The CP Urban Porto service on the Linha de Guimarães departs from Porto Campanhã and reaches Guimarães in approximately 70 minutes. Trains run frequently throughout the day; no advance booking required. From São Bento in central Porto: take the Metro (Line D, approximately 5 minutes) or walk to Campanhã first - São Bento is not on the Guimarães line. Check current timetables at cp.pt. Guimarães station is a flat ten-minute walk from the historic centre.
November in Guimarães: The city sits at approximately 175 metres in the Minho foothills. November is cool (11--15°C), occasionally rainy, and entirely free of the summer visitors who fill the medieval squares from June onward. The Universidade do Minho brings 20,000 students to the city and gives the cafés their weekday energy.
Guimarães
Guimarães is where Portugal began. The first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, was born here in 1109, and the city has carried the designation Aqui nasceu Portugal ("Here Portugal was born") with a confidence that the historical record broadly supports. The castle on the hill was his birthplace. The castle involves a climb; the town below does not.
The Paço dos Duques de Bragança (Palace of the Dukes of Braganza) stands at the base of the castle hill - a large, red-roofed palace built in the early 15th century by Dom Afonso, first Duke of Braganza, and abandoned for two centuries before being restored. The interior is flat throughout, with collections of ducal tapestries, furniture, and the specific weight of a building that was the seat of the family that eventually became the royal dynasty of Portugal.
The Largo da Oliveira is the central medieval square - a long, irregular space flanked by the Gothic portico of the Colegiada de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira and the arcade of the old Paço do Concelho. The paving is wide granite slabs, flat, and the square is the correct place to sit outside a café in November and watch the city doing its daily business.
The Praça de Santiago is the other central square, connected to the Largo da Oliveira by narrow granite-paved streets: the walk between them and back is the post-marathon programme.
The Museu Alberto Sampaio occupies the former convent attached to the Colegiada (closed Mondays). The collection covers medieval and early modern decorative arts, including the silver triptych captured at the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. The cloisters are flat.
Where to Eat
The restaurants around the Largo da Oliveira and the Praça de Santiago serve northern Minho cooking: bacalhau preparations, rojões à minhota (cured pork with potatoes), and the tortas de Guimarães (sweet squash pastries) from the bakeries on the surrounding streets. Café Oriental on the Praça de Santiago is the established café of the city centre.
Getting Back
CP Urban trains return to Porto Campanhã throughout the afternoon and evening, 70 minutes. From Campanhã, Metro Line D connects to central Porto in 5 minutes.