Getting to Know Guimaraes

It's got everything a Medieval European town should have: a castle, a labyrinth of winding cobblestone roads, and cafe filled plazas.  We are staying put in  a cute apartment for 5 nights.  When first planing this  trip my friend Sean painted a sweet picture of reading, napping, day tripping, and cooking good food from daily market trips.  I'm glad we took his advice.

The view from this place is picture perfect, and only $35 a night.

Getting here was pretty easy but we did have help.  We took the train from Averio to Porto-Campanha then had to get another train to Guimaraes.  I didn't really know I could use the same reloadable card as the one I bought in Averio so there was some confusion.  Luckily there was a nice person in the kiosk line who totally helped me out, got my card reloaded, and pointed me in the right direction.  Sometimes those kiosks are easy and sometimes not.  Next time, I'll just go to the ticket booth and talk to a train employee to get things sorted out.  Anyway, we arrived in Guimaraes and a woman approached us, like she was looking for us, and said something fast in Portuguese and the only thing I could catch was the name of our apartment, Casa Torta.  I didn't know anything about the owner meeting us at the train station but before I knew it she handed her phone to me and I talked to the owner who had sent her mom to pick us up.  It seemed pretty legit, I wouldn't normally allow someone to approach me like that because I am accustomed to people trying to scam me...so we got in her car and she drove us to the place.  It saved us a 1 km walk with backpacks that are weighed down with a kilo of salt from Averio and kilos of rocks and sand collected from the beach at Sao Jacinto.  

Guimaraes offers some nice low key things to do, such as take this 5 euro round trip cable car ride to the top of Penha Montain for a walk around gigantic moss covered boulders, secret grottos, and a lookout point.

The city is also known for its art and culture.  The huge Platform of Arts and Creativity is full of modern art and a permanent collection of African masks.  I'm really intrigued by modern art and sometimes it hits just the right chord, and other times it's a series of canvases painted white and hung in a horizontal line that leaves me wondering ....why??

Or books in boxes on the floor.  

Feeling it.

A suggestion on how to make your own modern art.

We had an opportunity to meet and talk with visual artist Ann Hamilton and her crew of graduate students/artists as they were working on a huge installation for a September opening.  Folks were busy hand sewing together huge sheep skins and others were felting animal fur to coats.  The work was evolving as they were creating it and it was highlight to talk with them and observe the process.

As it turns out there is also a "Vaudeville Rendezvous - Vous" which bills itself as a sort of circus with acrobats, juggling, and aerial performances but it's really more like modern dance and performance art.  There are 2 different acts each night in various spaces around the town.

This one was right outside our window in the plaza below.  

Guimaraes is a sweet little place and it turn out to be a great location to base out of.  There's a good market a few minutes walking distance from the apartment, so we can stick to our two meals in one meal out to same money.  Sometimes I cook, for example a simple rice and beans and a salad, and other times we just do bread, cheese, and olives.

We are digging the mix of Medevil and Modern. More to come as we are here a few more days.