Up north… in Portugal

For sun, sand and villa holidays, the Algarve is hard to beat. But Jos Simon drove to the Minho on Portugal’s northern border to explore a picturesque region packed with tradition, castles, museums, markets – and life!

After driving across the endless sepia aridity of Spain’s central plateau, and through the empty mountain wilderness of the Pereda-Geres National Park, the Minho, in Portugal’s extreme top left-hand corner, seemed green, lush, vibrant and noisy.

Stuffed full of history and tradition, it contains Portugal’s first capital city and its greatest religious centre, together with a terrific range of typically Portuguese attractions. Yet – bliss – it’s relatively little known in the rest of Europe.

The main town – Braga – throbs with vitality. But as I found out, threading your way around it in a car is a nightmare. Finally abandoning my map, I let the force be with me, drove by the seat of my pants, and ended up in an underground car park directly beneath the city’s central square.

Emerging into the Praça da Republica, the flavour of the city was immediately clear – a heady mix of ancient and modern. Loud rock music echoed off old buildings surrounding a square boasting a modernist McDonald’s on stilts. Superb traditional fountains pulsed in multi-coloured light.

I cantered around the city’s main sights – the impressive Torre de Menagem (the keep, which dominates the surrounding alleys and arcades); the pleasant Jardim de Santa Bárbara with the former archbishop’s palace in the background; the huge (and complicated) Sé, or cathedral, together with several of the numerous lesser churches that give Braga its title of the Portuguese Rome; the Hopital de São Marcos; the beautiful Casa do Raio.

Lovely buildings, beautiful gardens, British-type pillar boxes, were all jumbled up in hordes of pedestrians, killer traffic, and superb restaurants and cafés. I stopped at one for a coffee and watched the city swirl around me. At the next table, a young woman slowly lost the will to live as her boyfriend explained EU factory regulations.

West to Barcelos

The following day, Barcelos, west of Braga, and its gigantic open-air market, held every Thursday, was my first stop. My first impression of the market is of almost mediaeval chaos. Women carrying large bundles unsupported on their heads sashayed between stalls. The cries of hawkers festooned in their wares – cameras, balloons, combs, lottery tickets – mingled with the shouts of stall-holders drumming up business, beggars’ calls for alms and the squawks of live chickens tied together in bundles by their feet. Next to the church a band played, and children screeched as they ran between water jets shooting up directly from the pavement.

There’s method, though, in the madness. Stalls are grouped broadly according to what’s on sale: clothes, pots and pans, ceramics, pets, plants, even sunglasses. And much in evidence was the ubiquitous and colourful Barcelos cockerel.

Travelling onwards north west to the coast, I swept across the motorway bridge over the Lima River, past the old bridge and substantial working docks, into lovely Viana do Castelo. A town with a long seafaring tradition, it has one of the best beaches on the Costa Verde, together with stunning views across the river and down the coast from the summit of the Monte de Santa Luzia behind the town.

But its absolute gem – not to be missed – is the central square, the Praça da Republica. A renaissance fountain (so famous you’ll see copies all over Portugal) is surrounded by beautiful old buildings, in particular, the Misericórdia – almshouses with tiers supported by carved pillars. There’s no better place in the Minho to stop for a coffee or a meal.

Before returning to Braga, I took the road up the coast to Caminha, then followed the Minho river eastwards. It forms Portugal’s northern border and has several fortified towns – in particular, the spectacularly pretty Valença do Minho – and excellent shopping.

Bom Jesus do Monte and more…

My destination the next day was one of the most famous religious sites in Portugal, and only three miles outside Braga.

Bom Jesus do Monte is on a wooded hill overlooking the city. It’s a giant double flight of ornamental granite-and-plaster steps which zig-zag up the hillside to an impressive church at the summit. Each landing has a fountain, symbolising the wounds of Christ, the senses and the virtues, and at each outer angle there’s a chapel with tableaux illustrating the life of Christ.