We drove to northern Portugal yesterday with a quick stop in Santiago. It was inspirational watching pilgrims finish their journey and watching so many people in center cheer them on as they entered the square.

We then continued on to our next stop which is near the town of Caniçada. The hotel sits up on the mountainside looking over Cávado River which really looks more like a lake.

We spent today doing more of a driving tour of the park but did have a couple of small hikes and visits to very little towns. The park is also on the Spain/Portugal border. One of the mountain roads took us through an old check point for the border crossing. This is a popular area for hiking, and there are historic Roman roads.

One of our stops was Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Peneda. It was an old sanctuary that was carved into the hillside and is a major pilgrimage site.

Another interesting thing was finally figuring out what these concrete structures were that we would see in towns. They are called espigueiros which are granite granaries that are iconic markers of the agricultural heritage in northern Portugal. They were designed to store grain (mainly corn) in this damp mountainous climate. Although most that are still around are from the 18th and 19th century, the introduction of the granaries in this area is dated back to the 16th century.