We’ve settled into our hotel in the small riverside town of Ponte de Barca. The hotel, Frei Agosteinho, although modern and comfortable, is without charm. It is basically a business hotel. But it is an ideal place to base yourself for park exploration.

We were able to devote only two full days of our five days here to exploring Peneda-Geres. That is like saying your are visiting Rome for an afternoon. If you are a serious nature & hiking lover, you need a minimum of a full week to do justice to this huge park.

So on our first trip into the park we headed for the castle at Lindoso. Aside from these fabulous views

what I really wanted to see was the castles large grouping of graneries called espigueiros.

And it appears this particular group are still serving their original purpose.

We left Lindoso and drove uphill to the dam and then across to Leijo. Here was a well preserved wall from a Roman settlement. As in the rest of Peneda-Geres the wall was completely accessable. In fact, a goatherd has taken advantage of the wall to serve as the back wall of his shed.


The goats were free range, grazing all around the wall. In fact domestic animals are free range all over the park. The cow was happy to pose, the pig was a bit camera shy.