Travel to Guimarães, Portugal

Guimarães is one of the oldest cities in Portugal, the architecture is amazing, especially in old buildings like the palace of the Dukes of Braganza, the Castle of Guimarães and churches.

cheruche in the city centre

How look life in Guimarães ?
People in Guimarães are calm, kind, helpful, fine with their normal life and proud of their football team (Vitoria Guimarães). There are few restaurants in the old part of the city.

Food and drinks :
Foods in Guimarães were normal like in Porto, I had a breakfast with the famous pastel de nata with coffee, and I ordered fried chicken for lunch from Pingo Doce, because I want to have lunch at 17:00 in few restaurants but all of them said that they don’t have any more because it’s not lunch time.

So in Guimarães if you want to eat in a restaurant, I advise you to go at lunch or dinner time, and most of them close early at 20:00 more or less.

How much cost one day in Guimarães ?
I visited the palace and the castle for 3 euros both of them, and 2 ways from the Sao Bento train station to Guimarães were 6.40 euros, drinks and food were around 8.00 euros.

Places I visited:
I visited some old churches and museums, but the most important places I visited in Guimarães were, Historic centre of Guimarães which has (Praça da Oliveira, old church, old museum and a beautiful area to rest where some coffees are), the Palace (Paço dos Duques de Bragança) and the Castle of Guimarães.

one of oldest wall in the city telling that (Portugal was born here)

Historic centre of Guimarães

garden of Alberto Sampaio Museum

The palace of the Dukes of Braganza:
This architecture of this Historical landmark is amazing, and also the inside of it has so many symbolic old things, the entrance is about 3 euros, but using my student card I had 50% discount, the rooms of the palace have a Persian rug (each one of it has a story to tell) and old expensive ceramic decorations varied following the nature of this room (dining room for invited, Arms room, bathroom of the princes and princesses…). But I liked a room which has a Persian rug as a symbol of the entrance of the Portuguese Army to (Ceuta and Tangier) because I am a Moroccan student and it a Part of the History of my country also. In the middle of the palace there is a church, where the Dukes and his guests were practicing the religion, the inside of it has also many old precious things.

Statue of King Dom Afonso Henriques. he was The first king of Portugal in the 12th century.

The palace of the Dukes of Braganza

Persian rug as a symbol of the entrance of the Portuguese Army to (Ceuta and Tangier)

Arms room

church of the Palace

The Castle of Guimarães:
The entrance to the castle is also 3 euros like the palace, and students can benefit of the discount, Was built to protect the city, the wall of it looks so strong, and the view of the palace and the city from the top of it were amazing, you can see the beauty of this city from there, the inside of the big tower are so many old things (money, letters, books) and a wall presenting the History of Guimarães as you see in the pictures below.

view of the palace from the castle

old things in the castle

wall showing the History of the city