Tag: unesco

Mafra, Portugal

Mafra was not an intentional stop, more of a whim. We saw the sign for the UNESCO World Heritage Site from the highway and decided to have a walk around. We found a parking spot not far from the highway ramp and walked toward the palace. There were some interesting mosaics and street art on the way.

The palace was, unfortunately, just closing when we arrived. One day I will have to make it back there.

The palace gardens were open so we took a walk around.

It just so happened that we stopped for the Festival do Pao. The park was absolutely packed with people! On the main stage, young girls danced with bread. People walked around in costumes. There was a giant bicycle somewhere, food trucks, an artesinal fair, and music. It was really good energy.

There were vendors selling some kind of bread roll with meats baked in. I have absolutely no idea what they are called, but they were freshly baked in a wood fire oven, so I had to give it a try.

Opposite the food trucks, there was an artisanal fair. As I walked around the booths looking at art I was stopped dead in my tracks, literally, by the smell of strawberries. This is not like strawberries in the grocery store. If you have never picked strawberries on the farm in the heat of summer you do not know this smell. This is the smell of summer roadstand fruits, ripe, ready, warm in the July heat. And wafting through this park. I had to hunt for a while before I found the booth. But there it was. We bought a whole kilo of the strawberries and ate them as we walked around.

I bought two candles from a booth with some crazy designs I had never seen before. You can find them at @velasencantadas on Instagram. The candles are 3D printed in wax.

We managed to finish the whole kilo of strawberries before leaving the park. Really, they were that good. So we went back and bought another kilo. There were about 6 left in the morning. These strawberries were actually so good I got a tattoo. Not even joking. I went and got a strawberry tattoo. If you are near Lisboa in summer, you absolutely have to find Frescos da Vila

Lugo, Galicia, Spain

Lugo is so beautiful! I went on a warm and sunny day. The skies were so blue. The history of Lugo dates back to 13 BC when the city was a Roman military camp. The walls of Lugo made the Unesco World Heritage Site list in 2000.

According to wikipedia, this is the only city in the world that is still surrounded by fully intact Roman walls. So I came to have a nice walk.

The cathedral was the first stop, but it was closed when I arrived.

It did not take long to walk from the cathedral to the walls of the city. I had seen this mural so many times on television and social media… I had no idea I would get to see it today!

And I found an unexpected surprise when descending the wall. There is a secret gem, I assume by the same artist. You cannot tell me these are not the cutest grafiti you have ever seen. I want to know what are they and whether they have names.

The views from the top were stunning, but it is possible I wasted most my time in Lugo trying to take photos of cats in the yards below.