Friday 2nd May 2025.
Yesterday was a national holiday, Labour Day, and so we decided to stay another night at Costa Nova, ramble around the town and enjoy another evening stroll on the beach. Here are a few more photos of Costa Nova.
We had heavy rain and an impressive thunder and lightning storm over night.
We drove 94 miles today using both paid and unpaid motorways until we reached Guimaraes.
After lunch we paid 10 euros each and took a ride on the Teleferica de Guimaraes or cable car. The journey is 1.7km long and rises 400m in height travelling over the tops of peoples house and gardens. There was rain on the outside of the gondola so getting good photos was difficult.
The teleferico travels to the summit of Monte da Penha which is the location of the Penha sanctuary, the building of which commenced in in 1930 and it was inaugurated in 1947. The sanctuary has a modern feel and is not at all ornate, there is not just the main building but also chapels, caves, statues, fountains, gardens, parks and what on a fine day would be spectacular views.
Sadly as we emerged from the gondola station it began to rain heavily and we conducted our tour underneath umbrellas, it was quite cool and windy and whilst walking around we heard quite a lot of thunder rumbling around. This lead to the the teleferico grinding to a halt for health and safety reasons and we had to wait a while for the service to resume before we could descend. I’m assuming it didn’t stop mid ride and people were left hanging there 😵💫😄
After we reached the bottom station we wandered into town and had a ramble around the old quarter of the city, we didn’t attempt the castle which I’m sure from what I’ve read would be well worth a visit.
taraabit 