since then it has been restored and enlarged.
As I promised, that would be all from my trip. My humans said that it was completely ok, considering how it started, and situations that we had.
And me… well...
I say: let’s get ready for another one!
Love you all!
Aby
