We passed an artificial square football field for some young boys playing football, very good for the little ones.
Road surface not too bad overall so far pretty good, just the cobbled roads in, through and out of the towns and villages makes for a bumpy ride in and out, but most the roads are very good.
Flatter down here, hope we have seen the end of the mountains for a while, lots of vegetable crops.
A lack of P places to pull over for lunch, don't know where the trucks have their breaks.
Stopped for diesel, much dearer here at average €1.38 , spotted it at €1.28 so got €40 and gpl was .64 got 12 ltrs €7.91, served again, the smell of hot roast pork was coming from the adjacent restaurant so Tony got 2 pork rolls for our lunch and 2 cooked pork schnitzel for tomorrow's dinner.
It was 19° as we arrived at our free stop in Fatima, lovely area, 10 dedicated large motorhome bays with own picnic table and bench seats. Had our lunch then googled how far to the Shrine, said 35mins walk, so we decided to explore the area.
Huge car park with lots of gardens and picnic areas with a church, so walked through and OMG it opened up to the amazing marble square which had been likened to St Peters in Rome. So there it was just behind us, the Sanctuary of Fatima with the Shrine of the Virgin Mary all just there....and it was free.....have been to churches and cathedrals that have asked for payment not a patch to this magnificent place.
There were Catholic Pilgrims on their knees walking down the dedicated path to the shrine, some had knee pads, then they carried on around the building housing the shrine and the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, and the chapel of the apparitions where Mary was said to have been seen, 100 years ago in 1917, so this is the Jubilee year.
The bells were rung frequently at no apparent time, 10 past the hour for example and often played a whole little tune.
The large church with the 2 tombs of the little shepherds, was one end of the large square, then walking down several marble steps , through the square to the other end was a massive auditorium, with photos of pilgrims over the years. As we were leaving, I walked on to get a photo of the giant rosary and Tony witnessed a beggar who was sitting in the doorway, being kicked and manhandled away by a security guard and telling off a man who had put money in her bowl. Tony yelled at him about not being a very Christian thing to do and he just dismissed him with hand gestures to go away. That well and truly took the shine off the place.
Beef casserole with lime infused rice for dinner with speciality Portuguese Green Wine, which isn't really green to look at, slightly spritzig, very nice and went very well with lime rice.
At 7.30pm we walked back to see the area lit up, mass was being held in the shrine and several novice nuns were walking on their knees down the pilgrim path and round the shrine. We went over to look at the large candle area and were shocked to see large wax efergies of people, heads/skull and a leg being burnt, melted in a big Furnace type pit. Very macabre and creepy.....I walked away rather quickly, didn't like that at all, Tony walked around the back of the shrine and saw the priests open the door to the pilgrims who had been crawling around the chapel of apparitions, where the shrine of Mary's immaculate heart is, and gave them a special plenary indulgence and holy communion.
So an amazing place to visit even for the non religious, although I have no understanding of the rituals that the pilgrims perform, it was certainly worth coming.
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