The Portugal Hinterland

Travelled:136km
Visited:Lindoso, Peneda-Gerês National Park, Bom Jesus (Braga)
Stay: Bom Jesus- free lower carpark GPS N41.55278 W8.38137

Woke up at 6:30 to a strange noise (actually thought someone was peeing on Bluey!). But discovered, after looking out the window, that it was a sprinkler! Even though this may have been a great opportunity to clean Bluey, it was spraying water straight into the fridge vents. So we had to move out of the way. Who would have thought there would be sprinklers in a carpark! Just to be clear the surface was blocks with grass growing through them.
So we got an earlier start than usual and drove further inland along the Lima River to the typical ancient village of Lindoso. We strolled around the castle ruins admiring the views of the Lima Valley and the numerous corncribs placed all together. We had a walk through the very narrow streets of the village, where it would be near impossible to fit a car let alone Bluey. There was also 'traditional' Portuguese women dressed in black coming back from tending the fields.

There is a National Park Information Office where we obtained some information and where told that the roads were OK for Bluey.  So we drove out of Portugal into Spain and stopped to have a dip in the Hot Springs and then the cool river in Torneiros. 

At the border of Portugal we had to pay an entry tax into the National Park of €1.50. The drive was beautiful under the trees. We stopped a few times to admire the view where we could, but there were not really any places to park along the way, which is weird as they have walking trails!? Anyway it was the best direction to do the drive as from here it was downhill all the way to Gerês with great views of the valley. This town is on the map for its thermal springs, but none are for free like the one we went to in Spain! The parking here for motorhomes was a bit out of town and in the red hot sun, so after consulting our Camperstop bible we were tempted by the shady carpark at Bom Jesus and an hour later we were parked up under the trees.
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Later when it cooled down a bit we walked up to the top climbing up 116m. The other option was to take the first funicular built in the Iberian Peninsular in 1882. On the way there we walked passed the stations of the cross erected in 1811. Then there was the zig zag Baroque staircase dedicated to the five senses represented by a different fountains. At the top there were great views of Braga, restaurants, hotels and of course a church with a remarkable alter.
We walked back down to Bluey and enjoyed a few drinks. Cheers to all