May 13th 1917, three children were tending to their sheep when the sky lit up brighter than the sun and a woman, the Mother of Christ, Mary, was standing in front of an Oak tree and spoke to them. It was the first of 3 times that she (Mary, The Mother of Christ) would meet with these three children to leave 3 messages. This area is now called Fátima, and that is where we were today. As we approached the basilica, we were among 150+- that were there to see the location that Mary met with Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta and the basilica that was also built to commemorate the occasion. Lucia is still alive at 97, and a Carmelite nun living near Coimbra, Spain. During the months of May to October, tens of thousands believers come to “rejoice” in this modern miracle. The huge “esplanade” leading up to the basilica will hold more than 100,000 pilgrims when they arrive to acknowledge the miracle. This is one of 3 locations that Mary the Mother of Christ, has appeared to children, and that we have visited since we started our journey…Medjugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Lourdes (France), and now Fátima (Portugal). For us it has been a “Special” treat that we will always remember. Our day started in Evora and followed a secondary road through a large number of forests of “cork” Oak and Eucalyptus trees and of course the grape vines for the wonderful local wines. The smell of the Eucalyptus tree has and still is everywhere… We also saw a number of locations where they had the forest fires. Most of these locations were in the Eucalyptus forests, and you can imagine just how fast they must have burned. The cork has been going through its harvest season, so we have seen lots of deep red where they have cut the bark away. Along the route, we saw a couple of large plants that did the processing of the cork. There are so many uses for the cork it almost boggles the mind…I hadn’t thought to much about it before, with the possible exception of the cork in the wine bottle and the cork board that I had in my office. Just prior to leaving Fatima, we searched out a restaurant so that we could have a good lunch prior to leaving to find our next campground. Louise seems to be stuck on pork filet (she says it is outstanding), and I chose a whole trout plate with “greens” and potatoes…mine was also excellent. We are also enjoying the local grown and processed wines. The wine that Louise chose was a Vinho verde (VEEN-yoo VAIR-day). It is a great light, refreshing, and slightly fizzy white wine…almost tart. It is a wine that you drink almost immediately after the “2nd” fermentation and it should be real cold…we both like it and it is rather inexpensive…that is, we have paid as much as $4.50 and as little as $2.50 and both were good. Well, we did find our next campground. After leaving Fatima, we headed north for another 30km and then made a left and headed out to the coast. In a little village called Foz do Arelho we found our next nights stay. It is just off the beach, and the village was really very quaint and nice…it is going to be a good night’s stay. Tomorrow…Lisboa (Lisbon)