Guimaraes

Which is more interesting, a cool castle or a terrific train ride? Depends on who you are asking. We made the decision to take a day trip up to Guimaraes, Portugal. We were told that it's the birthplace of Portugal. Guimaraes was suggested by many people. We didn't get out the door as early as we would have liked but no matter we still made the best of our time. We first took the Metro down to Sao Bento station. We then went inside an awesome train station to buy tickets for our hour long journey. The train station alone brought smiles to our faces, it was so cool. Parker and Lincoln had a similar response when they saw the 'real' trains and tunnel. The station is surrounded by old apartment buildings and it gives the station an extraordinary feeling. Here is Parkers excitement for the trains. He ran all the way down to the end where the tunnel was. Tunnels, tracks, trains their all so COOL! Here are the boys near the big tunnel.I didn't take too many pictures of the train station. There were many tiles that were like the one bellow. There were also war scenes painted on tiles. The place was really awesome.
Welcome to Gimaraes, Portugal! This was one of the first historic buildings that we came upon. It has a really long title so I won't post it. We had fun taking pictures but we found more excitement as we traveled along the bumpy path.Speaking of bumpy paths. . .When we first saw this sidewalk we were amazed at the work that went into it. All the stones were irregular in shape yet they were placed to make a consistent pattern. We find paths like this all over Porto. We do enjoy them but I don't think that our stroller does. The terrain is a little rough on our well-worn wheels. A bit bumpy but we seemed to manage.We figured since everyone else was taking pictures by this guy we would do the same. We even found a cardboard cut out of him with the face open for people to put their head in. We did a picture with Willie like that, but I chose not to put it in. Welcome to the Guimaraes Castle. This place was so cool. We only had two hours in Guimaraes and most of our time was spent walking through the castle walls. Not quite what I expected. It had a large open court and the only place for living was in the tall tower in the middle. I guess it was more of a fortress than a castle. We didn't get much info on it, maybe next time we go. We assumed that the hole we are looking out of was used for shooting the arrows out. The next few pictures were taken of the very historic area as we walked back to the train. We didn't get to stop because we were short on time.Willie made sure we had enough time to make one stop at a 'pastelaria', pastry shop. I would think we are going to get fat with all the pastries we've been eating but I guess we are compensating by all the walking around we are doing. I'm hoping to find someone who knows how to make these delicious desserts and sandwiches so I can make them back in the states. The boys are waiting for their treat. We had to run for about a block and a half to catch the train. We made it with just enough time to get the kids out of the stroller and into our seats. Yikes, that was close. I planned on putting up some video, but it was just too big to post.