Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Day 97: Lisbon to Salamanca, Spain
August 31: Up early to head to Fatima - the most religious city in Portugal where Pilgrims come to visit.
A miracle happened here, so the story goes, in 1917. Since then, the main square, cathedral, chapel etc have been a very significant place of worship for the Catholics.
Many people approach the chapel on their knees from miles away, light candles at the holy site, and visit the tree near to where the miracle happened. Forgotten the exact story but it relates to the ¨Virgin¨appearing to three children and speaking to one of them, and that this happened again a month later... now the site is seen as holy. (I think this is the story. It wasn´t explained very well.)
Got to see the cathedral, only during mass time, so had to be brief. Bought postcards of what the massive square would look like when packed... it´s huge... maybe think of the square at the Vatican where the Pope appears... it´s similar to that.
On one side of this square there´s also a part of the Berlin Wall.
In Fatima, we then headed to a Port tasting place. Supposedly Port is only made in Portugal... makes sense, but didn´t know this. Tried a few, some okay, others too strong. Fun though.
We then spent the next few hours driving... across the border back to Spain, had a lunch stop... and slept along the way. Brought the clocks forward an hour too... I am now 8 hours behind Sydney, 1 ahead of London, 6 ahead of New York.
Arrived in Salamanca in the early evening. Had time to explore the main square (Plaza Mayor), Jesuit Church, House of Shells, the old and new cathedrals, and other significant streets and buildings before returning back to the hotel for dinner.
We then did a walking tour of the town, the lights on the town square, cathedral and main university building were spectacular. It´s a very nice place - it gets compared to Oxford and Cambridge in England.
Socialised at ¨Gatsby¨pub before heading home.
A miracle happened here, so the story goes, in 1917. Since then, the main square, cathedral, chapel etc have been a very significant place of worship for the Catholics.
Many people approach the chapel on their knees from miles away, light candles at the holy site, and visit the tree near to where the miracle happened. Forgotten the exact story but it relates to the ¨Virgin¨appearing to three children and speaking to one of them, and that this happened again a month later... now the site is seen as holy. (I think this is the story. It wasn´t explained very well.)
Got to see the cathedral, only during mass time, so had to be brief. Bought postcards of what the massive square would look like when packed... it´s huge... maybe think of the square at the Vatican where the Pope appears... it´s similar to that.
On one side of this square there´s also a part of the Berlin Wall.
In Fatima, we then headed to a Port tasting place. Supposedly Port is only made in Portugal... makes sense, but didn´t know this. Tried a few, some okay, others too strong. Fun though.
We then spent the next few hours driving... across the border back to Spain, had a lunch stop... and slept along the way. Brought the clocks forward an hour too... I am now 8 hours behind Sydney, 1 ahead of London, 6 ahead of New York.
Arrived in Salamanca in the early evening. Had time to explore the main square (Plaza Mayor), Jesuit Church, House of Shells, the old and new cathedrals, and other significant streets and buildings before returning back to the hotel for dinner.
We then did a walking tour of the town, the lights on the town square, cathedral and main university building were spectacular. It´s a very nice place - it gets compared to Oxford and Cambridge in England.
Socialised at ¨Gatsby¨pub before heading home.
# posted by mishij @ 10:51 AM 
