Portugal - Braga - 3 Churches

After the little walk around Braga, I went to explore the famous Bom Jesus de Monte. It's up on a hill, and there are multiple ways to get to it. I travelled by car. Parking wasn't a problem, but it was a weekday.

First I explored the park. There's a lovely grotto area, with the water coming down and forming stalagmites.

 If you go up on the hill, then you get to a pond where you can rent a boat. Can be romantic, though otherwise it didn't seem that attractive. 

To the left from there you can find an area with little sanctuaries.

Then after a bathroom break, I went inside the church. It's actually quite small. The grounds are more impressive than the actual church. It's also very opulent. Made me think of poverty oaths and such, and what supposedly Jesus stood for. There was some remains of a Saint, but I didn't go closer. Those things give me the creeps.

Oh, and sorry about the nose shots in the video. I was trying to be not too obvious.

Outside, I saw a bride. It's a habit of mine that when I see a bridal shot during my travels, I always take my own picture of her. It happened in Rome too.

Then I went on to the Sanctuary of Sameiro. It was pretty much abandoned at this time in the day. The church itself looks a lot grander, and it's also higher up. The upper part of the church is quite simple. The altar is very pretty. You can also go down to a newer built part of the church, where it had been extended to. I didn't like that part, because it reminded me of Communist murals, weirdly enough. The view was nice from up there tough, but it would have been better to go in the morning, because of the direction of the sun.

Last, but not least came a tiny, but very ornate church, Igreja de Santa Maria Madalena. I couldn't see the inside of it, as it was locked up, but the outside was nice, even though a bit neglected.

I was quite hungry and tired at this point, the memory of the sushi rolls and salad long gone. I ended up in a mall, Braga Parque. There is another nice chain of restaurants in Portugese malls called Loja das Sopas. They mostly offer soups, and my favourite one is the bean soup. Very filling. Though the rest of the food is usually not that great.

As I was eating, I noticed a woman carrying a big Primark bag. Now when I was living in the UK, I really liked Primark, because they had nice clothing at a very good price. I got a ton of stuff there. So, I found it in the mall, and had a nice little round of shopping to finish off my day. Good thing it was open late.

I made an informative movie of the three churches I've visited.

Here is the root that you can take to visit these places: