Penedas Geres National Park

We rented a car in Viana do Castelo and drove east to Portugal’s first National Park, Peneda-Geres.  We stopped along the way in Barcelos for market day.  It’s supposed to be one of the largest markets in Europe, but isn’t.  It was fun to see the produce and plant vendors, but otherwise the market was mainly cheap clothing.   I think perhaps the favorite Portuguese vegetable this time of years is collard greens. Piles and piles of them at the market.

Collard greens for sale at the Barcelos Thursday market

We arrived at Pousada Sao Bento - Canicada around 2pm and they soon had both our rooms ready.  You can’t really walk anywhere around the hotel because it is on a very steep hill, so we rested in our rooms which had large balconies overlooking the hill and lake and park in the distance, and in the common area that has comfortable chairs and couches and huge glass windows.  The hotel was built in the 1950s and has a stone exterior and a vaulted timber frame roof over the common area.  It was too cold to swim in the pool with more rain showers the day we arrived.  Dinner service in the hotel restaurant begins at 7:30.  The service was excellent and they had good soup, but the vegetarian lasagna was mostly cheese and the grilled fish was a little overcooked although came with a nice selection of grilled vegetables.  

Succulent garden at the Pousada

The pousada at sunset

The next morning Jake was down for the day with a head cold.  Jim, Linda and I headed out for sightseeing and a hike after a delicious breakfast.  We stopped first at the surprisingly large Sao Bento church complex about 15 minutes away.  There is an old church opened in 1615.  There is also an enormous newer church, very modern with a large glass steeple.  It can accommodate thousands of worshipers.  We stopped in the hotel gift shop across the street and learned that Sao Bento = Saint Benedict.  There is a relic of him in the church.  In the gift shop you can buy candles and wax body parts to place in front of the Saint’s statue.  An ear costs about a euro.  There are also stalls outside that sell candles, herbal remedies, and food.I couldn’t resist buying a balm that contains bee venom and other herbs, good for all aches and pains.

View from the church balcony

One of the more modern mosaics about the life of St. Benedict

We continued up the narrow, winding road to the start of the Sarilhao Eagle trail (PR5).  It is a 9km loop trail and it partly follows the Geira Roman road, Via Nova XVIII.  The trail was pretty easy to follow.  It first passes by several snack bars and adventure parks and then goes through an old town with cobbled streets.  After a couple kilometers the trail goes across the hillsides and descends to a narrow lake created by a dam across a river.  

Stone pillar with Roman inscriptions

Roman road

The lake

It was really interesting to pass through the varied types of forests.  The more open areas have a mix of shrubs like a diminutive gorse, broom, and heather.  There was a steep, rocky downhill section through the twisted multi-trunked arbutus trees.  The lake level looked pretty low, but recent rainfall created a nice torrential waterfall on a hillside.  Going back up hill, we joined the Roman road lined with about a 4’ tall rock wall.  We speculated about why there needed to be a rock wall that tall along the road - erosion, protection from enemies??  That area had a lot of oaks and chestnut trees.  Another section had a dense growth of young pines,  Pinus pinaster, trees.  The trail also goes by old stones used by the Romans.  One was a mileage marker engraved with words.  The road went from Braga to Astorga in Spain. 

In a town, wood ribs holding up an awning

Ruined house

Arbutus forest

Girdled invasive acacias

shrubland

A stream along the trail

The trail had much more steepness than we thought it would from looking at the map online.  Linda found the perfect hiking stick along the way and I wished I had thought to bring Jake’s hiking poles with me.  But we finished the trail in about 4 hours none the worse for wear mostly.

We stopped for a small pizza and ice cream in Sao Bento before returning to the hotel.  We drove downhill for dinner to Tasquinha do Barbas after finding the closer Fonte de Amores closed.  The Tasquinha (tavern) had the standard Portuguese meals of grilled meats served with french fries and rice or rice and some other potato dish.  Jim and I tried a Vinho Verde red wine, served chilled, that had the slight effervescence typical of Vinho Verde.  Wine generally has been pretty inexpensive, around 5-7 euros for a large glass or 10 - 20 euros for a whole bottle.  All the wines have been very to pretty good, both red and white. You can get maduro (mature) red and whites, or verde, young, slightly effervescent wines.  There are plenty of locally made beers too.