Day 5 - Fatima to Tomar

Walked today: 13.2 km
No of steps: 16,950
Total walked: 52 km

Up, then breakfast in the hotel and to the basilica where we attended holy mass in the underground chapel of the "Death of Jesus".  Mass was presided by three priests, a Portuguese, an African and one from the US.

It is worth mentioning that the underground is at the opposite end of the old basílica.  Very modern contains four modern chapels each larger than many churches.  Three of them are set up for mass and the fourth is for confession. 

It has over 30 confessionals.  A big electronic board indicates which languages are spoken by the priest in each confessional.  Wonder woman and I wanted to start the pilgrimage on a clean slate so we went for confession.  As it happens she managed to get a Filipino priest who spoke English and I got a very good confessor from Spain.

From there we went to look for the store of Vodafone, I had a mysterious message in Portugués and I thought i needed to buy more minutes for my phone. As it happens everything was fine. 

Monday many restaurants are closed.  We wanted to eat something before taking the bus and McDonald's just happens to right in front of Vodafone.  This was not my fault. It was need.  Then I discovered that McD in Portugal does not have quarter pounder,. I had to take the closest thing; a McRoyal.  Very good but a but different than the quarter pounder.

Then to the bus.  It id only around 60 km from Fatima to Tomar but it takes around an hour and twenty minutes.  The bus goes through many small towns on small rural roads.  It left us just a 5 minutes walk from the Hotel dos Templarios.
This is a very nice 4 star hotel and probably the best we will have in this trip.

Tomar has an interesting history.  In the XII century when the Moors were expelled in the "reconquista" of Portugal, the land was granted to the Templar Knights.  They immediately started the construction of the Templar castle which contains the very large Convento de Cristo.  The Templars were the most powerful and wealthy order of warrior monks in the middle ages.  The town of Tomar grew in and around the castle.

The Templars also built a church, Santa Maria do Olival, which initially was used as burial ground for the knights.  It is said that a Templar treasure in buried there.  We got our pilgrim credential stamped a this church today.

Anyway, once we settled into the hotel we went out hunting for a laundromat.  We walked in very hot weather and the only thing we found was a supermarket, and a McDonald's.  It seems they are everywhere.  We went in for a drink and the girls were good enough to fill a plastic bag with ice to apply to my knee. 

My knee is another story.  I can walk but I think the load of the backpack is what is causing trouble.  We will have to keep an eye on it.  I still want to go ahead with the pilgrimage but I don't want to ruin my knee.  Tomorrow is another day of rest.  We want to visit the castle but I'll try to take it easy. Then we'll decide if we start to walk.

After McD, we walked back to the center of historical Tomar.  We were looking for the "caixa de ratas" restaurant.  The box of rats.  It is supposed to have great Portuguese food.  It is closed for the week.  Then we found out that pretty well  all restaurants while still open don't serve food until 7:30 pm.  Oh well, we found a place with reasonably good but simple food and we ate there.

Now we are spending the evening in the comfort of our room with the air conditioning running full blast.

This morning was very spiritual.  For me the Marian shrines are very special.  Guadalupe, Fatima and Lourdes really make feel closer to our holy Mother Mary and to her son Jesus.  Better still we have a clean slate to start the pilgrimage. 

Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners.