Life's a Stitch

The packed red eye flight out of Toronto put us in Lisbon, the oldest European city, even older than Rome. A charming touch are the buildings sided in hand painted ceramic tile, many intact over centuries. I wonder why North America hasn't adopted this building material rather than siding that needs eventual replacing. I remember seeing undamaged ceramic tile in the Roman Forum, a testament to its durability. I guess we've taken it a step closer at home with the popularity of fibre cement boards. Not quite the same charm factor, though if it were on my house, I'd probably choose a solid colour, but that would have looked out of place hundreds of years ago. This church, actually in Porto, is an extreme example:

These are the houses outside our window in Porto:

Those first 24 hours were spent in a haze of heat (102F/39C) and jetlag. Glad we had visited Lisbon before and seen the sights, as this time was just a stopover.

Stop two was Fatima, on our way to tiny Serra Santo Antonio, where we stayed in the house of a friend's mother, located on the fringe of a national forest. 

The shrine on Fatima is the location of a series of apparitions of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to three local children in the 1920's. The story is complicated, but the actual site, home of the documented miracles, is a place of emotion and deep faith.

The town of Fatima thrives on the vast site of the shrine, which includes three large churches, the chapel of the apparition and a huge enclosed fireplace where people place candles or wax figures in hopes of their own miracle, healing or as an act of thanks. Outside the gates you can buy many forms of wax figurine or body part. 

Although the endpoint for Fatima pilgrims, it was a perfect spot to begin the contemplation in preparation of a second pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. The first mass I attended included a pilgrim blessing, although in Portuguese, it was a nice way to begin this journey.