WEATHER: Beautiful and 28C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting out into country of Portugal
BUMMER OF THE DAY: NO Bernstar jump today – missing my personal photographers
BUYS OF THE DAY: A couple of bracelets for 3.50EUR, a magnet, a new purse and a new bag
WORD OF THE DAY: Day 100
So day 100 today. 100 days I have been travelling. That’s 14 flights so far, 7 airlines, many new friends made, 7 new daughters, 23 countries (some twice), only one, well two medical cases, my Contiki cough that lasted nearly 5 weeks and my injury’s sustained in a fall while in Greece. It also has been 100 days away from my best friend and my god-daughters, which is what I am missing the most. It’s hard to believe I am at this stage already, 100 DAYS! The time is flying by, but there is not a day that I am not thankful for the opportunity I have been given and I intend to make the most of it. My US portion of the trip looks likely to extend as I keep meeting awesome Americans along the way and can’t wait to catch up with you guys again next year.
I got carried away with my loading photos and trying to watch 3 movies at the same time last night and got to bed at 1.15am!!! Not a good move when I had to be at another hotel at 8.15am for my pick-up for my full day tour (all 10.5 hours). So needless to say I was tired as this morning, but I am sure there will be some nap time in the bus during the day. I had to be at the Fenix Hotel, which is only a 5 minute walk away from where I am staying and wait for my collection. I’m not one scared to ask people questions, so when I got to the hotel I asked the concierge if I was in the right place, he didn’t speak English, I asked reception and they said sure are you staying here, no- care factor went out the window, so I sat and waited till I saw a bus pull up, so I walked outside and asked them if this was my tour – which I finally got the right answer and a yes. As I didn’t have a copy of my voucher, I could only show them on my iPod my confirmation which was enough for them to let me on the coach. The bus was just a feeder bus that picked up a bunch of people and then takes us to a central location to then get us on our appropriate tours.
My tour I find out is not just a bilingual tour, but a trilingual!!! Our guide firstly spoke in Spanish, then Portuguese and then finally in English. I am sure by them time she gets to English, we have some watered down version, but it just made for a long day hearing her voice all the time. Just imagine how she feels translating 3 languages for 10 hours. I still tipped her at the end, even though we got the raw end of the deal, as I rekon she still earnt it!!!
After around 1.5 hours’ drive we got to our first of the medieval town of Obidos. The area of the town is located on a hilltop, encircled by a fortified wall. Óbidos remains a well-preserved example of medieval architecture; its streets, squares, walls and its castle are all pretty cool to walk around. We got 50 minutes here to explore the little streets and quaint shops that lined them. I wasn’t prepared for any shopping, but I have been looking for a new small black bag to replace the one I currently have that is about to break, and I found the perfect one in the window just randomly – boom thank you. I then needed a new purse, as the real fake Marc Jacobs purse I bought in Athens broke yesterday so I found a great tacky Portugal purse to replace that one – boom thank you. So much for not doing any shopping. The town itself was pretty amazing and I could have done with some extra time so I could get up onto the castle’s ramparts but I got to see a lot in the time frame we had anyways. On my way back to the bus, a guy was setting up a jewelry stand, and this colorful coil bracelet just jumped out at me, so on a power purchase I paid my 3.50EUR – boom thank you, and made it back to the bus with 5 minutes to spare.
Back onto the coach and we drove a further 45 minutes to the town of Alcobaca. Our main purpose was to visit the The Alcobaça Monastery. It is a Mediaeval Roman Catholic Monastery and was founded by the first Portuguese King, Afonso Henriques, in 1153, and maintained a close association with the Kings of Portugal throughout its history. The church and monastery were the first Gothic buildings in Portugal and it took over 100 years to complete. Due to its artistic and historical importance, it was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1989. It was home to 400 Friars and a further 500 people that worked in the monastery in its heyday. In the transept of the church are located the tombs of King Pedro I and his mistress, Ines de Castro, who was assassinated, in 1355. After becoming King, Pedro ordered the remains of his beloved to be transferred to her tomb in Alcobaça and, according to a popular legend, made her be crowned as Queen of Portugal, after her death that is, and ordered court members to pay her homage by kissing her decomposing hand – what a story huh!!! Alcobaça remains, after 800 years, the largest Portuguese church with the lateral aisles of the nave are as high as 20 meters; the slenderness of the church is 17 meters and large length at 106 meters. It was a pretty impressive building that was for sure!
We drove for approx. another hour getting us to the fishing village of Nazare. I think calling it a fishing village is a little loose, it really is a seaside town. The place looks awesome and somewhere I could see myself coming back to for a seaside holiday. It reminds me of the Sunshine Coast or Blackpool (but way better beaches). It was a seaside town, with rows of groovy coloured tents on the beach that you can rent for the hour or the day with a mountain as a back drop down one end of the beach, which you can catch a cable car up, and a beach that stretches for miles in the opposite direction. Lunch was not included for me, so I found a small café on the seafront and what else could I order but something from the ocean, so I got fish and chips and told my waiter guy to just pick a fish for me that wasn’t too fishy! I ended up with a steak of sea bream grilled and I have to say it was quite tasty, with a dash of salt and a wad of fresh lemon juice and hardly any bones and the bonus was it wasn’t deep fried! The temperature was great, a sea breeze ruffling the hair and the sun in the sky it was a beautiful day to be by the beach. There were plenty of shops all along the waterfront, selling all the usual beach stuff, woman setting up to rent apartments, jewelry making, fresh food being sold, I’m telling you this place had a great vibe. I just walked the shoreline and then soaked up the last 15 minutes before collection watching kids play soccer on the sand. I LOVE this place.
Our next stop was a further 45 minute drive away to the Batalha Monastery, also known as Monastery of Santa María da Vitória. The convent was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, fulfilling a promise of King John I of Portugal. The battle put an end to the 1383-1385 crisis. It took over a century to build, starting in 1386 and ending circa 1517, spanning the reign of seven kings. It took the efforts of fifteen architects and the construction required an enormous effort, using extraordinary resources of men and material. Another amazing building and enormous! This square chapel was built between 1426 and 1434 by the architect Huguet on orders of King João I to become the first royal pantheon in Portugal which now he lays with his wife Philippa of Lancaster in limestone tombs. You had to pay to go in and see these, which we ran out of time but they looked the same as the ones at the Alcobaca Monastery. They really knew how to build their churches back in the time that is for sure!
Our very last stop for the day was 1.15 hours away and was to be Fatima’s Sanctuary. Fátima is famous for the shrine called the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, built to commemorate the events of 1917 when three peasant children claimed to have seen the "Virgin of the Rosary". Our Lady of Fátima is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary with respect to reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto. The title of Our Lady of the Rosary is also sometimes used in reference to the same apparition, as this is who she identified herself as when the children asked her name. The events at Fátima gained particular fame due to their elements of prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war and the conversion of Russia. This came true over the course of time. The reported apparitions at Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church. The brother and the sister were victims to the Great Spanish flu and died a few years after the event and the cousin Lucia, only died in 2008 at the ripe ‘ol age of 98 in a convent somewhere in Portugal.
Today pilgrimage to the site goes on all year round. The principal pilgrimage festivals take place on the thirteenth day of each month, from May to October, on the anniversaries of the original appearances. The largest crowds gather on 13 May and 13 October, when up to a million pilgrims have attended to pray and witness processions of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima, both during the day and by the light of tens of thousands of candles at night. It was an amazing place and to see people making the pilgrimage was a tug at the soul, they literally walk on their knees for around 800m downhill to the church where there was a continual mass going on, well while I was there anyway. I won’t forget a couple of about 60, who I watched wrapped material around their knees, and then they got to their knees, held hands and then started their journey. You could see it was hard going for them and it bought a tear to my eye, to have a faith like that and such devotion to each other. Even though I am not overly religious, to walk into the church, with the massive organ playing was amazing and this is also where the tombs of the 3 shepherd children are also found. What an experience!
What a day. We left at 8.45am and we left Fatima at 6.20pm for our 1.5 hour drive back to Lisbon. It was a great tour though, even though it was long. Sometimes you do these tours and you see half crud and half worthy things, but this one was great the whole time. The downer being the trilingual thing, but there was nothing I could do about that and all up it was a great day in the country.
Man I am in Portugal!!!
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