August 1 Agueda to Fatima to Mizarela

In 1917 three peasant children (ages 6, 8 and 9) were tending sheep when they had a vision of a woman surrounded by light who identified herself as the “Lady of the Rosary”. Appearing to them five more times over the coming months, she told the children three secrets along with the need to pray for peace. First, the end of WWI, second, the start of WWII (Russia turning away from faith and towards communism and totalitarianism) and the third secret which wasn’t made public until after the event came to pass, was the assassination attempt of the pope. Pope John Paul II was the third “secret” the Virgin Mary told the kids. Like the apparition of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” to Juan Diego 1531, Our Lady asked for a church to be built on the site.

Like many of our recent stops, there were lots of World Youth Day folks present. They bring a definite energy to the place!

The grounds at Fatima are BIG. We briefly wondered about all the barricades and national guardsmen posted around, but figured it was security and crowd control for the large groups of WYD pilgrims. Then we saw the news that Pope Francis visited Fatima the day after us. Ahh, there you go. It made sense then!

We left Fatima and drove 2.5 hours to Mizarela. This stop was just fantastic; definitely one of my favorites. We came because it was close to the Arouca 516 bridge (https://ponte516arouca.com/en/516-arouca-worlds-longest-pedestrian-suspension-bridge/) which we unfortunately didn’t get to experience because it sells out way in advance, and we just learned of it. So bummed to miss this that we may to backtrack later in our trip. The tiny town of Freita ended up being a destination in itself that I would happily return to and highly recommend. It was just gorgeous. In the car, we climbed up the mountain for a good thirty minutes enjoying stunning views the whole way. Just before we reached our little hotel, we hit rush hour on the road!

We definitely cloud-walked our first day there. We went ahead with our planned hike even though the clouds rolled in the night before. The little family-run hotel only had five rooms and we were lucky to be able to extend our stay for another night. The next day we got to enjoy more time with a crystal-clear blue sky and crossed paths with some impressive cattle.