Tour Description
Explore the charming medieval village of Obidos, with its cobblestone streets lined with colorful houses, Gothic doorways and whitewashed churches, all encircled by the walls of a 12th century castle. Take a short stroll through the main street to Praca de Santa Maria Square and see Santa Maria Church and Town Museum. Continue on to Nazare, a picturesque fishing village that got its name from a statue of the Virgin Mary brought to town from Nazareth by a monk in the 4th century. Enjoy the panoramic view from Sitio - the highest point offering a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Ocean. After a stop for lunch (meal is not included), continue on to Fatima to visit one of the most important shrines in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a point of pilgrimage for millions of Roman Catholics.

Tour Experience

As on several previous occasions during the trip, we did the tour backwards, beginning in Fatima. The logic of doing so was understandable. During the Easter period Fatima gets steadily busier as the day progresses, so going there first enabled us to avoid a larger crowd.

Fatima

It is never a good thing when the last words your driver says to you as you walk into a religious shrine are, "Watch out for pickpockets."

The courtyard (for lack of a better term) is huge. It was a significant distance from the chapel at the back for the courtyard down a gentle slope to a chapel to the left of the church. We did it walking. Supplicants do it on their knees, praying as they go.

Soon after we arrived, a procession formed to usher a religious icon from the chapel the supplicants arrive at to the church. We watched the procession and listened to a few minutes of the mass before heading back up the courtyard to the chapel at the back. From there we returned to our car.

We then drove to the village and where the three children who experienced the miracles that has made Fatima famous lived. We visited their humble abode. I will not endeavor to recount the miracle since the information is readily (and more accurately) available online.

Batahla Monastery Our next stop was Batalha where we visited the monastery. Impressive.

Alcobaça Monastery
On to Alcobaca and the monastery there.

Sitio and Nazaré
Back in the car again and continuing generally west, we stopped at Sitio, the highest point on the coast of Portugal. Sitio overlooks Nazaré.

The shrine housing the statue of the Virgin Mary brought to town from Nazareth by a monk in the 4th century was modest. The statue at the base of the interior staircase was well protected.

The Sitio town square was populated mostly by vendors waiting for customers. The weather suggested it was not going to be a good day for moving their products. The interior of the church was attractive with an impressive organ.

We drove down from Sitio past the lighthouse on the cliff separating Nazaré's North and South Beaches.

It was here that on January 29th of this year Garrett McNamara set a record by surfing a 100-foot wave (pictured doing so in this photograph I found online). The day we visited here the waves were almost non-existent.

While at Sitio, I had used my telephone lens to take an arial shot of Nazaré's promenade paralleling the South Beach. No standing on that sidewalk, we looked back at the lighthouse and Sitio.

Nazaré was an attractive seaside community, or at least appeared to be so, the cool temperature and overcast sky making the beach uninviting. We had a sandwich in a sidwalk cafe, admired(?) the fish being dried and sold, then continued on to Obidos.

Obidos
Obidos was an interesting, albeit now highly commercialized, village dating back to medieval times. It reminded us of our stay at Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. Obidos probably becomes quiet a different place between the departure of the last tour bus for one day and the arrival of the first the next day.