We spent a week in Portugal, but we only traveled by car for 3 days and the other days we rested at Celo's father's house in Cascais.
For this short trip, we chose to visit the region of Fatima and our itinerary went through Alcobaça, Nazareth, Fatima, Battle, Ourem and Take (in this order), as per the map below:
Day 1 – 26/02/2017 (Sunday)
Alcobaça
We left from Cascais around 11am and we drove for almost 2 hours to the city of Alcobaca, where is the largest church in Portugal.
THE Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça It is considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and was founded in 1153, being linked to the birth of the Portuguese nation. You can visit the church without paying anything (which is what we did) and see the tombs of King Pedro and his lover Inês de Castro, who was the first queen to be crowned already dead. (Do you know the expression “Inês is dead? Well… learn more about this story here).
We walked along the main street of the city, which is right in front of the monastery and has some little shops and restaurants, and then we went on to Nazareth, city known for giant waves.
Nazareth
Since we were starving, we looked on the TripAdvisor app for seafood restaurants with good ratings and not too fancy and we found an AMAZING one, Mad.
It is very welcoming, has a sea view, great service, delicious live music (they even played MPB!) and the recommended food and wine were divine. Top marks for them! Oh, and the restaurant is outside the city…
As the weather was very bad, we stopped quickly at the Nazaré lighthouse and from there we saw the view of the sea and the city (Can you see the carnival block on the beach street? The streets in the center were closed because of it).
NOTE: Two days after our visit, huge waves were recorded on this same beach. We almost didn't see them in person!
Fatima
We drove to Fatima and we went straight to our hotel, the Luna Fatima Hotel. The hotel is very tidy, but it's the kind without much charm, you know? Some photos of the room and breakfast too:
The “boys” went out to dinner at a nearby pizzeria and brought me a slice, but I confess that I couldn’t eat much because I think I overdid it on the delicious lunch…lol. In the end, it was a good thing I didn’t eat, because they ended up feeling sick the next day, poor things. I asked Celo the name of the pizzeria, but he said he doesn’t think there is one (!!!). Anyway, it’s a little joint next to our hotel that sells pizza. Stay away!
Day 2 – 27/02/2017 (Monday)
Fatima
We had breakfast and walked to the Sanctuary of Fatima, the region’s main attraction that receives thousands of pilgrims every year. The esplanade is twice as large as St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, and it really impressed me. For those who want to know more details about the apparition of the Angel in May 1917 to 3 children, click this link.
We started the tour by entering the Basilica of the Holy Trinity, which has almost 10 thousand chairs and was completed in 2007. It has a circular shape and a simple altar with a huge golden panel. From there we went to the Chapel of the Apparitions, which is the place where the Saint appeared, and then to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, which is beautiful with its white interior and colored stained glass windows. The summary in photos now:
We walked back to the hotel and took the car to visit the city of Battle.
Battle
There is the Dominican abbey of Saint Mary of Victory, or Batalha Monastery, a masterpiece of Portuguese Gothic architecture that is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The building began to be built in 1386 and impresses with its Manueline details. I really liked the Unfinished Chapels and of the Royal Cloister. Look how beautiful this is:
After the visit, Celo started to feel sick from dinner the day before and we went back to the room to rest. We ended up having dinner at the hotel restaurant and the food was good, but nothing spectacular, and the service was also pretty poor.
Day 2 – 28/02/2017 (Tuesday)
Ourem
We had coffee, we did checkout from the hotel and drove to the city of Ourem.
We read in our guide about the Ourem Castle built in the 15th century, but when we got there we were a little disappointed because there isn't much to see, you know? It's just ruins and a nice view. Oh, at least the city is cute...
Take
Then we drove to Take to visit the third and final UNESCO World Heritage Site of the trip, the Convent of Christ.
Founded in 1160 by the Grand Master of the Templars, the building impresses with its cloisters and Tray, which was only built in the 17th century. I was impressed by its beauty, look:
We left there and parked the car in the city center and went to have lunch at the restaurant. The Board, #2 in the city on TripAdvisor. We asked for the house recommendation (I don't remember what it was anymore, but it was the photo below) and it was delicious.
When we got back to the car, we realized that we had parked right in the middle of the carnival block route, so we ended up waiting for the parade to happen. It was clear that it wasn't their strong point, but we had fun anyway. 🙂
We went straight to Cascais and I'll tell you in this post about our next tour, this time by Sintra.
