Lisbon, Fatima and beyond

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Lisbon

Arrived here right on time at Noon on Thursday, May 22. Since we were not going to disembark until the next morning, we opted to take one last excursion and were glad we did because the weather which had been perfect for the entire trip, turned cold and rainy. The first stop was Queluz, the Summer Palace for Queen Mary I. It was a nice tour but nothing exceptional and typical of the palaces we have seen in the past. Next was the old town of Sintra which is in the National Park and is quite charming. They boast of the second oldest Hotel in Europe, The Lawrence where Lord Byron often stayed and wrote one of his novels. Lots of narrow windy streets and cute shops and definitely would have enjoyed spending more time here. Last stop was Cascais which is right next door to Estoril and is the wealthiest area in Portugal. Pretty homes and pretty beaches.

The next morning, we said goodbye to the Ms Prinsendam, our wonderful home for 40 days and grabbed a cab to our Hotel Albergaria Senhora do Monte located in the old section known as the Alfama. Fortunately, the High Season has not begun yet so we were able to get off the ship before 8:00 AM and in our Hotel room by 8:30! It was still a little rainy so after a little walk around the downtown area , we headed for the the Gulbenkian Museum. Calouste Gulbenkian was an Armenian Oil Tycoon that donated his entire art collection to the city of Lisbon. It has over 6000 pieces of art and was a wonderful way to spend 4 hours.

Saturday morning, we were up early and took a cab to the airport so we could rent a car and head up to Fatima, about an hour North of the City. It is truly a beautiful site and unlike Lourdes, they have done a great job in keeping the area a Sanctuary with minimum commercial distractions. Many people come here on a Pilgrimage and there is a route where you can approach the site on your knees for about a 100 yards and if you do this, you can get access to the very site where Mary appeared to the 3 children. We spent a couple of hours at Fatima and then headed for the Medieval City of Obidos. It's a beautiful walled city that was built in the 12th Century and is still occupied today. It was a nice way to break up the trip back to Lisbon and gave us a chance to see some of the countryside of Portugal. The big challenge of the day was driving through the streets of Lisbon which have room for 1 car and finding a street that led to our Hotel!

Got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and drove to the airport for our flight back home. It was definitely going to be a challenge, since we had 6 bags to check, 2 huge Holland American bags we were going to have to carry on, a computer case, a camera and a backpack. I think it was a small miracle that we were able to get all these bags in the rental car, on the plane, get through customs in Newark and have everything show up in Houston! I really think the prayers that were said in Fatima came through!

P.S. We are now sitting in our hi-rise home in Houston, Texas looking out from the 15th floor at a view that has rivaled anything we viewed for the last 50 days. . There really is no place like home!!!

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