Peneda-Gerês National Park

We have spent the last few days in Peneda-Gerês National Park. It is Portugal's only national park and is known for its oak forests. It is also home to over a 100 granite villages that haven't changed much since the 12th century! I spent a lot of time doing research in this area and had loads of difficulty finding specific hiking trails (something I was hoping Alex and I could do a lot of while here). While many websites mention all the great hiking, there is not a lot of maps or information online to find where these hikes are!! Even trying to find the local tourist offices have proven to be challenging as there are no addresses listed on the parks' website or in my guidebook. We finally found a couple of tourism offices randomly when driving through the park; however, even these did not have hiking maps! I know, I know, I'm really not making this up! It has all been bit frustrating to say the least, but nevertheless, we still enjoyed our time in the park, just with less hiking than I had originally planned!

On our first day, we decided to visit the small villages of Lindoso and Soajo. During the drive to Lindoso, we got caught in a traffic jam involving several large cows in the roadway! Ha! I took this photo from the car as we slowly drove pass.

Lindoso is located near the Spanish border and surrounded by mountains and a reservoir. There is a 17th-century castle where we could roam around and explore. Across from the castle is one of Portugal's best preserved collection of 19th-century granaries. The granaries were used to store and protect the grain and corn gathered for animal feed and some are still in use today. They are quite interesting as they are raised off the ground by granite legs and topped by a stone cross. From afar, it almost appears to be a graveyard.

We then drove to Soajo, a secluded village overlooking the Lima River. It is a pretty town with cobblestone roads and stone houses.

While driving back to our Airbnb on our first day we passed by a marker indicating part of a hiking trail. On Saturday morning, we headed back to this spot to see if we could find some information about this hike. Even after googling the trails name, I was unable to come up with anything, so Alex and I decided to just to start walking and we could always turn around and go back to our car when we got tired. I'm typically not one to blindingly start hiking a trail I know nothing about but since I was determined to hike SOMEWHERE in this park, I was willing to go against everything I believe in about hiking safety! Ha!

The trail, thankfully, ended up being really nice. It took us through a small village, vineyards, and woods, before heading down to the River Lima. As we were unsure if it looped back, we ended up hiking for a few miles before turning around and heading back to our car.

(Alex was channeling his inner Vanilla Ice with his hairdo!!)

On Sunday, our last full day in Peneda-Gerês National Park, Alex and I decided to head to the northeast part of the park where it borders Spain. The drive alone was beautiful and we stopped at many points along the way to enjoy the scenery.

We drove to Peneda, a small mountain village. Outside the village is the Nossa Senhora da Peneda Sanctuary. The shrine was built at the end of the 18th century and resembles the shrine in Braga (only much smaller).

There were several cows grazing on the grass below the church steps!

We then drove to Castro Laboreiro, a village known for its 16th century castle ruins. The castle was built in 1505 over the foundations of a 12th century Moorish castle. There is a short 1.5 mile hike to get to the castle ruins.

We stayed at an adorable Aribnb while in the park. It was up on a hill and overlooked the mountains and the River Lima. Interestingly, the residents living in the area burn a lot of brush and it makes for very smokey afternoons. When we first arrived, we thought the haze was from low-lying clouds, but in reality, it is actually smoke from all these fires!