Travel Destination:  Fatima

Fatima, Portugal is a story of hope and sadness. It is a 4-5

block square town built around the Shrine of Our Lady

of Fatima on the site of an angel in 1916 by 3 ten-year old

children  In 1917, the vision is said to have reappeared, but

as the Blessed Virgin. The shrine consists of a 200 ft high

marble shrine, a chapel in which two of the children are buried

(the third still lives and is a Carmelite nun), a giant Basilica,

and a square supposedly twice as large as St. Peters in Rome.

To the left in this picture is an endless number of souvenir

shops. There are strips of marble embedded in the square to

aid those crawling on hands and knees toward the shrine.

There are  usually large groups of hopefuls climbing the hills

and picnicking in the woods along side the road on their way

to the shrine.