This morning we disembarked the Douro Elegance. Our luggage was taken on to the local hotel where we will be staying for the next 3 nights, while we were loaded onto a bus and taken on a day tour of Braga and Guimaraes (pronounced ghee marash).
Braga is the 3rd largest city in Portugal and has the highest concentration of churches anywhere in the country, so it's also known as the religious capital of Portugal. We visited the Cathedral first. I'm not sure which we've had more of during this cruise: cathedrals or port tastings.
Unlike most cathedrals, the major point of interest inside is the organ rather than the altar. Braga also has some lovely gardens.
After that we had free time and Becky and I found a lovely restaurant in a square with a fountain and had a lovely lunch.
After lunch it was back on the bus and off to Guimaraes for a tour of the Ducal Palace. Outside the palace is another statue of Afonso, the first king of Portugal. Apparently, there's some competition between various towns about where he was born, but most scholars agree that it was in Guimaraes.
We arrived back in Porto in the evening and checked into our hotel. Becky and I were exhausted so we had an early night.
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