Wandering West: Lisbon and Fatima, Portugal

Another beautiful sunny day for an excursion ashore. Before driving the 90 miles to Fatima, we took a “panoramic tour” of Lisbon which simply means a drive around with a guide saying on your left is the Rossio Square and on your right is Edward VII Park. Most of the city tours are like this, so most of my photos are taken through highly reflective bus windows…sometimes across the aisle windows.

I was in Lisbon two years ago and did a similar tour, but I am learning that Tour 1 is not Tour 2 which is to say you see a lot of the same things, of course, but you also are taken to different parts of a city depending on your tour guide. I did see parts of Lisbon today that I did not see before, like a new section that has built up around the area where the 1998 World Exhibition was held. This area includes high rise apartments, businesses, a huge aquarium, and this new modern train station designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava whose idea was to make it look like fish bones. It is really beautiful.

Despite its newness, graffiti is still seen. Some of it is very well done and covers huge walls, making me wonder if these artists were commissioned to fill this concrete space.

I did observe that it must be Monday, wash day, since I saw a lot of laundry hanging out of the windows, even in really posh sections of the city. This is a common sight throughout Europe, since they either don’t have driers, or if they do, they prefer the fresh air and sun to do the job. This window was in Alfama quarter, the oldest part of the city near the pier where we were docked.

I won’t repeat information or photos of Lisbon in this post. If you are interested, look at my post in the archives. To find it, look in the column on the right, find year 2009 in the Archives, click on the > and a menu will drop down, then select month of April, another box will drop down. Go down the list and click on “Lisbon and Esteril, Portugal”.

I was glad that we were going to Fatima on a Monday because it would not be as crowded as, say, on a Sunday. (The last time I arrived in Portugal it was Easter Sunday, so it was impossible to get into this mammoth square, much less the basilica, because of the thousands of worshipers.)

Through the center of this square, you see a path made of marble. It is here that some make their way the entire length of the plaza on their knees as a sign of devotion or adoration. Today, I saw this man doing that accompanied by a child.

There are three main structures on the plaza. First is the basilica itself. Inside is where the children who saw the apparition are buried. The line in front of the altar are people who want to get a glimpse of the tomb.

The second structure is built over the place where the children saw the apparition. The marble column next to this priest who was leading the saying of the rosary as I went by is supposedly where the Blessed Virgin appeared. It is reported that about four million people visit this Chapel of the Apparitions each year.

Next to this is a place where people light candles. Some of the candles are over six feet long.

Opposite the basilica next to a huge cross is a new, very modernistic church which can hold over 9,000 people.

At all religious places like this which draws millions of people every year, you will find an abundance of souvenir shops. Here’s one strip of them. There are many more.