Saturday
The bus to Lisbon left Sevilla at 12am Saturday and was supposed to arrive at our destination by around 7am. So everyone on the bus was a little surprised and dismayed when we arrived at 4:20am. Now there is a one hour time difference between Portugal and Spain but when we ordered our tickets the time of arrival had said either 7 or 7:45am so I couldn’t believe we had actually made it there one and half to two hours early. At such an early hour the bus station which was open to the outside was freezing and the metro system didn’t open until 6:30am so Paige and I had no choice but to wait two hours. It certainly didn’t seem like our trip was getting off to the greatest start, but fortunately things improved greatly once we finally were able to take the metro to our hotel.
Since we had only booked for Saturday and Sunday night, we figured we would ask the hotel to hold our luggage for us and then figure out what to do with ourselves after that since we couldn’t check-in till two. However, there happened to be one room free already so we were able to check-in at 7am and sleep for a few hours. I don’t know what we would have done if there hadn’t been a room open because I was so exhausted that I wouldn’t have been in much of a mood to go sight-seeing. Around noon we headed out to find something for a late breakfast and the weather was so wonderful that we didn’t need our jackets for the first time since being in Europe. It was such a freeing experience. So eventually we found a pastry/café place that had our favorite chocolate-filled pastries for only eighty cents.
After that satisfying treat, we took the metro to Baixa-Chiado, which is close to the Rio Tejo port area and is a very busy and central part of the city of Lisbon. We wandered around a bit and saw a huge arch as well as a statue of some famous person in a plaza right on the river. There was a line of stands set up along one end of the plaza and of course we couldn’t resist looking at all the interesting products for sale. After a couple small purchases, we continued walking until we came to a tower that was specifically for views of the city. However, we didn’t go up because there was a fee, but the tower was neat to look at anyway. My favorite part of the day was when we came across a strawberry stand set up in a plaza and for only two euros we bought a kilo of beautiful strawberries. Sitting in a plaza in Portugal with the sun shining down eating strawberries was about as good as it gets. I could have stayed there all day, but we had more things to see, so eventually we headed up to Alfama.
The Alfama neighborhood is the only part of the city that survived the huge earthquake of 1755, and so in comparison with the rest of the city, it is very old and has narrow and confusing streets. It is also higher up so it was a little bit of a hike getting to the castle at the top. We probably would have gotten seriously lost, but fortunately for us, we were able to find a couple signs along the way that pointed to Castelo San Jorge (St. George Castle), so we made it there eventually. The views of the city were impressive owing to the higher location and we ended up spending a while wandering around taking pictures as well as visiting the castle itself.
We found a little café right outside the castle for a late lunch and I had the strangest hot dog ever. It had butter on it and was almost crumbly to eat and there were mini French fries placed inside the roll with it. It wasn’t terrible, but I think I prefer American to Portuguese hot dogs.
We next headed to Sé Cathedral and one particularly interesting part was in the back of the church in what used to be the gardens of the cloister. Ruins from the times of the Romans were discovered there in the nineties and so we were able to walk around the area and see the remains of houses, streets and storehouses from as far back as the eighth century BC. After the cathedral we headed back down into the commercial area and took the metro back to our hotel to get our coats since as the sun was starting to go down, it had become a bit colder.
Once prepared for the cold weather, we took the metro to a busier part of the city in order to find a place to get supper since our immediate area was more residential. We got a little too close to a menu outside one of the cafés and a waiter took the opportunity to reel us into eating supper there. Unfortunately the menu was a little pricier than I would have liked so I settled on a toasted ham sandwich, which by the time it arrived to me was actually a toasted cheese sandwich. I guess the ham switched to cheese somewhere in the translation. I’m happy to say that it was a very nice grilled-cheese sandwich at least.
Since it was still relatively early after we had finished eating, we wandered around for a while and ended up at some sort of mall that had a bookstore. After our book browsing desire was satisfied we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night since we had a busy day ahead of us.
Sunday
We took the metro to the bus station Sunday morning in order to catch a bus to Fatima. The lines to the ticket counters were rather long and we arrived right at 9am which was cutting it close to catch the 9:15 bus. Fortunately we were able to buy our tickets in time and made it on the bus right before it left. It took about one and a half hours to reach Fatima and from the bus station we had about a ten to fifteen minute walk to the Shrine.
We were a little disappointed to discover that all the signs were only in Portuguese so we weren’t able to tell what exactly all the different areas of the Shrine were. We followed the crowd into a huge circular building that ended up being the Church of the Most Holy Trinity and we made it right in time for Mass. The Mass was supposed to be an international Mass so we were hoping that some of it would be said in Spanish and possibly English, however it was just a mix between Portuguese and Italian. If I concentrated really hard I could understand some phrases or words because of the similarity with Spanish, but for the most part I only knew what was going on based on the different parts of the Mass.
Church of the Most Holy Trinity
After the Mass we headed back to the open area of the Shrine and saw a piece of the Berlin wall that was in recognition of Mary’s aid in ending communism. We couldn’t go into the big Basilica at that time because Mass was just beginning so we went in search of somewhere to get a guide to the different parts of the Shrine. There was a book store right outside the Basilica and I found a guide book in English for thirteen euros. I would have preferred just a little pamphlet type of guide that normally is provided free at the cathedrals and other places we have visited, however since there were none to be found; I decided it was worth the cost in order to make sure we saw all the most important things.
When we had first entered the Shrine we saw a little chapel that I had thought might possibly mark the spot of Mary’s apparitions, but without a sign in sight, I wasn’t sure. However it was the apparition sight according to the book, so we returned there first and saw the Mary statue that marks the exact spot that she appeared. Then we went inside the Basilica, which was very beautiful, and saw the tombs of the three seers, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia. There was also another statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Basilica which according to Lucia was a closer resemblance to Mary than the original statue in the Chapel of Apparitions. The second statue is the one that has numerous copies that travel all over the world.
Chapel of Apparitions
After the Basilica we headed out of the shrine to see the nearby town of Aljustrel where the children lived. On the way there were Stations of the Cross set up along a path that marks the path the shepherd children took to go from their homes to the Cova da Iria (which is where the Shrine is situated). At the end of the Way of the Cross there was the Hungarian Calvary which included a chapel. Both the stations and the chapel were a gift from Hungarian refugees, hence the name. Along the path of the stations we passed a place marking Mary’s appearance when the children didn’t make it for their original meeting day on the thirteenth and we also saw the spot where the angel appeared to them. We then went to see their houses, which had the most incredibly tiny rooms. We also went to a museum that showed what life was like back in the early 1900s and that used to be the house of Lucia’s godmother.
As we headed back we bought sandwiches for a late lunch and after eating we wandered around the Shrine a little more and took some final pictures. Then we visited the gift shop and after a couple purchases, headed back to the bus station to catch the 6:15 back to Lisbon. Once back at Lisbon we mostly wandered around the busy area of Baixa-Chiado and ate supper and eventually headed back to the hotel since we had to get up early once again in order to meet our tour guide for the “We hate tourism tour” we were going on the next day.
Monday
The tour we were going on was basically to experience Portugal and see sights outside of Lisbon with the commentary of a native guide as well as to sample legitimate Portuguese food. We met up with our guide, who said her name but I can’t remember it for the life of me, at 9am. Aside from Paige and I, there was another American and his girlfriend, who was Portuguese but came along anyway, and a couple from Ireland, who had simply lovely accents. We all piled into the van and took off for our first stop in Sintra which is a suburban area outside of Lisbon. After about a half hour drive we arrived in Sintra and our guide gave us a half hour to wander around and look at the castle that we had parked near as well as see some of the surrounding streets. After looking at the castle from the outside, since we didn’t have the time nor did we want to spend the money going inside, we wandered up a street that provided a nice viewpoint of Sintra.
Kind of a different looking castle
Once back on the road again, we headed up to another castle as well as park in Sintra that our guide informed us was something similar to a mix between Disneyworld and Lord of the Rings. The name of the park/castle was Quinta da Regaleira and it was amazing. The castle looked like it could have been from Beauty and the Beast and the trails in the park complete with towers, bridges, wells that you could climb down, caves, and waterfalls was unlike any other park I’d ever been to. We had an hour and a half to explore, but I could have spent all day there. Our guide’s advice to us was to start at the highest area of the park and work our way down to the castle, stopping to go down the well into the caves and see the waterfall, but most importantly she said to just get lost. We succeeded in getting lost quite easily on our way to the highest part of the park; however, we eventually made it to the large well and began our descent down into the darkness. Once at the bottom, it was impossible to see so I was very glad that I happened to have a flashlight in my purse. You just never know when a flashlight might come in handy. The caves were underneath a large area of the park so we only went through a small portion of them to reach the waterfall. The whole area surrounding and including the waterfall was really pretty and definitely a great place to take photos. We then crossed the pond using stepping stones and pretty soon were back on the path heading down to the castle. After stopping at a tower along the way, we eventually reached a nice little chapel that was right next to the castle, and then finally we began our exploration of the castle itself. Our guide had recommended seeing the library and also climbing the tower to get a good view. So we did both and the library was really interesting because there was a glass panel lining the floor that caused the shelves of books to appear to be continuing endlessly down which made it seem weird to walk on it. Before we knew it, it was time to bid the fairytale park and castle adios and head to our next stop.
The chapel and castle in the background!
A traditional Portuguese lunch was next on the agenda, however, when we arrived apparently there had been some miscommunication and it wasn’t prepared so we had to go to our next stop first and then return later. The end of the world was our destination and this was probably my favorite stop of the day, although Quinta da Regaleira was a close second. It’s called the end of the world because being the most western point in continental Europe, up until the Americas were discovered it was believed to be where all land ended. The Irish couple with us said that if we liked the views there, we would love the northern coast of Ireland, since they thought they seemed similar. It was absolutely breathtaking! I could have spent days just soaking up the views of the super blue ocean and the green hills and cliffs. Our guide only gave us fifteen or twenty minutes, and it wasn’t nearly long enough, but I was just glad that I had had the opportunity to see it in the first place.
This time lunch was ready and the food was bread, cheese, green olives, cod and shrimp covered in a fried batter, spinach soup and sausage that was cooked right in front of us. I ate everything but the olives and the shrimp, and overall everything was pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of spinach soup, but with the yummy bread to dip into it, I didn’t have a problem eating it. To drink there was wine, orange juice or water. I decided to try a little of the white wine, since it was part of a traditional meal, but I’ll be honest and say that it was disgusting. I really tried hard to drink the small amount that was in my glass, but I felt I’d be sick if I drank anymore of the nasty stuff, so eventually I switched out the wine for the orange juice and that was much more enjoyable. At least I can say I gave it a try and that is good enough for me.
After lunch we drove to Cascais and our guide gave us a half hour to get some Italian gelato and go see the beach. According to our guide the fruit flavors were the best, so I got a mango and lemon mix and it was delicious. Then Paige and I walked to the beach and went barefoot in the sand and of course we had to wade into the ocean despite the freezing water. Back in the van, which was a new van because the first one had a flat tire, we headed back to Lisbon, to the area of Belem. There we saw the Belem tower and the Discovery monument that had the sculptures of people who had been influential with discovering other lands and sea routes. The last thing we saw was the Monastery and Church of St. Jerome, which had the tomb of the explorer Vasco da Gama. Unfortunately, a lot of things close on Mondays and the monastery and church were among them, so we were only able to look at it from the outside. Back at the van, our guide gave us each a pastry that is a specialty of Belem that was a little cake shaped pastry filled with custard and very yummy. Then we drove back to the center area of Lisbon and our tour was over. Although it was a little pricey, I’d say that the experience was worth the expense.
St. Jerome Monastery and Church
