A TALE OF THREE CITIES

Today we are to visit three quite different locales: ancient (Roman) Obidos, pilgrimage mecca Fatima, and Sintra, the summer retreat of royalty.  We didn’t get a particularly early start, and the bus got caught in morning rush hour traffic.  This gave our guide plenty of time to go through her store (substantial) of history and social commentary.  One interesting tidbit was that drivers who summon police for road accidents can be made to pay for that response if, in the judgment of the officers, the incident didn’t merit their involvement.  Yikes.  Just take names and go on your way!  We headed north from Cascais, about 110km.  After a couple of hours, we got to Obidos.  The first thing I saw were these signs.  Hey, this might be just the place!

Or not.

Pretty much one chocolate shop looked like another, and, despite the “artesanal” label, it all seemed pretty pedestrian stuff.  The place was an endless series of trinket shops, chocolate stores, some pleasant, quieter side streets, and a bit of fortress and crenellated walls.  OK, but,meh.

Up near the tower that you can see, which lies at the top of the shopping street, you can look back (below) onto that sole commercial lane.

One thing that Obidos did have was Japanese tourists.  LOTS of Japanese tourists, for whom a quick, single pose for a camera shot is only the beginning of an endless series of muggings for the lens, exchanging cameras, doing it all over again, and generally hogging whatever viewpoint you happen to encounter them at.  You just want to scream, “Enough Already!”  But you don’t.  You wait.  Or, you give up.  To the right of this shot, a side street led up and eventually you reach viewpoints where you can get some panoramic shots of the entire town and vistas.

Part of the fortress at left, and the outer wall that surrounds the town is curving towards us in the center.  As you can see, I finally figured out how to get my panorama mode working.  I had to go to default settings, then trial-and-error to find that it won’t work if HDR is activated.  Hah!  Another reason to avoid HDR except in very limited situations.  Behind where I’m standing for the above picture, which is just about the highest spot around, was a lovely landscape out the other way.  Once, of course, you outwait the Japanese.  I swear they took thirty shots before they cleared off and left us in some solitude.  Am I cranky, or what?  I thought this scene defined bucolic.

Obidos does have quite a history.  Founded by Celts in 308 BC, the Romans arrived in the first century, but they bugged out when the Visigoths arrived in the 5th & 6th centuries.  The hill proved to be nice for defense, so it became a center for the Moslems when they invaded in the 7th.  Finally, in 1148 the first king, Alphonse, conquered the Moors and used this as his headquarters for taking Lisbon.  In 1573, Queen Catarina ordered the construction of an aqueduct which, amazingly, still stands.

Done with chocotown, we again headed north for the 90km journey to Fatima, the scene of apparitions of Mary appearing to three peasant girls on the 13th of each month from May to October, 1917.  During most of the year, the shrine of Fatima is a quiet and peaceful place, visited by locals and the few hundred pilgrims arriving each day from beyond the local area. On May 13, commemorating the day of the first apparition, and on October 13, the day of the final apparition, half a million pilgrims will crowd into the great square in front of the basilica.  In 2017, Pope Francis is scheduled to make a visit.

During these times there is an atmosphere of extremely passionate religious devotion, with hundreds of pilgrims crawling toward the shrine on their knees, thousands making vows, and much praying and weeping.  Some get started early.

In addition to the basilica and its plaza, pilgrims will visit the Chapel of the Apparitions, where Mary was said to have appeared to the children.  It’s that glassed building on the left in the picture above.  A spring also miraculously appeared, and allegedly it still flows through the tap of the little fountain.

Relatively new to the Fatima complex is the Church of the Holy Trinity, completed in 2007 and constructed to hold 9,000 of the faithful.  It was needed as the Basilica only holds 900, and is impossible to heat in the winter.  The new Church is pretty stark, and has drawn everything from wild praise to utter condemnation.  To me it looked like a hall for the United Nations.  Much of it is below grade, so it doesn’t dominate the skyline.  Two massive beams jut out from the entrance and frame the old Basilica, while out front to the right of this shot there stands the starkest crucifix I think I’ve ever seen.

The inside truly is of epic proportions, with those beams continuing down over the altar.  Those people in the aisle are only half way to the altar!

Christ’s head has been criticized as “Neanderthal,” but the gold-leaf-work back panels are exquisite.

Reverse view of the interior with the penitent Loni.  Look at how tiny those people are back by the entrance.  The huge scale of things,like the entryway, is deceptive.

Enough holiness.  The only hole I was now concerned with was in my stomach.  Lunch was overdue.  Most of our group opted to eat at the restaurants in the adjacent hotels, but we were determined to get off the beaten track and get someplace where the locals eat.  Boy, did we.  After walking a long way, we found a little place that had fix-priced offerings, although no English translations.  Also, no English spoken.  Ah, that’s our place.  We managed to order from pictures and some words that seemed similar to English ones.  We ended up with a delicious feast at O Ze Grande.  Bread, olives, cheese; we split a salad of red cabbage, carrots, lettuce, oranges, & strawberries; a salted cod/potatoes/cheese casserole for me; and Loni had some rice and pork with orange bits.  All this was followed by flan.  All this for 11E each.  All delicious.

After lunch, we reversed course and the bus headed south back to nearly Cascais and to the town of Sintra.  Our guide cautioned that there weren’t any public toilets there, so the plan was to stop enroute.  Well, the proposed stop was closed for repairs.  A quick huddle with the driver, and a second place was found, mercifully open.  Good to go!  Sintra is a picturesque town that is set amidst the pine covered hills of the Serra de Sintra, just to the west of Lisbon. This slightly cooler climate attracted the nobility and elite of Portugal, who constructed exquisite palaces, extravagant residences and decorative gardens.  The main commercial area (and the summer palace) are located on a semi-flat area, with big mansions ascending the hill behind.

Way atop that green hill are the ruins of a Moorish castle that lurks over everything.  You can barely see the walls and some towers atop the rocks.

While the rest of our party was shopping or sitting in the square down here, we set off up the hill with the idea of making it to the top.  Unfortunately, our time was limited, and what looked like a reasonable hike turned out to be way too much.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed the up-and-down nature of Sintra’s streets and cliff-hugging houses.

One need not depend upon shank’s mare when the real thing is available for hire.

While hiking up we came upon this puzzlement.  The Portuguese Excalibur?  I’ve looked on the WEB but can’t find any reference to this thing.  Sintra whimsy, perhaps.

Once we decided to bag trying to get to the castle (we had to be back at the bus in a short while), we just took in the impressive views from our perch.  This was some noble’s little retreat, shining away in the greenery.  I waited a long time for that cloud to move over and allow the sun to shine on it.

A more impressive landmark with its two enormous white chimneys, the Palácio Nacional de Sintra was a functioning royal palace until the early 1900s. Originally built under Moorish rule for sultans spending summers in the temperate serra, the palace has been remodeled and altered by successive residents.  We didn’t go inside, but this view was pretty nice.

A slightly closer view.  Not hard to see why the nobility has flocked here for centuries.

We had to hustle to get back down the hill, and in the process took a wrong turn and got ourselves lost.  A little reading of the light and getting a perspective on the hill, and we found our way back to the center of town and the rest of our band before we became one of those people that hold up the group.  I rather wish that Collette had devoted a whole day to Sintra, as it also has a toy museum, the colorful Palacio da Pena, and of course the cliff-top fortress that we couldn’t get to.  In retrospect, I could have done without Obidos in return for more time here.  C’est la vie.