Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Day Trip from Lisbon

In the morning after about 7 hours sleep, I went down the Hotel desk, I had checked thru some brochures on day trips and picked out one company that had 3 different day trips, one every day and the other 2 alternate, I was going to take the daily trip which was to Sintra & Cascais but found out that was full but the hotel guy was able to get me on the Fatima/Obidos day trip. I then had the hotel buffet breakfast for 8.5 Euro it was really good value, coffee, eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, croissants etc, what more can a man want, I have the 4 days rule which is I can eat anything for 4 days after marathon, in this trip it has been extended to 21 days.

From my hotel I only had to walk about 10 minutes away to get picked for the trip, there was a tour guide in his van and 7 others, at only 58 Euros I thought it was the best value of seeing places outside Lisbon.

The first stop was the town of Fatima, about an hour north via the highway, it has one of the most important Catholic sites in Europe outside of the Vatican, it was a site of some miracles with 3 kids back in the 1910's, they have now built a church, a massive hall for large services, probably holds 2-3 thousand people, the square between the hall and church was used for the popes visit 2 years ago, looks like it would hold 50-75 thousand people, this site gets 5 million visitors each year.

Then we went and saw a 14th century Batalha Monastery that is World Heritage listed, I think this is the most churches I have seen in one day.

We then wandered around the seaside town of Nazare, had grilled Sole (whole) for lunch for 10 euros with a glass of fresh wine and fresh rolls, i was very impressed, these are the reasons for travelling. The wine here is fairly cheap, I saw a bottle of Mateus for 3.5 Euro ($6).

We then started heading back to Lisbon via the coast, but we did stop at Obidos on the way back, it is a walled city, very well kept, cobble stones again, small alley ways, houses with white walls with red/brown roofs, the guide arrange a sampling of the local ginger wine in choclate.

Then back on the road, we were dropped back in the city just after 7pm, so it was a long trip, 10 hours, really good value, I am thinking about doing the daily trip on thursday, tomorrow I might wander around the Lisbon city area.

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