The 3 City Tour

One of the benefits of living and exploring Europe, is that everything is close together. I wish we would have time to go venture into other countries, but that is not for this trip. So, we are trying to fill up our time exploring Portugal and trying to gain a better understanding of what this country is all about.

On Monday, 23 people set out in 3 vans to tour the cities of Fatima, Alcobaca and Obidos. The sun was out off and on (mostly off), which was too bad, but I'm just glad it didn't rain too much. You really need to see these places with the sun - pictures turn out so much nicer.

First Stop: Fatima

Fatima is an interesting place. In the Catholic faith, Fatima is a place of pilgramage. This is where a lot of Catholic believers journey to at least once in their lifetime. It is most well known for the religous visions that reportedly took place there in 1917.
Fátima is famous for the shrine called the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, built to commemorate the events of 1917 when three peasant shepherd children claimed to have seen the "Virgin of the Rosary", Our Lady of Fatima. When the children asked for her name, she said "I am The Lady of The Rosary".
The Marian shrine in Fátima attracts a large number of Catholics, and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions

People will often go on their knees for about 270m until they come to the Chapel of Apparations. There, they can purchase candles and they will be burned as a prayer offering.

The bigger the candle, the better. The longer a candle burns, the more a person's prayers are heard by God. You can also purchase candles in the shape of every imaginable body part. You would do this if there was a certain body part that was ailing you. If you burn that candle/body part, you may be healed of your condition.

The church is amazingly beautiful. It doesn't matter how many churches you visit here, each one makes me stop and admire the architecture and the incredible detail of the carvings.

In this church, 2 of the peasant shepherd children are buried - a boy and a girl.

On our way to the next little city, we passed this incredible castle in Batalha and stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures.

 

 Second stop: Alcobaca

Here we enjoyed a delicious lunch and part of the afternoon. In Alcobaca, there is an old monastery, which we visited.

In this church, the famous Ines and Pedro are buried - a Portuguese King and Queen. They are buried on opposite sides of the church, facing each other, so that when they get to Heaven, they rise and they are what each other sees first.

Team photo

Third and final stop: the walled city of Obidos.

Us Trekkers had been here before in January, but it was fun to go back. Us girls decided to have some fun and do an impromptu little photo shoot.

And we enjoyed the yummiest hot chocolate I have ever had. It was the perfect balance of creamy and chocolaty and it wasn't overly sweet. I thought it was perfect!

We returned back to the Bible College, completely exhausted but ended off the evening on a incredibly encouraging note as we all gathered together to encourage Otto and Marjorie in the work they are doing here in Portugal.