Following on from my adventures on the Douro, my few days in Porto gave me time to go visit Fatima. I'm not religious, I don't necessarily believe in miracles, but the world is crazy these days, so everyone need to have something to believe in. So on this particular day, I jumped on yet another bus and headed off to Fatima. Sadly, this time round our tour guide was rubbish and there were no fun Americans to get drunk with (now there is a sentence I didn't think I would be writing).
Fatima, the site in Portugal where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917, delivering messages of prayer, repentance, and peace. Why do these things always happen to Shepherds? I think it's all the endless sitting watching sheep - enough to make anyone start hallucinating. Anyway, there they were, innocently minding their own business and keeping an eye on the sheeps when suddenly "whoa Lucia - do you see that over there? Looks just like Jesus's mum and hold on, she's floating over."
Firstly we headed over to the houses of the children and then on to the site where they have the Shrine of Fatima. There are several areas, a large Basilica and an open prayer area. The final section on arriving, sees some pilgrims crawling in on their knees for 182m from the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity to the Capelinha while reciting the Rosary. Now I had not walked any section of the route, so I saw no need to crawl those last few 182m on my knees. And wouldn't you know it, today of all days I'd left my rosary at home.
I arrived thinking, I'm not a believer, but time for some quiet reflection. Five minutes later I'm dodging a tour group armed with selfie sticks, three grandmothers marching with purpose, a mum on here knees trying to control a runaway toddler and a man selling candles the size of medieval siege weapons. I went in expecting serenity; and left wondering how I had accidentally joined a procession.
Spiritual part done, I headed to the souvenir and cafe area and found myself holding a fridge magnet, a rosary, a tiny statue, and a bottle of olive oil that I had no intention of buying. OK, maybe a bought the fridge magnet.
Back on the bus, it was off to a large souvenir shop. I didn't enter. I sat outside and contemplated my life choices. I'm happy enough with them, so all in all a good day. We did also visit Coimbra, but not enough time to visit the library, so I went to the famous pastry shop instead. Not as much fun as yesterday's tour - but I suspect alcohol was a contributing factor.
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