Tag Archives: churches

Day 6 – Walking around Santarém

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Wednesday 2 September 2026 – Today is the first day of a 3-day heat wave, with forecast temperatures rising to 35°C today, 40°C tomorrow and 36°C in Friday. Our bags go to Azinhaga today, and that would be a 27km walk – probably seven hours on foot, with just the one possible coffee stop shown on the map, at about the halfway point. In any case the wisdom of undertaking such a walk is questionable; given that Jane has yet to get back to full health, it made the Uber decision an easy one. So: no Caminho hiking today. But Santarém is an interesting city, and so we walked around it before riding to Azinhaga.

Our hotel room had been comfortable, but the breakfast provided was not one that I would expect from a hotel that parades a four-star rating on its roof. The selection of fruit was meagre and of breakfast cereals dismal. We made up for the shortfall with toast and pastries. One consolation was that as one waited the interminable time for the toast to become, well, toasted, there was at least a delightful cabaret going on outside the window.

The hotel is a couple of kilometres outside downtown Sentarém, and the walk in took us past the bull ring, which is clearly a thriving entertainment centre.

Jane had worked out a list of Things To See, which included a number of churches, which we like to look into. The first church, the Edifício e Igreja da Misericórdia, an attractive edifice,

was closed for maintenance. So we carried on. Our next destination was the cathedral,

which we fully expected to be open, and it was. The building it’s in is a combined church and museum, and the official route through takes you first into the church and then the museum. As one would expect, the church’s interior is very impressive. It’s opulently appointed,

and its ceiling is remarkable.

Many areas are lavishly tiled, for example behind the altar,

although appearances may be deceptive. In other, more accessible, places, we could see that some of the decorative work is painted or inlaid stonework, rather than tiles.

The ceiling above the altar is another impressive piece of artwork

and there are ornate chapels around the sides of the nave.

The museum has, as one would expect, many artefacts to display, including this wooden crucifix, the Christ of Mont’Iraz, dating from the 13th century

which is unusual, as it shows Christ with one arm detached from the cross. it is said that Christ crucified released one arm from the cross to address a shepherd begging for divine intercession and in Catholic theology, this “Cross of Forgiveness” symbolizes Christ reaching down in mercy towards humanity.

My interest was mainly in some beautiful azulejos,

and other lovely tiling work in the refectory area as well as elsewhere.

Outside the cathedral is the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Piedade.

We looked in, and it would seem to be an interesting interior, but Something Was Going On

which we think was probably choir practice, as the standard of singing was really quite high.

Also outside the Cathedral is a café, so we availed ourselves of its offerings, marvelling at the existence of a Benetton shop nearby. Who knew that Benetton was still A Thing? Not I, for sure.

The central area of Santarém is a cheerful place

with some very decorative tiling for street names.

(more on the Portas do Sol later) as well as some other quirks, like this mosaic David

and this delightfully-named street – Pastry Shop Passage!

The Igreja de Santa Maria de Marvila has a very decorative Manueline portal,

and is apparently the most tiled church in Portugal.

It was originally a mosque, but became a church under the reconquista* of Portugal in the late 12th century. Some of its Moorish architecture remains, for example in the shape of this doorway,

but the church has had extensive makeovers, not least in the Manueline style, and has tiles over practically every surface – some 65,000 in total we were told!

The roof over the altar is a lovely piece of decorative vaulting.

There was one more church to look into (and get a selo from) – the Igreja da Graça.

Again, this has a beautiful Manueline portal

and it has a huge, though barely elaborated, interior.

It also has, unusually, a 20-segment Rose Window,

which is the emblem the church uses in its selo.

Outside of the churches, there were a couple of things that were must-see, such as this Bordalo II Hoopoe,

a part of the city walls of interest to peregrinos, the St. James Gate (Santiago Gate),

and a couple of viewpoints exploiting the city’s elevated position. These could be found in the environs of the gardens of the Portas do Sol. The walk there took us past a couple of artworks. The first was a reverse of something I’ve noted a few times in Portugal; you catch a glimpse of something that might be artwork on the outside of a building, only to find that it’s actually decaying plaster creating pattern. This work, though, was the other way round; I thought at first it was decaying plaster, but actually it’s a drawing,

with some kind of Knights Templar overtones, though what the two fingered salute is about is beyond me. The other artwork was similarly obscure in meaning.

The views afforded over the river Targus are lovely. From outside the Portas do Sol, one can see the old city walls

and from the gardens, looking over the city walls, you get sweeping views along the river.

The gardens were attractive and very pleasant – not least because they feature a café!

There are a couple of statues, one to commemorate the soldiers of the First World War

and one of Afonso Henriques.

King Afonso I was the first king of Portugal, from 1139 until his death on 1185. He achieved Portugal’s independence, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death.

The gardens also have an aviary, mainly populated by budgerigars,

although there are a couple of other species there as well – this is a cockatiel.

By this stage it was getting hot and so we thought we would head for Azinhaga. Summoning an Uber took literally seconds, and we had an interesting and engaging ride with Yasim, originally from Pakistan and in Portugal via Dubai, to the Casa de Azzancha Alojamento Local in Azinhaga. We had a few moments of dread, as we’d been deposited in, frankly, the middle of nowhere in very hot sunshine in front of somewhere that appeared to be closed. But in a few moments we were hailed from a passing car, and the owner, the delightful Helena, parked up, let us in, and explained how things would work, bidding us make ourselves welcome. It’s a lovely place

and so we helped ourselves gratefully to the kettle and the laundry facilities.

Azinhaga is not a big place, but it does have a restaurant, Peitaças. Life being how it is, it’s at exactly the opposite end of the village from our accommodation, some 20 minutes walk away. The walk over gave us the chance to see the various parts of what’s a nicely maintained village, overall: the newer houses;

the older ones;

the cute ones;

and the rather lovely idea of growing plants out of specially-created holes in the pavements.

The restaurant was pretty much as we’d imagined it: very basic, with a limited food and drinks menu, but a friendly reception, good, honest food and great value. We both had picanha steaks – a rump cut – and chips, and it was excellently tasty. Afterwards, we walked back to the Casa through the gloaming

accompanied by the traditional sound track one finds in these places.

It’s been a good, relaxed day, a sharp contrast to how it would have been if we’d taken on the hike. Tomorrow’s forecast is, as I said earlier, for 40°C heat and so there’s no way we’re walking in that. Our destination, which is another small village, seems to have one or two things that will repay exploring, so doing that is plan A, assuming we can find a cab driver willing to come out to this neck of the woods. Check back in later to find out…

* The Reconquista is one of the terms used to describe the historical process spanning almost eight hundred years, from the 8th to the 15th centuries, during which the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula progressively sought to recover the territories occupied by the Muslim Moorish kingdoms.

Bucharest! It’s…complicated

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Friday 19 September 2025 – We’ve had a day wandering round Bucharest and my brain’s full. In a single post, it’s impossible to do it justice, so basically here are some random jottings from the day. We started with a guided walking tour, a goup of 12 of us, steered and educated by Horia,

who led us through five kilometres of huge architectural variation and 20 centuries of turbulent history. When explaining how the country of Romania and the city of Bucharest have developed, his explanations almost always started, “It’s complicated….”. Frankly, given the history, I’m not bloody surprised.

  • Firstly, it was under the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and called Dacia (that’s pronounced Dachier, not Daysier, btw, so you can correct people’s pronunciations when they talk about Dacia Duster cars).
  • Then the Romans withdrew, as you do when your empire collapses (UK, look out!) and there were waves of Goths, Huns, Slavs and any number of other barbarians passing through.
  • By the 13th or 14th century, the area consisted of three principalities – Wallachia in the south, with Bucharest as capital; Moldavia in the east; and Transylvania, which was controlled by Habsburgs from Hungary. Don’t confuse Moldavia with modern Moldova, which is a real country and which occupies some of the area called Moldavia. Come on, keep up at the back.
  • From the 14th century, the Ottomans got into the act, expanding into the Balkans from Turkey until their influence butted up against Christian Europe as they squeezed Wallachia and Moldavia.
  • In the 15th century, Wallachia became a vassal state of the Ottoman empire, which meant it was largely left alone but compelled to pay tribute in funds and military support. Occasionally the locals resisted this liability, as you might understand, and the Ottomans responded by invading. The most notable rebel was one Vlad Țepeș; yes, “Vlad the Impaler”, who was the most effective leader of resistance.
  • Vlad, Horia told us, was in charge of an army numbering 5,000 which successfully repelled an Ottoman force ten times as large. He exploited Bucharest’s location – a swampy forest, basically, and used lepers and plague victims as soldiers – the first use of bacterial and biological warfare? Ottoman soldiers were reluctant to engage, ran away and were easy to trap in the forests, where they were impaled. Vlad invented a new and more brutal way of impaling victims so that they tended to die more of dehydration than of being actually, you know, impaled, and then left them in the forest as a warning to the Ottomans. Psychological warfare: nasty, but effective. Despite this resistance, Wallachia remained a vassal state to the Ottomans.
  • In the 19th century, Romania sought indepence, and fought with Russia against the Turks to fight free of the Ottomans, becoming a kingdom under King Carol 1 in 1881.
  • After the first World War, Transylvania became part of greater Romania.
  • In the second World War, Romania allied with Germany, but then switched sides at the end, allowing a Soviet takeover in the aftermath of the war. Ceausescu at first worked for independence from the Soviet regime, but turned into a harsh dictator, equivalent, in Horia’s view, to how North Korea is today
  • Eventually, the people got fed up with Ceausescu and rebelled in 1989. Since then it has officially been a democracy, but Horia was firmly of the opinion that elements of the Ceausescu regime managed to stay in control, and today’s Social Democratic party is their legacy; corruption and incompetence are marring Romania’s efforts to be a modern, efficient country.

We started the tour just outside Hanul Manuc, the restaurant we’d eaten at yesterday evening. Just there is the St. Anthony church and the remnants of Vlad’s castle

which are being developed as a museum. The restaurant itself used to be a caravanserai, a place where merchants would come and stay to do business, for days or even months, before moving on. The caravanserai occupied what is now the courtyard that we ate in. Interestingly, the paving leading into it

is not stone, but wood.

Apparently, much of Bucharest was once paved with wood, although not of this high quality.The route of our tour led us through the Old Town, some of which remains, but much of which was demolished in the communist era.

I found the place impressive but dilapidated. There were many fine buildings, and much evidence of the French influence that led to Bucharest being called “Little Paris” in the 19th century

Victoria Shopping Centre

Palace of the Deposits and Consignments – a banking hall

City Library

Military College

Athenaeum

but there are many places where the architecture is a tortured mix of the classical and the communist era.

Some buildings have a distinctive red disc on them

which means that they are at risk of falling down if there’s another earthquake (there was a big one in 1977 which destroyed a lot of Bucharest, but not as much as the communists did, apparently).Many of these fine buildings are really quite dilapidated, Horia suggested that this is a combination of neglect under the communist regime (if they didn’t actively tear them down) and current private ownership which has neither the funds nor the will to pay for the upkeep.That said, there are many quirky corners of the old town.

and its streets are thickly populated with bars and restaurants.

There is so much to the old town that I can’t possibly do it justice without you drowning in photos, but it’s a great place to walk around, with a lively vibe – and plenty of crowds.The other thing there are a lot of is churches; Romania is a very religious country, as we saw in the devoted obeisances paid by people in the churches we visited. Some were in the old town, some outside that area. A big attraction for tourists and locals alike in the old town is the church of the “Stavropoleos” Monastery, which is beautifully decorated outside

and in.

Of course, the communist era ranked very highly in Horia’s itinerary. We visited Revolution Square, site of what was the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee building (now the Ministry of the Interior)

where one can see the balcony from which Ceausescu gave his final speech before realising that there was going to be an uprising which would unseat him.

I remember seeing the news coverage of that speech, and the look of panic on his face as he realised that he’d lost control of the people and that the peasants really were revolting.We passed the Palace Hall, a 1960s communist era building

which now bears the scars of the revolution that unseated Ceausescu in the form of bullet holes.

It’s not the only building with bullet holes scarring it – there are others, reflecting the desperate efforts of Ceausescu to retain power by ordering his troops to gun down the rebels, which only delayed his unseating by one day – but it was a very bloody day.Our tour ended at the parliament building, which is simply immense – the heaviest building in the world and largest apart from the Pentagon, apparently.

It was started in 1984, in the Ceausescu era and by the time he was deposed it was 70% finished and by then more costly to destroy than to finish. Accordingly, it was finished in 1997, and now has some 4,000 rooms in it. As well as serving as police, military and secret service headquarters, it apparently pays its way through tours, exhibitions and other events, but consumes a significant portion of the city’s electricity if all the lights are on.Other churches we visited included the Cathedral of the Patriarchy, which is south of the old town and is a striking building with a beautiful courtyard beside it.

Inside is, like the others we visited, elaborately decorated.

Back in the old town we also visited the Russian Orthodox church of Saint Nicholas,

another building which is beautifully appointed outside and in.

A few other photos from our walking around the city.

The last thing we did was to take an early dinner at another of Bucharest’s famous eateries, Caru’ cu bere, the Beer Cart, the “7th Most Legendary Restaurant in the World”. We’ve been legendary on two days running, and I can tell you it’s quite tiring and very filling. The interior of the place is extraordinary.

We indulged in more traditional Romanian sausages and much photography whilst we were there. Apart from walking back to the hotel to try to work off some of those sausages, this was the last thing we did in Bucharest. Tomorrow, we leave for parts more northerly, where Vlad’s name crops up again, as well as another famous character, about whom we will, I’m sure, learn more when we get there. Why don’t you join us?

Another Lucca round

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Sunday 11 May 2025 – Our last day of “freedom” before the serious walking starts, and the local variant of Mother’s Day here, which meant we (the two ladies, that is… some assumptions being made here!) benefited from some extra chocolate at breakfast.

The breakfast available was, otherwise, rather woeful; particularly absent was any hint of fresh fruit. Still, we fuelled up on what we could find and made our way out into a delightfully sunny day.

We had some formal objectives for our wandering – a couple of towers, a couple of churches and, particularly, a lunch in the Piazza del Amfiteatro which we hoped would be a Nice one.

Selecting our activities based on when the light might be best for photography, we started with the Torre Guignigi, which is unique in having holm oak trees growing out of the top of it.

It is one of only two medieval towers surviving in Lucca where once there were more than one hundred.

There are over 200 steps to the top, but despite this it is a popular tourist site

and it offers some fine views over the city.

We felt we’d earned a coffee break before we walked along to our next place of interest. This was the Church of San Michele in Foro, which boasts a very impressive facade

but which is a little unusual in that it’s clearly more a place for meditation and prayer than a place to listen to the word of God – there are no pews, and the space is entirely open.

By this stage, we knew that the cathedral would be open for visitors, and so headed that way, passing, as we did, the 12th century church of of San Giusto, which, like several churches in these parts, has a very striking facade.

The cathedral, the Church of St. Martin, is, as one would expect, an imposing building, again with a wonderful facade (the picture below was taken later in the day when the sun illuminated it better).

Inside is the sort of space one would expect in a significant cathedral

lavishly embellished

with some impressive marble work

and some lovely stained glass

some of which was throwing wonderful colours from the sunshine.

There’s a sort of “temple within a temple”

which, under normal circumstances, would house the Volto Santo, the “Holy Face of Lucca”, an 8-foot tall carving of Christ on the Cross

 

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

but at the moment contains just scaffolding, as the figure has been removed for restoration work, and can be seen displayed in a workshop setting in the church.

Inside the cathedral is a statue of the eponymous “St. Martin and the Beggar”

showing the saint using his sword to cut his cloak in two in order to give half to the beggar. This is the original and there’s a copy now on the facade of the cathedral,

looking, it has to be said, in need of the ministrations of someone with a power washer and a long ladder.

With over an hour left until our lunch appointment, there was clearly time for those of us with courage, fortitude and good quads to climb the other tower of note in Lucca, the Torre del Ore, the suitably-named Tower of the Clock.

It turned out that I was the only one of the three of us prepared to make the journey, and it turned out to be rather a lovely experience; in striking contrast to the Torre Guignigi, I was the only person in the tower, apart from the gatekeeper, who charged me €8 to climb the steps. At the top I had the entire platform all to myself

and could enjoy the lovely views over the city

including a great view of the Torre Guignigi.

Whilst I was climbing the tower, Jane and Caroline relaxed at the near(ish)by Gorilla Craft Beer and Cafe, where I eventually joined them so that we could sample some Italian gins as an agreeable prelude to lunch. That was taken back in the Piazza del Amfiteatro, at a very good restaurant called Sotto Sotto. We were well looked after by Eugene and eventually tottered back to our hotel so that we could get some rest and prepare for the forthcoming rigours.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of The Walk; we will walk to Rome, and Caroline will join us for the first week, as far as Siena. The significant datum is that we have nearly 30km to cover tomorrow, after a short  train journey to where we will start, in Altopascio. We’re all feeling a little bit daunted by the thought of the distance we have to cover, and you’ll have to keep in touch with these pages to see how we get on, won’t you?