Portugal
Seven million years go, I went to Portugal. Here are some pictures.
In Coimbra, which is the town of the oldest university in Portugal. They have lots of crazy traditions, including wearing black robes to class EVERY DAY...which they then get ceremonially stripped of upon graduating.
after sitting through many many of Mr. Day´s slides regarding different stages of Gothic cathedrals, I was happy to see them. The one on the left is Alcobaça and the one on the right is Batalha.
We went to Cabo de Roca, which is the westernmost point in Europe. It was a beautiful day, but very rocky, so we didn´t get down to the beach at this point.
This is Fatima, a site at which three peasant children encountered the Virgin Mary (right after WWI) and thusly began a place for pilgrimage. The building in the center is where they have outdoor masses, the shiny pathway that leads to it is the incredible part, however. People crawl on hands and knees in worship the entire length of the plaza...while we were there, many people did it, including several monks, cripples, and old women, all crawling along the ground. It was truly incredible...the religious devotion of the people here is indescribable. I went back later that night, to find the whole plaza filled with people carrying candles and processing around as hail mary´s were said in various languages.
We also went to some other places in Portugal, but unfortunately my pictures are not functioning too well at the moment. Lisbon was a lot of fun (to say the least), the beach at Cascais was gorgeous, and I am sure I am forgetting something. I will try to be more frequent about this.