Sunday 10.31.2010


Happy Halloween


Today starts really early for us. We have a great oceanfront third-floor room perfectly placed across from the beach so we can hear the waves crashing. The location is less perfect when that same beach and ocean decide to join us in the room. The wind has blown off the ocean all night and at about 4:30 am reaches tropical storm proportions with sand and ocean spray pounding against the windows. The canvas awning fringes just below us are snapping and cracking like a cross between a popcorn popper and machine gun. We don’t really feel threatened, but it makes for uneasy sleeping after that.

We give up and get up at 7:30 and get ready for the day moving down to breakfast at 9:30. We passed thousands of orange trees yesterday and the juice in the restaurant has to be weak “Tang.” What a pity. There is plenty of coffee, meats, cheeses, scrambled eggs and cereal.


The main town square to the side of our hotel is covered with sand, some of it inches deep, and there are shredded awnings and blown out plastic shelter panels. The wind is still howling (at least 60 mph) to the point that our hotel has to keep their front door, which doesn't even face the beach, locked with someone poised to open and close it as guests pass through. Only a few people have ventured out near the beach and they are covering their faces to avoid the probability of being sandblasted. Well, this has long been scheduled as our day of rest so we may as well hunker down with a book and old movies.


That lasts for about a half hour. We have suspected that we are sneaking up on the end of European “summer time” and sure enough it happened overnight. When we thought we were bored at 10:30 am, we are doubly bored now that we know it is only 9:30 am (again). Geniuses that we are, we think, after much discussion, that if we can get out the side door (the locked one) and walk a couple blocks inland, we can get to the garage where our car is parked without incurring a lot of damage and then drive further inland to see some sights. Amazingly it works and we are driving through very dramatic weather in just a little while.


Our first stop on our day of rest is about an hour from Nazare’ (naz-array) in Batalha. This is the home of the Monastery of Santa Maria, reputedly Portugal's finest architectural achievement. We join noon mass already in session. The place looks a little rough in detail but monstrous in scope from the outside, while the inside is finished in it's best 14th century finery. Our tour of Spain and Portugal is not intended to be a religious pilgrimage, but the history of the countries are coupled so closely to their religious struggles that there is now little difference between the two.


Which brings us to Fatima. We twist our way from Batalha up winding roads to a perfect hilltop for a miracle. In 1917 three little shepherd children, Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, left their flock in the manger to come outside only to see their shadow which meant that there would be six more weeks of winter. Just kidding. The three little shepherds, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, on the 13th of May, 1917 saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in an oak tree on a hill outside of their village. For five consecutive months the same apparition appeared on the thirteenth of each month until on October 13th with 70,000 followers present, in the midst of a rainstorm the sun danced around the sky, plunged to the earth and finally everyone woke to a sunny mild day. The Holy Mother was said to have delivered three messages to the children: There would be peace soon after the bloody battles of WWI; Russia would reject God and espouse Communism leading to the second great war; and the controversial prediction of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

Fatima has now become a wonder of religious vigor with a central esplanade that would be the envy of our national mall in Washington. On one end is the Basilica built over thirty years finishing in 1953 and on the other is the Church of the Holy Trinity, a round super-church that will hold 9,000 worshipers, built under the auspices of John Paul II in 2005. Near the Basilica is the original oak tree where the children witnessed the miracle, and the Chapel of the Apparitions where pilgrims finish their journey of worship. Pilgrims will "walk" the last 100 meters alone on their knees through the esplanade to reach the chapel.

To one side of the Chapel was a long narrow building with smoke rising and people lined up outside. Since it was mid-afternoon John suggested that they go over to the grill for a burger or hot dog to make it to dinner. When we get there we realize that the people were pilgrims lining up to place their candles into an everlasting fire that was a gas-fueled inferno. No burgers here.


On the way back we went through Sitio, a small community above and overlooking Nazare for a bird's eye view of our current home, and then toppled down the hill returning the car to the parking garage. It is now late afternoon and we hit the snack joint across the square for a small pizza to share with a beer on the side. So much for our day of rest.


After a couple hours break and watching the results of Strictly Come Dancing, we find another little cafe for a light dinner. Mary has the "Sandes de Pasta de Thom" (tuna sandwich) and John has a skewer with mixed fish and shrimp, peppers and onions, and fries on the side. Just right. There is a group of about 20 women in the restaurant next door with witches hats and assorted scary outfits, our sole reminder that it is Halloween.


We had everything today with rain, wind, sun and more of each every half hour. The high winds keep things off balance for us all day, but perhaps tomorrow will be a better day. (Where have we heard that before?)

Today's Picture: The Esplanade and Basilica at Fatima.