Bom Jesus

Our hotel in Braga is actually in a hilltop area called Bom Jesus. The hotel and the church/sanctuary sit at the very top of the hill and the location was fantastic. We hiked down the hill which is beautiful and has Stations of the Cross at each landing. When we got to the bottom we took a water-powered funicular back to the top. The kids (and Chris!) thought it was pretty cool. We then headed to Viana do Castelo for the afternoon. They have a big market on Fridays and we spent some time wandering through and buying picnic ingredients. We got some prosciutto, some cheese, bread, olives and some sausage we can’t pronounce and had a picnic before heading up to Santa Luiza Church. This church sits on top of the town and is reached via another funicular. Once at the top the views were great. We actually climbed up inside the tower which was not so great. The tower is very high and very narrow and is reached by a series of circular stairs that are only wide enough for one person. You are supposed to wait until the silly little light turns green before you start your ascent/descent. Great system assuming everyone understands the directions AND noone is colorblind…clearly NOT the case the day we were there. I had a mild panic/claustrophobia attack and the kids had some trepidation on the way up. They were thrilled once they got there…and more thrilled when we were back on solid (low!) ground. We got back to the hotel in time for a quick swim before dinner. The indoor pool was on the second floor and had an entire wall made of glass and overlooked the city below; very cool. We went into Braga for dinner and to hopefully catch the last night of Semana Santa celebrations. Purely by chance we found a fantastic restaurant just 3 blocks from the cathedral. We had a great dinner (2 bottles of wine!) and when we were done we were just steps away from the parade route. It was fascinating to watch the hooded penitents, cross bearers, bands, etc… Abby watched the solemn procession very intently before asking, “Are they all sad because their robes are dragging on the ground? Is that why they are crying?” We explained they were sad because Jesus died and for the rest of the evening she announced to anyone and everyone, “Jesus died, Jesus died, Jesus died…” in a lovely sing-song cadence that didn’t quite match the solemnity of the occasion! We finished the evening with cotton candy (to soak up the wine!) and were home around midnight.