John is tired of all the driving around so instead of heading north up twisty mountain roads we decide to stay local and see the sights in Amarante. First stop, picture in front of the hotel.
We are looking forward to seeing the church of Saint Goncalo, the museum, and just generally taking a walk around town. Crossing the bridge their is a carving on the side of the church called the Madonna of the Bridge.
Mass is still going on so we must postpone our visit to the church.
We walk around for a bit and then try to visit the museum. Unfortunately it has closed for lunch! People in Spain and Portugal take their lunchtimes very seriously!
Finally mass is over and we go into the church. It was built in 1543 and its interior is part renaissance and part baroque.
As I mentioned yesterday, there are a couple of things that St. Goncalo helps with such as hemorrhoids and acne and he is also the patron saint of lovers in Amarante. In an effort to check this all out, I visited the Catholic Church’s website and found that the church is pretty skeptical of all the claims about St. Goncalo. They suggested that his biographer could have used a sobriety check. Anyway, the people of Amarante love him a lot and have a special chapel with his tomb in it.
Giving up on the museum we head back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our fancy dinner tonight. I am really hoping it will be good. We also partake of the tea that the hotel offers around 5 PM. We are hungry from no lunch and our dinner reservation is late.
