Portugal

Seriously behind in BLOGS due to not having great internet access in Morocco. Also I have been picked up on Carmen confusion...Carmen the Opera is not the same as Carmen Miranda. I knew that of course, but had forgotten with sensory overload in Morocco...so please excuse my faux pas. (My mum was a great Carmen Miranda anyway!!)

We are well and truly past Portugal and we are back in Madrid after being in Morocco for almost a week. What an experience! But we need to go back to Portugal before we can tell you about this amazing North African country.

One of the small lanes in Coimbra!

Coimbra was our first stop in Portugal after a gorgeous drive through the Spanish and Portugal countryside. We arrived late after dark and on top of the hill was the town's famous clock tower of the university, beautifully lit up. The next day we were able to walk up to the Coimbra University through the steep and narrow lanes and stairs and through the anicent Moorish gates. People live in these lanes, including uni students.

The Uni was first a palace and the uni started in this palace in the 1500s. The Uni Library has two metres thick walls, all cedar shelving and a colony of bats (Carole perhaps you could investigate this for MECS). This keeps the temperature stable and dry and the bats deal with any insects. The shelves and tables are covered every night by leather curtains to protect the extensive and ancient collection housed in the library from bat droppings. Now that's organised!!!!

University clock tower, which was the first thing we saw
coming into Coimbra lit up at night time.

We were fascinated with the student parking around the university, with every available square inch of curb being used with cars parked nose to tail, with no possibility of walking between them. Then when they run out of curb, they double park and then some...total chaos (to us anyway!) See photo.

Serious parking issue at the Coimbra univeristy!!!

Coimbra is (yet!!!) another town we would like to come back to!!

Catherdal in Batalha! Stunning!

On our way through to Lisbon (Lisboa in Portugese!!) we dropped in at Batalha, where in the late 1385 the Portugese defeated the Castillians (Spanish) and King Joao (John) built a huge Cathedral to celebrate this victory.  He dedicated it and the monastary (still operating) to St Mary. It is quite beautiful (and we have seen many a cathedral and churches over the past few weeks). It was quite plain compared to some of the cathedral we have seen but quite beautiful in its simplicity. It was also the burial site for the King and his wife Phillipa of Lancaster and Henry the Navigator!!???! Henry was one of the King's sons and was quite an ambitious adventurer. His dream was to find an alternative sea route to India and therefore break the monopoly on the Spice trade, held by the Arabs (throught the deserts). He convinced his father the King and this begun a new era of expansion of the Portugese kingdom....controlling Gibraltar & the Meditteranian sea routes...navigating west coast of Africa & rounding the Cape of Good Hope. He founded a "Navigator's School" (very advanced for the times!). The Portugese were in a competition to control the seas with the Castillians & the Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Ferdinand & Isabella...and their explorer Christopher Columbus!) I've found this history quite fascinating & have been busy taking notes trying to fit it all together!(David) Anyway the Cathedral was quite awe inspiring! Included a tomb, in the well worn marble floor, of the "soldier who saved the King's life in the battle".  But we will need to seriously study our history of Spain, Portugal, France, Morocco, Austria, etc etc when we get home, because they are all interlinked...history was never my strong suit (Chris). Give me the numbers like 1492...because this was a very very important year in history.

Anyway enough self pity re lack of history knowledge...on to Fatima. The story goes..."in 1917 on the 13th May, in the Parish of Fatima, the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children and again on the 13th of each month for five consecutive months. On the 13th October 1917, (the last of those early apparitions) 70,000 people were present! (Gets you thinking, doesn't it! Worth reading about). In a subsequent & more recent appearance to Lucia (the oldest of the three, who only died recently, aged 97!) Mary is said to have warned Lucia that there would be an assasination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, on the 13th May. There was an assassination attempt on the Pope on the 13th May 1981, but

The tree where the children saw the apparition.

because of the warning, he was wearing a bullet proof jacket & thus not killed. Later, the bullet was taken from the jacket and welded into the crown of the statue of Mary which now appears in the Fatima sanctuary."...we saw some very interesting stuff! 4 million people/pilgrims, from all over the world visit this site every year....

We were stunned by the sheer enormity of the site, with its various chapels & the Basilica, which has been built near the holm-oak tree where the apparations were reported to have occured. We walked around the area from one end to the other and were fascinated. Pilgrims (particularly on the anniversary dates) go to pray to the Virgin Mary, and make supplication for people who might be sick or dying, and they "walk" on their knees around a designated path (which could be several hundreds metres) in supplication for their loved ones. You have to admire people's dedication in this respect. Huge, huge, huge!

There is also a large, modern (2 yo) church at the other end of this enormous site - it is to the right of the massive plain crucifix seen on the skyline in the photo below. It sits down in the ground (humbly?!) We guessed it would seat several thousand people. The interesting (stunning) obsevation here was the simplicity of the design of the building. Padded seats, floor sloping towards the very plain altar, backed by a beautiful, very modern gold mosaic wall and then a huge simple cross (not a crucifix, although I, David, am reminded of the "paschal mystery"). No Mary, no "saints", (except us!). Very Christ centred. We sat silently, with only three others in the whole place! I found it easier to pray here.

Top end of the Fatima arena. To the right is the small worship
centre where the statue of Mary is situated - with the bullet
in the crown! Also the path on the right is the one were people
walk on their knees in supplication for the sick or dying loved
ones. The tree is to the extreme right, just out of picture.

(Back to Chris)...Now of course everyone has the right to make up their own mind about whether this Fatima event happened or not, but the Catholic people in Portugal (and the world) are convinced of the truth of these apparitions, and Pope JP II heeded the warning...so BELIEVE IT or NOT!!! Most of the millions of Catholics do!!

The cathedral at top end of the arena. The arena can hold
tens of thousands of people. Photo taken from "new church"end.

One young girl nearly at the end of the journey
of supplication for her loved one! Serious
dedication!!!