Hotel Santa Cecilia Hotel Fátima

... way to Lisbon.

I always wonder to myself how different this trip would be if we were travelling in summer. The beaches would be full and the cities would be livelier but then again there would be no parking and all the prices would be 50% more. You can't have it all and I am not at all disappointed in what I have!

... some are unbelievable and beautiful such as the round church and the tiled chapels. There are long hallways with many small rooms where the monks and novices would sleep. The doors to these rooms are almost shorter then me which was kind of funny. There are 8 cloisters with fountains and beautifully decorated walls and architecture.

After walking for a couple hours we decided that we had seen the place sufficiently and we made our way back to the car.

Fatima
On the 13th of each month from May to October 1917, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children - Lúcia dos Santos (age 10) and her cousins Jacinta (age 7) and Francisco Marto (age 9) - in the fields outside the village of Aljustrel near Fatima. The children later said that her coming had been preceded by an "angel of peace ...

Custou, mas foi. Avizinhava-se difícil a tarefa de meter 5 macafunfos num Polo com as respetivas mochilas, tendas e sacos cama. Lá conseguimos e há que dar os parabéns à perícia da arrumação. Felizmente, a viagem era curta e lá chegámos à terra onde Camões viveu e onde 2 dos mais bonitos rios de ...

... was the miracle of the sun.

Two of the three children didn't live very long after that. They died in the Spanish flu epidemic.

After walking around the chapel and all, we went for lunch in a hotel. The lunch was salad, mackerel with rice, and fruit dessert. I ate a lot, mixing the salad with the very salty mackerel. A few ladies on my table didn't eat the mackerel.... complaining that ...

... pictures, and headed to the souvenir shops for some shopping. I bought a few things, including... chicken? OH right, we are in Portugal!

So this castle was King Afonso's gift to his wife.

It was a little disappointing to not getta see much here.. beside shopping for souvenirs...

Long day as you can see..................

Scenery greener................many hills with twists and turns........but I got there without puking,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lit a candle for my family in Fatima...................hope it helps all!!!

Did I mention Bono is on ...

... we had a beach to get to. And what a beach it was. The Praia del Rey hotel is situated on a beautiful stretch of coast lined with cliffs on the edge of incredible beaches that were almost always empty. Each time we went out to sand we were almost alone for a mile in each direction. In the five nights and days we spent along the Obidos area coast we sat by the pool and the osean, read books, napped, drank beer and wine and took the occasional evening trip to one of the local villages for ...

... a naked man spray painted gold all over and dancing all over the shop. We were very pleased to have our photo taken with him. We randomly ran into some fraggles from Australia and these guys were part of Corey´s crew who we had some daytime funster show with at random intervals throughout the festival, hard to keep track of peeps when there are so many distractions at hand. The closing act of the festival was done by Psynema and Phoenix Fire and was an absolute extravaganza ...

I woke up at 7PM today and was rushed by the parents to breakfast. Breakfast was actually pretty good .. I had a couple of wieners (you have no idea how much I've resisted using this word in my past two blog entries). Then the tour guy picked us up and drove us around to several of the "important places" in Lisbon - Castle of St. George, some weird monuments, a pastry shop (the baked custard here is really as good as people say it is - I give it a 9 ...