The Lights Shine in the City - Arcos de Valdevez | Portugal

Hi everybody :)

Christmas is approaching in leaps and bounds and there is no place where this doesn’t make itself felt. At home, after becoming parents, we created a tradition of taking the little one to visit the Christmas markets spread across the cities of our country and today i bring the decorations from the first visit we made. Arcos de Valdevez was the city chosen and it hasn't been long since we've been there.

Arcos de Valdevez is a charming Portuguese town located in the Minho region, in the north of Portugal. Situated on the banks of the River Vez and surrounded by a green landscape, the city is known for its natural beauty and rich historical heritage.
The historic center is characterized by narrow, winding streets, traditional granite houses and picturesque squares.

It's a lot colder there at this time of year, but nothing that stops the little ones from enjoying the visit and taking photos of everything that's decorated.
It seems like everything is new and with the decorations it didn't even look like the same alleys we've been down a few times.
Of course, i took advantage of the visit to practice taking night photos a little more, which by their nature are complicated due to the lack of light, but the decoration helped a lot and helped to create a very interesting environment.

In all the alleys we see decorated pine trees, but these pine trees are natural, doing justice to the nature that surrounds Arcos de Valdevez.
We see a red carpet that is placed in the main points of the city and we took the opportunity to tell the kids that Santa Claus should know where to park his sleigh when he comes to deliver the gifts.
The visit is unforgettable for children and adults. The traditional shops are all decorated to make your visit even more special. The most beautiful part for me is the main avenue, which has what appear to be drops of light in its trees. On the side by the river we can see a large gift where the little ones run through the middle, perfectly framing the Christmas tree at the entrance to the city.

Here it was still possible to walk, take photos and explore as, to our surprise, there weren't many people around. Our plan was after this visit to head to the Enchanted Forest, but as we climbed the mountain we came across a long line of cars. I never thought this would happen. The police directed traffic and we were told that we would have to walk. We still tried but after being told that it would be 3 km until we got there, we had gave up and return to the cars, once we found ourselves in the middle of the forest, in the dark with the children under the cold.

I hope we can still (until January 14, 2024) visit this place. We read and hear good reviews but there's nothing like going there in person to collect more memories of a beautiful place.
If it is possible, i promise to show everything here and describe whether what you feel there really lives up to the name given to it.

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed it :)

Photo by @aleister
Camera - Samsung SM-A528B
Camera - Canon EOS 600D
Lens - EFS 18-55mm / 70-300mm
Location - Portugal

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Always remember:

Value your time, because every fraction counts, and the price of anything is the amount of life you trade for it.
May the memories of the travels be eternalized in the photographs, and may the photographs transport us back to the travels ;)