Bom Braga

Bom Jesus do Monte
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Mac and I picked up our hire car at the local Budget office and left Porto early that morning. It was surprising really, when you take into consideration how long it took the employee behind the desk to process the paperwork.  I was fascinated to see the lack of technology being used and I had a mental picture of the monthly batch of rental contracts being sent to head office by carrier pidgeon.  The cleaning lady was most entertaining, every time she walked past the front desk she stole a lolly from the bowl on the counter,it happend so often I assumed that is how she was paid.

Desecending the stairway
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We were given a new Ford Focus which we ended up swapping over for a VW Passat - but that is another story for later down the track. So off we went on a very short and easy drive to Braga. The only reason we were going to this town was because I wanted to see the Bom Jesus do Monte Church. I had seen one photo of it before I left home, with the sun setting on its facade and knew I just had to see it for myself. I dont think I even gave Mac the option of not going, but once again he just gave me one of his warm, patient smiles I took as Yes.

Why would anyone want to do that on their knees?......

Creepy chapels along the way!
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We checked into the Ibis, which was clean and cheap and in a nice part of town and easy walking distance to the center.  As the best time to visit the Bom Jesus was from around 4:00pm onwards, we had plenty of time to mosy around and check some of the historical sites out.

Braga is a northern regional town of about 110, 000 and is the spiritual heart of Portugal and the oldest settled area in the country, as you can imagine there is alot of historical attractions to visit. Now, we didn't take this option, I have since read about many historical things that one should see while in Braga, the only thing we saw was BragaShopping, the mall on the outskirts of town.  As previously mentioned, Mac has a penchant for freshly squeezed juice and on the bottom of his reciept from a purchase at Vitaminos in Lisbon, BragaShopping was listed as having a store.

The beginning,or is it the end?
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In our defense, we did walk the considerable distance to the mall, through the paved and arcaded streets, past the old mosiac fronted shops, past the ancient churches and even made appropriate comments like "oh look at that".  Our intention was to just grab some lunch and then look at a few things on the way up to Bom Jesus.

We arrived at the gargantuan mall at around 12:00pm and were completely sucked into the three floors of halogen lit, shiny floored, noisy, funky, modern void that could provide us with all the useless material possesions we could want to fulfil our life - and didnt even put up a fight. After eight days of being around old, quaint, antiquities, history and culture this was like discovering something completely brand new and sparkly!

View from the top
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We explored every floor, we went into every shop , we had our Vitaminos lunch, I bought a lovely new watch and when we thought we had discovered everything this Mecca had to offer, Mac discovered the cinemas - the evening was neatly arranged.

At 3:30, we gasped with horror as we realised we had lost the afternoon in the shopping mall. This resulted in a world record trip back to the hotel on foot to grab the car(not before a quick coffee) and get up to Bom Jesus before the sunset. One of the quirky things about driving in Braga is the fact that even with a map, you can still get lost and after only one complete circle of town, we were on the road to Bom Jesus.

Inside BragaShopping
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Bom Jesus do Monte is quite new really, built in 1811 ontop of a hill and surrounded by a pretty forest. It is a very charming setting with a hotel and restaurant around a quaint, cobbled Placa (although I think it would lose its charm very quickly when the tourists swarm over this place like ants in the warmer months). There are spectacular views over Braga and beyond, but its the Escardaria do Bom Jesus that is the true masterpiece.

The Escardaria is a tiered staircase that reputedly has 1000 stairs down to bottom which pilgrims like to ascend on thier knees - we couldnt believe anyone would want to do that on thier knees - WHY is the question to be screamed, when there is perfectly good funicular to take you to the top.  The Escardaria  levels have different themes, some have fountains, some have chapels and some have statues but its all just stunning. The chapels were interesting, depicting scenes from the bible but they had disturbingly life like figures inside that in candle light were very eerie.

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We chose to walk from the church down to the bottom and which gave us great views of both the church, stairway and the valley below. The stairway unfolded with each level we reached and when we looked back up,  every tier was perfectly aligned and with the setting sun on the white wall of the church it really is quite awe inspiring.

It is quite a pleasant walk (on your feet!) and we took the Funicular back to the top (Pilgrims we aint) just in time for the lovely sunset.

Lots of room for walking on your knees.
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After sunset, we drove back to BragaShopping for more materialistic, pointless poking around in the shops. When we arrived, there was a massive line up of restless, screaming, shouting teenage girls queued. A BoyBand were inside one of the shops signing autographs and creating near hysteria outside. It was really cold and it was not without some smugness we walked past them all into the warmth of the mall.

We had decided, well I decided, we just had to see Narnia at the movies, so to pass the time we indulged in some very fine coffee and pastiche, more of your hand made chocolate/petite fours than the usual Nata (custard tart). What can I say about the movie? well, it seemed to go on for an awfully long time, it would appear that we have moved on quite a bit since reading the books as kids and Portuguese subtitles are really quite interesting in the right situation.

After the marathon effort of sitting through Narnia, we reentered Bragaland to discover at midnight the place was absolutely pumping, it was clearly the place to be on a cold December evening! Being old (compared to the average mall rat age) and tired we decided it was way past our bed time and made our way back to the hotel (getting horribly lost of course) bringing to an end our adventure in Braga.

Next stop Braganza.