Category Archives: Travel

Excursion to Fatima

September 8, 2014Portugal, TravelFatimakarenfranza

8/8 – Tomar is a one hour bus ride from Fatima, where three shepherd children saw Our Lady of the Rosary in 1917, and 70,000 people witnessed the sun spinning like a silver disk in the sky. This is a major pilgrimage site for Catholics, and we won’t be this close again, so we are taking a day to experience it.

The sanctuary consists of a huge open area with a basilica at each end, and the Chapel of the Apparitions, marking the spot where the Lady was seen, to one side.

The children saw the Lady for six consecutive months on the 13th of each month, starting in May, so the crowds flock here on the 13th, with major festivities in May and October. Today is Monday, probably the lowest attendance day, and the museums and the original basilica were closed, but there were plenty of people and lots to see.

A piece of the Berlin Wall resides here, as well as the bullet removed from the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.

A second basilica was built when the first proved inadequate to hold the crowds. It’s very open and modern, with discordant music, lighting and art.

.<br />

The crucifix on the high altar contains a universal Jesus sculpted by an Irish artist, unlike any we’ve ever seen. Clean shaven, with long hair one one side and short on the other, the face holds traces of different ethnicities and both genders. I couldn’t get a clear pic, but hope this gives the idea:

There is a painting depicting the revelations given to Lucia, suppressed by the Vatican until 2000:

Of course the streets are lined with shops selling religious souvenirs, but the atmosphere in the open sanctuary was solemn, with penitents crawling on their knees from one basilica to the other, and masses in different languages held every hour.

In case a reminder is needed, these signs are posted at each entrance:

At 9:30 in the evening, the bells rang to summon everyone back to the Chapel, where the rosary was recited in different languages and Ave Marias were sung while everyone held candles aloft.

At the conclusion, the illuminated cross and the statue of the Virgin were lifted from the altar, and all the people joined the procession, with their candles, around the square. An experience of a lifetime…

A Day in Tomar

September 7, 2014Caminho Portugues, Portugal, TravelCastelo Templar, Castelo Tomar, Convento de Cristo, Knights Templar, Tomarkarenfranza

9/7 – this morning we climbed the steep hill to see the Castelo Tomar and the Convento de Cristo, that date from the 12th century.

The church was built to a scale that allowed the Knights Templar to attend mass on horseback!

The Templar Cross:

Just a gorgeous, awe inspiring place.

Golega to Atalaia

September 6, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelAtalaia, Casa do Patriarca, flowers, Golega, Nice People of Portugal, Snailskarenfranza

9/5 – we walked out of Golega this morning, and ran into this fellow sitting on a bench:

Our guidebook always tells about the historic church in town, but the churches are seldom open. Here’s Golega’s 16th century church:

As we walked in the early morning, we came upon a little old lady peering down into the dirt beside the road, and occasionally picking something up and tossing it in her shopping bag. When we got close enough to inquire, she showed us a bag full of snails. Sure enough, as we walked along the highway, we could see lots of snails, and picked some up to give to her. Jim asked to take her picture, but she started yelling, so we moved on…

Today our walk is only 7 miles, to the tiny town of Atalaia, which boasts one restaurant, and one very nice B and B.

When we got to Casa do Patriarca a little after noon, we read the sign that said checkin wasn’t until 2, and breakfast would not be served before 8:30. We started to fret, as we really wanted a cool shower, and if we can’t leave at 7am we’ll be walking in the hottest part of the day. Our gracious hostess, Senhora Oliviera, put our fears to rest, saying the sign was for the tourists. We are Pilgrims, and can have whatever we want! And, she ran our laundry through her washer for us! Another Nice person of Portugal!

A note that I may have already mentioned, but no one has electric clothes dryers here. We found this true also in Ireland, Spain and Italy. Even hotels hang their sheets and towels outside to dry.

The B and B has a lovely back garden, and we ate our lunch in the shade:

Now here is a question: we’ve been seeing this fruit tree growing all over, and no one can tell us the name of the fruit. It looks like an apple or a pear, and is edible but not sweet, with an astringency that makes your mouth pucker. We’re told that they are used for making marmalade, but not eaten out of hand. What is it? Eliese?? Anybody??

For supper we walked to the only restaurant, where we saw this sign in the window:

Now, you know we had to order snails for dinner! Maybe these were the very ones we picked this morning! Jim ordered a snail appetizer, and we expected maybe six snails on a plate. Instead, the waiter brought like a gallon of snails, and some toothpicks. You just stick a toothpick in the shell and haul the little slimer out, then suck the garlic and butter out of the shell. Yum!

Vale de Figueira to Golega

September 5, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelGolega, horses, Nice People of Portugal, Vale de Figueirakarenfranza

9/4 – we allowed ourselves an hour for the 20 minute walk to the train station this morning, and we needed it! We got turned around and had to retrace our steps, but we got there just in time for the 7:56 am train to resume the Caminho where we left off yesterday.

A Nice Young Lady of Portugal engaged us in conversation on the train, and was able to explain why we’ve been having so much trouble with the language. Google Translate only gives us Brazilian Portuguese, which can be very different from Portugal Portuguese. We were asking for Trem (for train), when the local word is Ferro. Duh!

Nothing new to report today… more corn, more tomatoes, more peppers. We did spy a patch of pumpkins, and a sunflower field.

The last 5 miles into Golega was on a busy highway with absolutely no shoulder to walk on. Every time a truck went by I covered my face and hoped for the best. Better routes for pilgrims, please!

The town of Golega is known for horses and there is a great statue at the entrance, in case you had any doubts.

We stayed at a hotel above a restaurant, and were the only guests! Our room had an ensuite toilet without a door, which was a little weird, but oh well…

For supper, Jim wanted to try a local specialty, so I ordered the same thing. We got plates piled high and overflowing with pork ribs, four different kinds of sausage, tripe, chick peas, cabbage, rice, carrots, potatoes and other things I could not identify. I gave it the old college try, but couldn’t eat half of the serving. Should have taken a pic, because you won’t believe how much food there was – I may never eat again…

Walking gives you lots of time to think, and today I thought about folks back home.

We’ve been keeping up with our boys and grand babies weekly by video call. Emma at 20 months likes to say Hi Gramma, and she always asks to see Grandad, so Jim jumps into the picture and we wave. After that, she may show us a toy, or go off and play, or sit down to color, and we can watch her while we catch up with Peter and Lauren. Not sure what she thinks of us being on the flat screen.

Up until a few weeks ago, Lexi at 3 and a half would say hello, tell us her news from school, sing a song and generally ham it up in Lexi style. Recently, however, she’s become more interested in where we are, asking why we are always calling from bed (at a hotel), why we don’t have a living room, and asked if we were real or just a picture. When I told her we were real, she asked to see the back of my head, as proof that we were three dimensional! Last Sunday, she asked when we were coming home, and if we would come home if she gave us our house back. She asked if we were coming to her birthday party in January. Several times.

Now that it’s September, I think about the start of choir practice, and the start of book study, and the friends who will be starting without me. I think of the folks at the Q and hope they are ready for another holiday season.

So, there is another side to life on the road, and that’s missing the people you love, even though you’re having a wonderful time.

Santarem to Vale de Figueira

September 3, 2014Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, Travelgrapes, Nice People of Portugal, peppers, Pilgrims, Santarem, tomatoes, Train, Vale de Figueirakarenfranza

9/3 – our original plan for today was to walk 15 miles north, which would give us a short 5 mile walk the following day. Our host Mario suggested a different plan: walk 7 miles north today without our packs, take the train back to Santarem, then reverse the process tomorrow, giving us a 13 mile day. This sounded like a good idea for us, plus it would give Mario another night of our business.

Santarem is a confusing town with many little alleyways, and the maps don’t show all the streets, so we had a challenging time getting out of town in the morning. This is the last time we will see blue arrows for the pilgrimage to Fatima, as those pilgrims are now walking in the opposite direction:

There are several old churches with interesting architecture:

The cathedral had an open square inside, with palm trees growing within!

It was a foggy morning, and the view from the summit of the hill, where the old castle walls stand covered in morning glories, was breathtaking:

We shared the path for a while with Robert, a Pilgrim born in the U.S. but lives in France. Then we were back on dusty sand tracks, looking at today’s crops of peppers, corn, grapes and olive trees:

We reached the sleepy little town of Vale de Figueira by 11, and assumed we would be able to find the train station, either by hearing trains, seeing tracks, reading a sign, or asking helpful townfolk. No such luck! Google Translate gave us the Portuguese for Train Station, but the townfolk looked at us like we were speaking Martian. Then we tried making Choo Choo sounds, but that really didn’t help. Jim determined from our small map that the station was on a different road than the Caminho, but as soon as we turned left, EVERYBODY became a Nice Person of Portugal; pointing, prodding and gesticulating that we were going the WRONG WAY!

We found the station eventually, and in a half hour we were back in Santarem. Here are some of the lovely tile mosaics at the train station:

Tomorrow, we hoist our packs and head for Golega!

Morgado to Santarem

September 2, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, Travelgrapes, Morgado, Pilgrims, Santarem, tomatoeskarenfranza

9/2 – after a hearty breakfast of ham and cheese sandwich, juice and coffee, Mario drove us back to where he found us yesterday so we could complete the remaining 10 miles of our walk to Santarem. This will be an easy day, as our heavy packs are at the hostel, and we are just carrying a camera and a canteen of water.

We walked along the levee until we left the river:

Then we had nine miles of dusty dirt road, with tomatoes, squash, corn and grape vineyards lining both sides of the road. And yes, we sampled both the tomatoes and the grapes – sweet and tasty, although a bit dusty!

Finally, we saw Santarem in the distance, and knew we were only an hour’s uphill climb from home.

Here are the first citizens of Santarem to greet us:

Halfway up the hill, we stopped at a cool fountain to clean off some dust before walking into town:

There is an American pilgrim from California, Anita, staying at the hostel tonight, and we had a nice chat while we cooked our respective suppers. It’s nice to be able to communicate without a language barrier!

Azambuja to Morgado

September 2, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelAzambuja, Morgado, Pilgrims, Santarem, tomatoeskarenfranza

9/1 – when we arrived at the cafe at 7 this morning for our coffee, it was full of English-speaking men! Four Americans and two Canadians had arrived late last night, and, of course, they were responsible for the chorus of God Bless America that we heard in the wee hours. They are all veterans of other caminhos, and are all walking the 20+ miles to Santarem in today’s 93 degree heat.

We have opted to walk 10 miles to Morgado, and Mario, who owns the Santarem Hostel, will pick us up. We will spend the night in his hostel, then he will drop us back at this halfway point tomorrow so we can complete the segment. We want to walk every step of this Caminho, taking time to enjoy whatever there is to experience.

We were on the road as the sun came up, as we wished to avoid the heat of the day.

We walked along the water, along a path that was part of an old Roman road:

The path took us through miles of tomato fields:

We got to watch as the tomatoes were harvested by a big machine that sucked up the tomato plants, separated the ripe tomatoes down a chute onto a waiting truck, ground up the rest of the plant and returned it to the field as mulch, along with any unripe fruit. Darned if we could figure out how the the machine knew the difference, but only the red fruit went onto the truck!

We walked through the little town of Valada, with its 16th century church, and viewed the River Tejo from the levee that we walked along for several miles:

Mario came for us at noon, and he stopped and offered rides to the other pilgrims on the way to Santarem, but they all opted to walk in. We were grateful for the private room, and I loved the artwork displayed throughout the hostel of cows engaged in very human pursuits:

Vila Franca de Xira to Azambuja

September 1, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelAzumbaja, Bull fighting, Futbol, Piri Piri, Vila Franca de Xirakarenfranza

8/31 – our 12 mile trek today was mostly on highway, which was nasty, but would have been worse on a weekday with heavier traffic. We met no other pilgrims today.

We stopped in a small town at a cafe for lunch, and asked for a sandwich (sande). This is invariably one slice of ham (prosciutto) on a hard roll, with no mustard or mayo. Dry, dry, dry. Imagine our delight when the sandwiches came with ham, cheese and margarine! A culinary delight, that we could probably always have if we just knew how to order it…

We noticed several houses with Our Lady of Fatima displayed over the door:

As we walked along, I kept noticing tomatoes on the ground; some smashed, some eaten by bugs or birds, but many more in perfect condition, or almost so. Have the town folk been tossing them out the windows? Is this some sort of cultural phenomenon? My ruminations were answered soon enough when we spotted a double length tractor trailer barreling down the highway with an unsecured cargo of ripe red tomatoes bouncing around and spilling out. Mystery solved!

Here are some flowers from today’s walk:

Azambuja is another town with a bull ring, and we passed lots of posters advertising upcoming events. I’m happy to report that there are female bullfighters too, if this poster is any indication.

We are staying in a quiet pensao, without internet, so we didn’t expect much excitement for the evening. When we went to seek out supper around 7:30 ( that’s really the earliest you can get fed in this country), we found every restaurant full to bursting, with the soccer game blaring out on the TV. We passed by the first two restaurants, then decided there was nothing else for it, and made our way into the third. The proprietor found us two seats at a long table filled with shouting futbol fans, and brought us pork and fried potatoes for two. And, he brought out some hot sauce, called Piri Piri, the first condiment we’ve seen! We ate every bit, and rooted for the home team. The uniforms for one team advertised beer, and the other advertised TV satellite dishes. No idea who won!

Lying in bed, we listened to the shouting, singing and general carousing that seems to be a nightly event here, until the bars close at 2am. Amid all the noise we distinctly heard a full verse of God Bless America! Now, who can that be?

Alverca to Vila Franca de Xira

August 30, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelAlverca, Nice People of Portugal, Pilgrims, Vila Franca de Xirakarenfranza

8/30 – today we planned an easy day of just 7 miles. Our guidebook recommended a 19 mile day, but we split it, as we are taking our time, and wanted to enjoy the town of Vila Franca de Xira. Tomorrow we will walk the other 12 miles.

We met two pilgrims from Brazil, who have completed six different caminhos. They arrived in Lisbon yesterday, walked until 10:30 last night, and would walk another 20 miles today. Everyone walks their own Caminho.

We walked some dusty early morning trail, and got to see some roses and morning glories in bloom:

We spent an hour on a nasty road walk along highway N10, but during this stretch several bikers wished us Bom Caminho, and an old man waved his arms to slow down the traffic as we passed. Nice People of a Portugal! We are asked if we are walking to Fatima, as both pilgrimages share a trail at this point. As Fatima is on the way, we are considering going there too. Why not?

Finally, the path took us back to the River Tejo, where we enjoyed walking on a multi-use track with bikers, joggers and families enjoying a Saturday outing.

We got to see our first bullfighting stadium, from a distance, there are posters of matadors all over, and bull is on the menu, so we think this is a bullfighting town:

We had another mystery lunch, as this is not Lisbon, so there are no tourist menus translated to English. We asked for the specials of the day, and the waitress asked lots of questions, to which we replied Yes. I ended up with codfish soup (delicious!) and a pork sandwich. Jim got fried pork loin with (the now expected) rice, fries and salad. This really isn’t hard, if you don’t care what you get!

Here is our hostel, where we have a private room, and our own bathroom across the hall. We just did some laundry – see Jim’s red shirt hanging out to dry?

A lovely afternoon in a lovely town.

Sacavem to Alverca

August 30, 2014Backpacking, Caminho Portugues, Hiking, Portugal, TravelAlverca, Nice People of Portugal, Pilgrims, Sacavemkarenfranza

8/29 – we caught the 7:30 train out of Sintra, and were back in Sacavem in an hour, right where we left off the other day. Our walk today is 11.5 miles, mostly on dirt or gravel paths, occasionally on a busy highway, and a beautiful stretch along a boardwalk overlooking the River Tejo.

We met two other pelligrinas on their way to Santiago, both young girls moving much faster than we. We exchanged the pilgrim greeting, wishing them Bom Caminho! (have a good journey!) because we are pilgrims.

As we walked down a busy street, a car leaned on the horn. I looked up to see the female driver waving and blowing kisses to us, because we are pilgrims.

As we reached our room for the night, a car stopped in the street and the driver leaned out and asked in English, “Are you okay? Do you need any help?”, because we are pilgrims.

It’s good to be back on the Caminho!

Taking Our Time

Seeing the World, Nice and Slow

Category Archives: Travel

Excursion to Fatima

A Day in Tomar

Golega to Atalaia

Vale de Figueira to Golega

Santarem to Vale de Figueira

Morgado to Santarem

Azambuja to Morgado

Vila Franca de Xira to Azambuja

Alverca to Vila Franca de Xira

Sacavem to Alverca

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: