March 2
Ok….if anyone knows a “stop the rain dance” we’d appreciate a little intervention. We’ve been here for 4 days and for 4 days it has rained. We leave Lisbon on Sunday and since we have a car, we thought we might try to find someplace where the weather is a little better. Doesn’t look like that’s possible as the entire Iberian Peninsula has a 60-100% chance of rain for the next 10 days. So, it looks like we just going to have to deal with it. Yesterday Lynn bought a warm scarf and today she found a nice, handmade sweater, so she was actually quite toasty even in the damp weather. The problem is her feet. She only has her sneakers which are super comfortable to walk in but not water proof. She thought about buying a pair of boots but unless they’re old-fashioned galoshes that go over her gym shoes, it’s pretty much a non-starter. We’ve been walking 15,000-20,000 steps a day and that’s not something she wants to do in new shoes. So tomorrow (when there is a 100% chance of rain) she’s going to try plastic bags over her socks before she puts her shoes on. Might look stupid but if it keeps her socks and feet dry she’ll try anything.
But back to our day. We walked to one of the central plazas this morning for our 9:30 bus tour and we were very excited to see that there were only 7 people on the tour. Our first stop was Obidos, about 75km from Lisbon. It’s a walled city and, other than a few churches, there’s not much to see there but there are a bunch of cute shops. Lynn found a pair of warm socks, which is great because by the time we got there it was pouring and there were gigantic puddles everywhere. Once she got back on the bus she was able to talk off her wet socks/shoes and put on her toasty warm socks. Of course, she had to put her wet socks/shoes back on for the next stop but at least her feet were warm for the ride.
Anyway, it turns out the delicious ginja we had yesterday in Sintra comes from Obidos. Most of the shops sold shots of ginja in a chocolate cup, which of course, Lynn had to try. She also got a small bottle to enjoy over the next several weeks.
We only had about 40 minutes in Obidos then it was back on the bus for Nazare, a cute fishing village on the Atlantic. This is where we had a delicious lunch and where Lynn bought her very warm sweater. We both chose the meat (versus fish) option and it was incredible. For the most part we have really enjoyed the food here. Peter wasn’t wild about his cod hamburger yesterday but other than that it has all been quite good.
After lunch we headed for our 3rd stop, the Batalha Monastery. We only had time to visit the church but it was very beautiful in the gothic style. We’re still not having any luck uploading pictures so here’s a link to some google pics. Batalha Monastery
Our final stop was Fatima, where 3 shepherd children saw the Virgin Mary in 1917. The children saw The Lady on the 13th of the month from May-Oct except for August when they had been placed under arrest for a short while. For the last vision, there were 50,000 people present to witness what is known as the Miracle of the Sun.
There is a separate building that has a statue where The Lady actually appeared. Pope John Paul II attributed his survival of the 1981 assassination attempt to Our Lady of Fatima so the bullet that was removed is now in the crown of the statue….very cool. The churches were beautiful and we spent a very enjoyable 75 minutes there before making the 90 minute trip back to Lisbon. Here are some google pics to hold you until we can get ours to upload. Fatima
By lunchtime the rain stopped and the sun actually appeared a couple of times so in spite of the wet feet, we thoroughly enjoyed our day trip. Tomorrow is our last day in Lisbon so we plan to catch some things we missed earlier in the week.
Guess that’s all for now. Take care and we’ll chat again soon.