Blog Four – Guarda

Published by Alastair Reid on September 21, 2018September 21, 2018

Guarda [19-20th September]

Guarda, our last stop in Portugal, is the country’s highest city at 1056 metres. For us, it was a one night stopover rather than a destination, as this was the easiest way to transition from Portugal into Spain and our first stop in Salamanca, by bus.

The two hour train ride from Coimbra to Guarda was very enjoyable – we went First Class for the first time, as it was cheap because we’d booked so far in advance. There was a hint about pastimes in the region of Guarda, when I looked across the aisle at the chap sitting opposite. He was reading a magazine which I can only really describe as hunting porn. It was full of articles with pictures of guns, bullets, and helpful photos of attractive defenceless animals, which the reader might presumably consider annihilating at his leisure.

After transferring to our hotel, the first hotel of our trip, we took a taxi up into the old historic centre, which is quite attractive, including a visit to the cathedral, which features spiral rope-effect stone pillars, which were a little reminiscent of the Apprentice Pillar at Roslin Chapel. We lunched outside a small café, right beside a shop which sold fishing gear, partnered two gun companies and had a massive rifle attached to the wall above the shopfront, which kind of confirmed first impressions.

Apart from the tourist oriented historic centre, Guarda seems quite a strange place – much bigger than we expected and very spread out. It has many, many apartment blocks, but little sign as to what the inhabitants do for work. Perhaps it’s a dormitory town, but I’m not sure where for.

In common with other parts of Portugal we’ve visited, there seems to be a predilection for both civic art, in the form of massive street murals, and unofficial street art, in the form of prolific spray painting. Some of the train carriages are so heavily spray painted that it’s difficult to see out of the windows including, unfortunately, the trains into the Douro Valley. Why the Portuguese railways put their worst trains on their most famous and spectacular railway route was a matter of some mystery to us.

When we went for dinner in the hotel last night, we coincided with a small conference, whose dinner was in a partially separate area of the dining room. Dinner for them was preceded by formal speeches, and everyone was very smartly dressed. It kind of brought home to me that after many conferences, across Europe and beyond, I probably won’t ever do that again – that is something I’ll miss, but everything has its plusses and minuses!

My dozen favourite images from our stay in Guarda are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image.

Image Gallery