Migas

Hello, everyone.

Today we are in Tomar, a town east of Fatima. At one time this was the world headquarters of the Knights Templar. The castle here, Castelo Templario, and associated Convento del Cristo are a world heritage site, which means it's government administrated, is historic, and charges admission. It was founded in 1312 when surviving Knights fled to Portugal and changed the Order's name to The Order of Christ. They also redid the insignia by placing the red cross with equal arms on a white ground to symbolize that the old, condemned order was purified. This was good enough for the Pope at the time, as he knew they still had work to do.

The castle is very much worth the couple of hours to go through it. Amazing frescoes and tile murals are in various chapels. The site administrator allows modern artists to place, ahem, displays in the halls and rooms of the dormitory area. The ones we saw today seemed pointless. Also self immersed to a sad degree. A more edifying display would have been reconstruction of the expected furnishings in, say, a cell of a knight, a cell of a lay brother, the infirmary, and the kitchen. But that is just my opinion.

We're in an 8 bunk dorm at Thomar 2300 and the pen and ink style sketches on the walls are better than "Ten Stolen Blankets." (That was the name of one displayed "art" "work.")

We also saw a menu with Migas in a dish description. It looked like part of the plate, and since we had a waitress with good English skills we asked her about it. Migas in Portugal is not the same as in South Texas. It has cabbage, beans, seasonings, and possibly sausage--but no eggs!

Tomorrow we're back in the saddle again, for a long day but after 2 rest days we are optimistic. The heat is supposed to broken some, too. Here's hoping!

Fatima

Hello, everyone.
We slept in today, until 0700! Then we looked up a place to stay in Fatima and ambled to the Santarem bus station. We got seats on the express bus--45 minute ride--and had a sip at the bus station cafe. Also some desperately needed Pringles. (We were still in salt deficit from the previous day's long walk.)

We're staying at a hotel called Avenida de Fatima. It's nice, has WiFi, an actual tub in the bathroom, air conditioning and a desk. They also allowed us to store our packs when we got there early.

Fatima is well set up to support pilgrims' needs. There are many cafes, many places to stay, and numerous information offices. It helps if you can speak a little-known Portuguese. Or at least a good list of Spanish words. Today I really needed to tell the pharmacist that we needed gauze bandage and wrapping adhesive tape. We didn't have those words, though, and ended up with Compeed for DH's blisters on the bottom of the foot. (I had this kind last year, and I don't think the Compeed deals well with being walked on all day. But we'll see.)

We ate prato do dia for lunch: protein, veg, and starch. It's their version of the blue plate special. Mine was fried pork steak (think chicken fried steak without the gravy, only a tender luscious piece of pork) and his was squid. His squid was accompanied by wonderful poached cabbage. Mine had a rice-with-stuff dish. And the "spec appetizer" assortment included octopus salad and a pair of good crusty rolls. (Portugal has a custom of putting appetizers out on the table in hope you will eat them--it's a sales technique, and what you eat they add to your bill.)

 Plaza at Fatima. We are facing the old Basilica. They're doing some kind of renovations.

A slab of the Berlin wall.


I never thought I'd see the Berlin wall come down in my lifetime and certainly never expected to see a piece of it.

The weather may improve soon. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day for us--today was not scheduled but it's been hard to track down food on the trail so we needed it--and we will skedaddle on the early bus to Tomar.

Walking through Hell

Hello, everyone.
We left Anambuja today at 0630. We had enjoyed a dinner of bar food last night. Not much was available unless we walked the mile or so to the bullying to eat barbecued bulls. We were tired and besides, those defeated bulls were sure to be tough and stringy.
We wandered into a local bar and ate cold stuff that was on hand while watching bad bullfighting from Spain on the two TVs in the bar. Guess that makes it a Portuguese sports bar!
This morning we started out under cloudy skies, resolved to make as much distance as we could before the sun came out and cookies us.
At the village Relengo we found a cafe, after walking 3 hours, and DH had 5 cookies. I had a hard boiled egg. That was all the food we found all day. And we walked 32K in the horrid humid heat. We saw lots of tomato fields, some of the as big as North Texas cotton fields. Precious few places to eat and find a WC!
We drank at least 3 liters (quarts) of water each, and some laid down on a random cardboard sheet to rest.
About 1530 we hit Santarem and,between buying water bottles in bars (2) w e found the tourist office. Who gave us directions to the N1 hostel. Unusually for an able r guest, there are sheets and towels. But we're in a dorm with 8 bunk bed sets. We were so trash ed the we both picked bottom bunks! But we're here.
We ran into the lovely Spanish couple we met yesterday and the gentleman told me that today, for them, was like hiking through Hell. Same for us!
We checked the weather forecast on DH's kindle and decided to take the express bus to Fatima tomorrow. It's not worth ruining your health over to be able to say, "I walked to Fatima."
Temps varied between 32 and 34 C today. Everyone who lives here says it's a killer heat wave. The temps are like home at this time, but we don't hike 20 miles with 20 pound packs and no refreshments in it at home.
We decided that pushing on on these conditions is pure egotism. Since we have an alternative, the 1100 express bus to Fatima, we will take it.
Dinner this evening walking a wonderful local soup. We are too tired to eat anything else.

Darn it's hot

Hello, everyone.
We left Vila Franca de Xira at 0630 this morning. The air was refreshing, not "fresh" but nice. Morning clouds. That was great while it lasted--until 0900 or so. After that it was just hot. Even the tiny breeze was not much help. Felt like walking at home in South Texas! It's been dry here and we see cracks in the dirt.
We hauled in to Azambuja around 1330--aka 1:30 PM. It was around 32C. Roughly 90F.
Mass was at 5pm because of the big fiestas for Corpus Christi. So we got to go to Mass! We didn't actually see the big fandango, it's apparently at the bullring at the edge of town and we're sore from yesterday and just want to rest.
DH bought a $3 bottle of wine, a liter of tomato juice, and some Pringles at the Aldi on the road into town. Big Spender award! ;-)

A really long day

Hello, everyone.
Tonight we are in Vilafranca day Xira. It's one of the many towns in the Iberian peninsula that was started by medieval French people.

We started this morning by bussing to the Parque des Nacoes (there is supposed to be a little tail on that c) and walked our little feet off! We estimate that we walked 35 km. Today.

 View of Castel Sao Joao.

 Yesterday's lunch, in Belem.

Tile mural in the Tile Museum

We didn't deploy the Kindle camera today. We walked on a levee top, on dirt farm roads, through little towns, and on river front activity trails. There were a lot of sailboats out on the Rio Tejo.

The trails are mostly well marked. The Fatima trail goes on the same route as the Santiago trail until we reach Sacavem.

museums and a fiesta

Hello, everyone.
As y'all know, we are in LIsbon for a jetlag recovery break before walking.
Today we went in search of museums and found a fiesta.
We left in search of the Museu del Azulejos (Tile Museum) this morning, and also train information. We rode the Lisbon Metro routes to Santa Appolonia which is the end of the line heading out toward Azambuja on our first day walking. (That day being tomorrow.) We discovered that the best way to the edge of town is not the train nor the metro. The BBC set way appears to be a city bus!
We also got direction s to the Tile Museum from the nice lady at the train information, who couldn't believe we intend ed to walk there. Then we got to talking and walked right past it. Eventually we go it. It was wonderful.

Tile mural of the Eucharist

Then, having discovered the city busses, which are included in our daily hop on hop off pass, we hopped the bus to the extreme other side of the city: Belen. This is a suburban city that is home to the Monasterio Jeronimo. We ate lunch (roasted Solha and roasted sardine, which we shared tastes of) and went to see the monastery it's church. It was beautiful. As had been the Tile Museum earlier.

Then we went in search of food__and found Castel Sao Jorge. We climbed over 140 steps, plus some slopes, and discovered the most interesting castle we've ever seen.

My sweetie in the top of one of the keep towers..
There is a lot of climbing in this castle. You want to have your walking shoes on.
Descending afterwards we found ourselves in the annual Fiesta del San Antonio, in an ancient neighborhood called the Alfambra. Talk about the happening place. We ate good food, drank , and watched the kids having a good time. Then we found our way back to the guest house for the night. Tomorrow we begin our trek.

Pilgrimage 2015 is on the road

Hello, everyone.
As y'all know already, we are going on pilgrimage again.
Yesterday we boarded the 0525 flight for the first phase. At 0830 today we landed in LIsbon, Portugal and officially began by taking the Lisbon metro from the airport downtown to get our first stamps:"carimbos."

We visited the shrine of St. Anthony ("of Padua" even though he was born in LIsbon!)
and the cathedral.
Then we found our guest house, took much needed nap and headed out to explore.

This is the old harbor entrance. It's a popular visiting spot. 

Tomorrow we intend to recover from the flight and possibly visit a museum or two.