Guarda (Sé)

Well not an exact repeat, because even though we visited Roman ruins and some stone villages with castles, just like yesterday, we added a squat gothic cathedral and a 5,000 year old necropolis to the itinerary.

First stop, Centum Cellas, a 1st C Roman tower with ruins surrounding it. The plaque describes it as a mystery structure—prison, fortress, religious site, villa? My camino friend Alan, whose footsteps we are following (though he is walking and we are driving) rightly pointed out that the Romans were too smart to build a prison or a fortress with so many windows.

Sortelha is less touristy than the “aldeia histórica” we visited yesterday (Monsanto), but it was much more accessible for Joe. More compact, beautifully preserved. Sortelha dates back to the 12C and used to be part of the kingdom of León, so it must have changed hands several times in the back and forth wars that ultimately resulted in two separate countries. Just beautiful.

From there, on to Sabugal, another castle town. I hadn’t originally thought we’d visit so many, but given the rain of yesterday, and the fact that I remembered this castle as having its entrance directly to a street in town, I thought it’d be a good one to end the castle circuit with. Joe didn’t climb up to the walls, but sat in the Plaza de Armas and waved when I hollered from above.

At this point, I though Joe should choose between another medieval town or a gothic cathedral, and he chose the latter. So we drove to Guarda, and surprisingly drove straight up to the cathedral entrance and slipped in an open parking place. After lunch in a decent place near the cathedral, we visited the cathedral (Joe said his prayers while I climbed to the roof) and then hit the road for our Casa Rural in the Douro.

On the way, we saw a sign pointing off road to a megalithic necropolis. Usually these signs give no indication of how far off road they are, but this one said 5 km. As we went through town, I stopped to ask a resident if the route was well marked, if it was really 5 km away, and if the road was paved (all of these questions were learned the hard way). She assured me it was, and off we went. There is something pretty awesome about standing out in the middle of nowhere and walking through a stone structure built 5,000 years ago to bury the dead of the people who built it.

Then back on the road. Coming from the south, we had to descend to the Douro, cross it, and ascend to our place on the other side. It is lovely, the Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros. Dinner at 7:30 - no night driving on these roads for me!Read more