Viseu, Portugal

On Saturday, we went to Viseu, which was the last area that Madi served (for a whole year!) We got to attend the baptism of Anna, a beautiful 16 year old girl that Madi and her companion taught.

Here's Grace in the cultural hall post-baptism...

...where she officially fell in love with homemade Portuguese desserts.

We also attended church on Sunday, which was very cool. We learned that it's even harder to stay awake in sacrament meeting when you don't understand a word that's being said, and that trying to sing hymns in another language is fun.. for you and for those around you.

This is a cool house across the street from the church.

After church, we were invited to a big traditional Portuguese dinner at Tonia and Paulo's house (some members of the ward). It was delicious - Nana and Papa even ate octopus, purple and tentacle-y though it was! Grace and I couldn't get enough of darling baby Samuel:

Right outside their house was a vet hospital, which was exciting to this little animal fan:

After dinner, we did some exploring of Viseu on foot.

(Introducing European pigeons to the pleasures of Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers.)

Cemetery.

Viseu is a beautiful city, and a great place to spend our last day in Portugal.

Braga, Portugal

From Guimaraes, we took a bus to Braga, another city where Madi served.

One of Grace's favorite things about the whole trip was all the pigeons! She also loved seeing people with dogs, and was in awe that Portugal has the same dog breeds as the US!

Another favorite of the whole trip was our trip to Santuario Bom Jesus do Monte, a pilgrimage site built up the side of a hill. Up the hill are fountains, staircases, statues, and little houses where you can look in and see statues depicting scenes from Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. At the bottom, it begins with the last supper, then Gethsamane, and as you go up, the chronological order of the last events of his life.

Instead of walking up, we rode the funicular, then walked down. As a huge "Amazing Race" fan, this was pretty exciting for me - I've always wanted to ride one since seeing them on the show!

At the very top is a church. These old Catholic churches are very beautiful inside (we weren't allowed to take pictures inside), but the gruesome depictions of Jesus and Mary were a little too much for Grace. In this chapel, she was upset by a statue of Mary with six swords stuck into her heart, and also by the actual remains of a 10th century saint in a glass case, which really was pretty creepy.

There was a beautiful little park and lake above the church that we walked around before making our way down the staircases.

Bom Jesus is an incredible place, and definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

We took a train from Braga back to Porto, and spent the evening walking around the city.

We did some shopping and ate dinner at a restaurant on the River Douro, which was beautiful.

Here is the view from our hotel window in Porto.

We left Porto early the next morning...