Seductive With Real Refinement*

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Salamanca, Castile-León, Spain and Canary Islands
Back in Iberia

On the way north from Lisbon to Oporto, we stopped off in Fátima . This unremarkable town of 8000 people has developed over the past 80 years or so for only one reason. On May 13, 1917 three young shepherd children (now called the "Seers of Fatima") led by 10 year-old Lucia reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary. There followed two more “sightings” in 1917 and Lucia subsequently reported others had occurred in 1916 and later, several in the 1920's. During the final 1917 “apparition” (by this time not just the three children, but 70,000 pilgrims – word spread fast even before Facebook and Twitter) the “Secret of Fatima” was revealed only to Lucia. One of the “secrets” was that an assassination attempt would be made on a pope. Of course, in 1981 such an attempt was made on the life of John Paul II and that sealed the deal, although this part of the “secret” was not revealed by the Vatican until 2000! Fatima is now a shrine and site of pilgrimage on a humongous scale. A massive basilica featuring a 213 foot tall tower was consecrated in 1953 dominates one end of an esplanade twice the size of St Peter’s Square, needed to accommodate the millions of pilgrims who flock here every year, particularly on the anniversaries of the various apparitions . Many pilgrims make the trek through the esplanade on their knees to the Chapel of the Apparitions built on the site of the first of the 1917 apparitions to pray the rosary before a statue of the Virgin Mary in whose crown is the bullet extracted from John Paul II. Lucia, who inevitably became a nun, died only in 2005 (her companions both died around 1920) so she was able to live to see the floodgates she had opened: depending on your point of view, either a genuine place of pilgrimage or an example of religious exploitation on a truly grand scale.

Further north, not far from Oporto is another religious shrine with a slightly longer history. Bom Jesus do Monte is described as Portugal’s “most spectacular religious sanctuary” (there are, it seems, a lot to choose from). The church high on a forested slope close to the city of Braga was built around 1800 on top of a pre-existing shrine. The most impressive feature though is an enormous granite staircase stretching up much of the hillside to the church, lined by a variety of biblical and allegorical figures and the Stations of the Cross . On an earlier visit a few years back the most vivid impression we had been left with was of devout pilgrims walking up the staircase on their knees. On this visit though, there seemed to be more joggers than pilgrims, taking advantage of the staircase for a work-out. For the faint-hearted (or weak-kneed) a hydraulically-operated funicular railway, built in the 1880’s takes you up to the church. Literally “hydraulic” – the upper car has a tank filled at the top of the hill with water and the weight of that carries the car down the track and in doing so pulls the lower car up the hill. At the bottom, the water is emptied out and the cycle is then reversed. Who needs modern technology??

Once again, we struck gold with our accommodation. This time a magnificently renovated four-bedroom 18th century stone house on a large private estate close to Vila Nova de Gaia, the city at the centre of port production just across the River Douro from Oporto. Ours was one of several houses on the beautifully maintained estate surrounding the main house . We never did find out much about the place as the caretaker who let us in didn’t speak much English, but we can only assume that the estate (and perhaps its current owner) was built with money from the port wine business which completely dominates the area. Unfortunately the weather once again wasn’t too kind to us and we had a limited opportunity to explore the estate itself (or use the swimming pool) all of which was accessible to us.

Salamanca – European City of Traffic Lights

Salamanca in the delightfully-named Spanish province of Castilla y León is just around 100 km over the border from Portugal and was our final stop in SPaM. In 2002 Salamanca was that year’s European City of Culture. If there’s a prize going for European City of Traffic Lights, Salamanca would walk away with that one also! I have never seen so many; it’s almost as if the city got a deal from a traffic light manufacturer (probably with a grant from the European Union) and then crammed as many as they could into the city centre . Some corners have red, amber and green lights all going at the same time – presumably you just choose one as the fancy takes you! We counted 36 sets of lights just in the 3 miles from where we were staying to the centre of Salamanca!
That aside, Salamanca is a classic old European university city. The university was founded in 1218 making it one of the oldest in the world and its campus takes up a good section of the magnificent old city centre. The main building of the Civil University is one of the city’s highlights with its ornately carved and decorated entrance and the incredible library – one of the oldest in the world. One of the most charming stories about the library is its collection of “circular books”. These are actually globes purchased in Paris in the 16th century, described as “books” so that the university would pay for them! Salamanca very much has the feel and atmosphere of a university city with students of all nationalities milling about everywhere and many cheap bars and restaurants . Given its history, its large number of medieval religious as well as academic buildings and its “Plaza Mayor” considered to be the finest in Spain, Salamanca also attracts a large number of tourists. A small word of caution though: it is helpful if you learn at least rudimentary Spanish before coming. Few people speak any English (including in the tourist information office) and there are few guides or tours in English. We did discover that the tourist office offered an English language walking tour, although only on Monday and Tuesday at 9:30 am. We duly appeared only to be told by a tourist office official in very broken English that the guide was sick that day, come back next week. Perhaps luck wasn’t on our side on this stop. The Plaza Mayor, indeed very grand and spectacular, was filled up during our stay with the stalls of an annual book fair and a large stage with children’s entertainment. Takes away a little from the majesty of it all!

  

*Not what you might think! Actually a quote from a review by a wine critic in November 2010 of Taylor & Fladgate’s 2008 Vintage Port. We visited Taylor’s “armazén” (port wine cellar) in Vila Nova de Gaia and sampled several of their ports!

Comments

Kim Lovell
2011-05-12

I saw on the news that Spain had 2 pretty major earthquakes...Are you near any of those areas? Hope all is well, and safe travels...
Love,
Kim

Denis Smith
2011-05-12

Hi folks,
Just caught up with your latest blogs, what a great trip,im astonished with
the incredible architure your seeing
Stay safe and enjoy
Regards Denis

charles ledingham
2011-05-13

You guys are having such a wonderfull time.Please give my best wishes to Mary if she appears before you.Have you seen anything with more tourist potential than Moree yet.
Best Wishes

Jane and John
2011-05-14

Just returned from our sojourn to Melbourne. Nothing at all like your trip. What wonderful blogs these have been. Thank you all for your contribution to the stories. Not mentioning anyone's name, eh?

Stephanie
2011-05-15

Hi David and Sandra,

I am really enjoying your travel blogs also very amusing.
I am still in Perth helping Fiona with Annabel. We are having a great time, but it will be very sad to leave. Robert is in San Francisco, so phoning and time zones are getting quite complicated. Looking forward to the next update.

Lots of Love,

Stephanie

2025-02-16

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