Alcobaça Monastery

Whenever I go on tours of other countries, I would try to make UNESCO World Heritage sites as the outline of my tour. If there are any other interesting areas nearby those places, then I would visit them. It is not surprising that I would end up visiting only the UNESCO sites and not other places since I won’t know about them. I was starting my tour of Portugal in Alcobaça which is the site of a UNESCO World Heritage site – its monastery. I quickly found the monastery in the city which seemed to be very sleepy even with that vendors that are on the plaza in front of the monastery.

I was under the impression that Portugal was swarming with tourists but this doesn’t seem to be the case, at least here in Alcobaça. There were a handful of visitors here so it is not as if this place is not worth visiting. It is just that other places in Portugal appeal more to others. As for me, I like visiting these types of places. Alcobaça Monastery certainly doesn’t look like a monastery and instead it looks more like a church. There are buildings attached to the church building which is probably the monastery part. I would probably have to go in to find out. The church facade is probably the most striking here. The church is described to be gothic but from the outside I probably can’t say it is gothic since there are usually very tall towers associated with gothic structures. I think I still have to brush up on my architecture.

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