"GUIMARAES" a Guimarães Travel Page by northsea

With its historical center recently declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Guimarães adds this mark of honour to another title it displays by right, that of birthplace of the nation. Its proud and dominating castle was where Portugal´s first king, Afonso Henriques, was born in the 12th century. The newly distinguished historical center is extremely well preserved and the narrow streets of the Medieval quarter are lined with old houses embellished by ornate balconies and statuary, leading to the beautiful main square, the Largo da Oliveira.

Painted tiles known as azulejos are one of Portugal's specialities,
visible all over the country on houses and public buildings but most
memorably in or on churches.
Some great azulejos can be seen around Porto, especially on Igreja
[church] do Carmo and on houses beside the river in the Ribeiro
district. Évora too has various superb church examples - Igreja de Sao
Joao Evangelista, and Misercordia,
Two or three tiles makes an ideal present for family and friends back home.
Mostly quadrangular with on decorated clay surface, they fit easily
into suitcases or hand-lugage and carry very little weight.

When you travel to Portugal, yoy will be surprised by the popularity of the dried, salted codfish known as bacalhau.
You will find it on every restaurant menu, and can often be seen hanging up in shop doorways. There is even a section dedicated to bacalhau in the supermarket at Guimaraes.
But once you have tasted one of the 365 different recipes that the Portuguese say exist, then you’ll appreciate its popularity and understand why they have it as their national food.
Such dishes as Bacalhau à Braz, Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo and Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá can be found on most restaurant menus, so be sure to try one before leaving Portugal. On the other hand it's very difficult to find fresh bacalhau (all fish is dried) as we are used to.