Pombalense Hotel

Arrived after a short uneventful journey. Campsite similar. Weather changeable.

Tourist sites do not always live up to the flowery language used in the brochures eg. "Musicological Nucleus of the Salt" turned out to be a Musee de Sel. We did not go.

The local beauty spots, like every where else, that we did go to were covered with ingrained litter.
We are moving on tomorrow.

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 ...

... 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 ...

... tour????? Trying to get pictures of tour people...... gotta be sneaky about

okay gotta get ready for the fandango show!

Donna ate duck last night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nasty nasty nasty I had pasta with salsa sauce yummmm gotta try it when i get home

... caps and seemingly out to prove that Portuguese children are some of the worst behaved we've come across. Having already had our fill of unruly children on the trip we quickly made our way to the ticket booth and spent the next few hours avoiding the attendant school party. Now then, I'm all in favour of educating kids using imaginative teaching methods but it wasn't the brightest idea to have a treasure hunt involving hidden ...

... And boy, we are glad we did not miss it. The Igreja da Santissima Trindade (Church of the Holy Trinity) here could easily be compared to the Vatican in Rome. It was simply awesome with huge grounds in the front & was lit up well. There was some Christmas ceremony going on inside.

Finally, we drove to Hotel Oslo in the University town of Coimbra. More than half ...

... tänaseni näha mosaiikpõrandaid ning mitmete ehitiste vundamente. Osad nendest on nüüdseks saanud algse kuju, ehk siis vundament on originaal, kuid peale ehitatud osa on valgest kivist, et välja tuua kontrast kuipalju alustaladest on säilinud. Vanasti elati väga-väga suurejooneliselt, saime jälle kinnituse. Kindlasti tasub seal ära käia, sissepääs on kõigest 3€, mis sisaldab varemete ja muuseumi külastust.

... maailmas! Ülikool on jagatud 8 teaduskonnaks, kus õpib ca 22 000 tudengit. Tudengi tunneb ära selle järgi, et nad kannavad riiete peal musta ürpi/keepi, mille peale tavaliselt õmmeldakse erinevaid embleeme (nt teaduskonna oma), mille järgi saab õpilase kohta nii mõndagi teada, ilma, et oleks temaga vestelnud.

Ülikoolil on mitmeid erinevaid hooneid ja need kõik asuvad mäe otsas, kust saab imetleda vaateid linnale. Kõige tuntum ja ühtlasi ka traditsionaalsem koht on ...

Horas depois vim a saber que a parada de 3h que fomos forçados a realizar nos trilhos a caminho de Lisboa deu-se pouco antes da cidade de Pombal. A razão foi mais um dos praticamente constantes incêndios nas matas da região que ocorrem no verão europeu. Tentando fazer o possível para não perder o embarque para Madrid que tinha reservado para a mesma noite tentei ...

... a friend, and on the bus we met two nursing students who live there. They were very friendly, took us to their house, fed us dinner, and gave us a place to sleep.

Now I'm in Coimbra, and I came here to see a forest. I should actually be going now to catch my bus. If this internet connection weren't so slow this letter would be longer. It took me a whole hour to read the 15 letters I had (50 minutes waiting, 10 minutes reading). More later