July 31 Gerês to Lamego to Agueda

Gerês is a small town in Portugal’s only national park. It is ~8 miles from the Spanish border.

On the way to Geres we spied this beauty from the highway and exited to the town of Guihofrei. Most of the churches we’ve seen are flying the green, yellow, and red ribbons for World Youth Day. They are a proud host nation that has hosted young people from other nations in many of their cities this week before the official event.

Lamego is a small city seemingly in the middle of nowhere Portugal that also has sanctuary similar to Bom Jesus; however, theirs is dedicated to Our Lady of Remedies. It as well maintained as Bom Jesus, it was still magnificent and presides over the town of Lamego, Portugal. The center sections of the stairways all have the blue tile depicting scenes from Mary’s life.

Cathedral in Lamego

I thought the ceiling was absolutely beautiful.

Cheia de graca, Mai pia,

Defende-nos do inimigo

E na ultime agonia

Achemos em ti abrigo.

Full of grace, gentle Mother,

Defend us from the enemy

And in the last agony

Let us find shelter in you.

We ended the day in Agueda, and found this fun surprise. They have painted the old town with color and there are umbrellas over all the streets and a community gathering space. Agueda is also on the Portugese Camino to Santiago, so it was fun to see the arrows pointing the way to Compostela de Santiago! We also saw some especially intricate and 3D tiles here. A colorful town to be sure!