AmericanPapist Comments
Actually, I had dreamed of flying to Lisboa in August, driving down to Fatima and then driving up to Lourdes. I had not foreseen any difficulty. I should be interested to hear what you find out.
One time I did fly to Lisbon, spend the night, and take a cab to Fatima and back.
The cab fare Lisbon to Fatima was well over $100 (it's about 1 hour drive). The cabbie was awesome though -- he was trying to communicate to me that I should be careful, keep close eye on my bag, etc. He also knew right where he was going.
On the way back, I decided to take the bus. So I went to the information stand and the information lady also tried to communicate to me -- using Portugese & broken English -- where the bus stop was. I'm not sure to this day if I found the bus stop. I did find a square of dirt with a pole with no sign.
Anyway I walked to a cab stand instead, and found a cabbie willing to drive all that way into Lisbon. That in itself was a challenge. He spoke French, so we were okay, except that he was hitting on me. A problem I assume you will not encounter, Thom. Anyway he managed to get me back to my hotel, but because he didn't know Lisbon at all, he drove around forever, got out to ask people where to go, and thus drove the cab fare up and out the roof. (I tried to get him to drop me at the airport instead of my hotel, but he was insistent. Ugh, what a creep.)
Anyway I made it okay. Going to Fatima is just simply worth it.
I would suggest that you research EVERYTHING beforehand, including every spot you want to visit in Fatima itself, the layout of the place, and the traditional activities on the day you are going. When I went (of course, on a major feast day -- the 80th anniversary of the Oct. 13 apparition) it was almost impossible to find any helpful information. There must be someone we know who has been to Fatima several times and can tell you what the drill is.
There's my two cents!
Have fun in Indy....
La Sagrada Familie in Barcelona is great. Gaudi is the only architect up for beatification. We drove around Spain and Portugal in a Mini 1000. It was great. Portuguese is quite a problem even with a little language book. Fatima was quite moving seeing the locals walk up the last two kilometers to the shrine on their knees on the rocky shoulder of the road while we sped by them in our Mini.
Of course the great pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela is also a great Catholic site although I've never been. In the Middle Ages it was superceded only by Jerusalem and Rome as a pilgrimage site.
Zaragoza has a huge shrine to the Virgin of the Pillar with an ancient statue of the same on a column. One site we did not visit was Montserrat where St. Ignatius had his conversion. I don't know if it is worth seeing or what there is to see there.
We used a Michelin guide at the time and it gave several stars to Montserrat. At the time I wasn't into things Catholic, so we did not go.
Avila is interesting, but I refused to go into the monastary-too tired. Toledo is interesting because of all the Moorish flavor. The Alhambra, a palace in Granada is not Catholic, but Moorish. It is so beautiful.The gardens have been my inspiration for my own feeble attempts at gardening since visiting it many years ago.
Salamanca has a beautiful university with a Catholic Theological Institute.
Burgos has a beautiful Gothic cathedral.
I'd recommend Joan Carroll Cruz' books, Relics and The Incoruptibles as your guide books to things Catholic. There may be better ones out. But take them with you (or commit them to memory) because the natives, due to the language barrier, will not be much help. Also many are not practicing their faith and so have no interest in such things.
I went to Fatima and Lourdes in 1970, when I was a summer student at the Universidad de Maria Cristina in San Lorenzo del Escorial, just outside Madrid.
My Lourdes trip coincided with a stop in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. Took the train to where the gauge changes in Irun. Then a wild cab ride through the Pyrenees to Lourdes. Even though I spoke pretty good French, the French were pretty unpleasant. I found Lourdes, if St. Bernadette and Our Lady will forgive me, a bit Disneylandish -- to my taste, anyway. This impression wasn't helped by the fact that the party ahead of me on the way to Holy Communion was a group of Dutchmen who received in the hand -- the first time I had seen or heard of the practice.
I got to Fatima via an overnight train to Lisboa, across Estremadura (home of the Conquistadores -- extremely hard: no wonder they wanted to seek tropical climes!) But Lisboa was worth it. I took the bus to Fatima, expecting something like what I had experienced in Lourdes. But it was altogether different: dusty, unmarked bus stop; relatively small village; and a great basilica towering over an austere rustic landscape. My days there were spiritual experience par excellence.
Of course, that was nearly four decades ago, and a lot may have changed (Salazar's deputy Caetano ruled in Lisboa, and Franco in Madrid, then).
But, if you go, I also recommend that you visit the seacoast town of Nazare. Its beaches and cuisine were magnificent. Its "baptized" Moorish architecture was splendid. And its main church featured a 3-hour Sunday Mass/Liturgy/devotions that was to die for.
I once thought I'd be back to those places frequently, but somehow it never worked out. Glad I did it as a young man. Hope you will be, too.
Yes. Lourdes was touristy-more like Pigeon Forge in Tennessee, I think. But the miraculous waters are truly that, no matter how many disrespectful pilgrims there may be. When I went I was very anti-Mary since I still harboured my Protestant prejudices against her. She did bring me around though. I mean how can anyone remain that way after visiting both Lourdes and Fatima in one trip? The water we brought from Lourdes is still, after 25 years, just as pure and clean with no trace of impurity. Normal filtered or tap water starts growing things within a short time.
I went to Fatima four times in the 1980s (1980, 1982, 1984, 1988). All of them were pilgrimages by the Blue Army. We rode on buses from Lisbon (I remember a four-lane highway when we got off at Batalha-beautiful old monastery). Did a lot of walking visiting the shrine and the various religious houses. The bus took us to Aljustrel, the home village of the three children. We saw their humble houses, and met members of their immediate families. Now all of them are dead. Three of the four visits coincided with the 13th of October pilgrimage. I saw the locals walking long distances to the shrine. I carried the Blue Army banner in the procession of 1980, and the American flag in 1982-wonderful experiences, even in the rain in '82! Haven't been back since '88; but make sure you see the tombs of all three seers (Lucia was laid to rest beside her cousin Bl. Jacinta last year) in the Basilica.
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