We made a side trip to Agueda on our way home from Porto. We’d heard the largest Santa Claus was in the city. We found a train museum and park along the way. The train museum was small but had some old engines and cars. I’m pretty sure we were the only visitors that day.
Villa must be feeling better, she’s starting to climb into the front. She doesn’t like to sit still if she’s bored. =)
We headed to a park by the Ponte Medieval do Marnel, a medieval bridge over the Marnel river. The Marnel is a small tributary of the larger Vouga river. The park wasn’t much, but you could walk a loop around and over the bridge. It was a nice stop to get Villa out.
Afterwards, we ate lunch at a nice spot in Trofa. They had a patio, so Villa could hang out with us. The Owner was friendly, let us practice Portuguese with him and spoke slowly so we’d understand better. We continued on to Agueda and found a city park to hang out in until it got dark enough for the lights to come on.
Villa met a few 4-legged friends and luckily missed the feline one I saw. There were several structures with no descriptions with them. I haven’t found any information online either. Here’s one that stood in the center of the park. It looks like ruins of a chapel or meeting place maybe.
We walked down to the city center. It’s beautifully decorated with lights. We stopped here because we’d heard about the giant Pai Natal, Santa Claus. I was not ready for how large it really is! It’s the largest in Portugal.
Huge right!?! We got to the park in time to see sunset. It was a nice one with lots of color. I didn’t have my SLR camera, but my phone did ok. I did LR it some to bring out the colors.
The city hosts an art installation called the Umbrella Sky Project. It began in 2012 and was apparently inspired by Mary Poppins. It is on display during the summer, but I guess they also have them up and lit during Christmas. It was a pleasant surprise.
Not only does Agueda have the tallest Santa, it has the smallest as well. It’s in the eye of a sewing needle, and you look at it through a microscope. I took a photo of the room and did my best to capture the tiny Santa.
Here’s the Santa from the earlier park. His head rises above the buildings down the hill.
The park had trees with their branches wound with lights like leaves or flowers. We saw them earlier in the daylight, and they are beautiful at night!
Ben and Megan Travel the World 