Saturday, 19 October 2013

Portugal continued, but I'm in Spain

 Have you missed me? Just discovered that its 10 days since i wrote and lots has happened so I'll try and catch you up.

Knowing my audience and the fact that Autumn has hit thought you would prefer a nice beach scene rather than a monsatery- but dont worry there's more of them to come.
This lovely place is about 150k's north of Lisbon just outside a place called Nazare, stopped here for a couple of nights on the way to Batalha. Went there because it has an amazing monastery but that doesnt really do it justice- the interior may be plain and unadorned but the exterior is remarkable- think its called Manueline - a Portuguese architecture which is light with spiral columns, lots of curlicues and looks amazing on Gothic architecture. After there I was heading for Tomar, but on the way stopped at Fatima. It was one of the important dates in the calendar- evidently the 12th ad 13th of each month are special dates for pilgrims so the roads were full again as I drove along but when I arrived there must have been several thousand cars, tents, caravans, you name it, in the car parks but when I got into the main area it looked empty- thats how vast it is- and dare I say it, completely soulless. Really couldnt get my heard around it for some reason and beat a hasty retreat.

Next photo coming up so time for a new page
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