Black and blue

A big excursion north today. We were ready early because yesterday they came early and we weren’t ready. Today they were on time.

First we stopped in Fatima, a place for mass hysteria. Of interest were the wax legs, arms, kidneys, hearts, ears, children, etc that you can buy for a very nominal fee. If you set them alight in the special chapel you can expect to be miraculously cured in the affected part of your body. [Fi was going to get a body part for Hamish but decided that it wouldn't survive the trip home as they are all hollow. Perhaps like Fatima?]

With relief we continued to Batalha were there is one of the very few gothic cathedrals in Portugal. It was built on a battlefield away from any town so is marvellously preserved! We weren't allowed enough time there to enjoy it's unadorned simplicity inside and wonder at its external embellishments. The Manueline impulse dates from the 11th century it seems. I especially liked the dragon.Then it was on to Alcobaca for lunch and a quick belt around the Cistercian monastry which is huge, especially the new kitchen (ie built in 1700's.) Those monks knew how to build grand spaces.

After a brief stop at Nazare to admire the view (and hear the quaint story) we continued to Obidos. This is a hilltop village that has been lived in since the middle ages. As queens lived there a wall was built around it and the castle. It is now taken over by tourists and festivals.

Why black and blue? Years ago when Jim, Fi and the two big boys visited us in Washington, Jim was encouraging the boys to look about them by instituting a "punch, squirrel" routine. That is, if you saw a squirrel you quickly punched your fellow.

Today, he decided it was a "punch, windmill." Most of the hillsides we drove past were adorned with elegant electricity generating windmills and/or old style windmills frequently in ruins but sometimes modernised and occupied.