Fatima - What was your experience.
 

A fiend and I will be in Lisbon at the end of April and want to go to Fatima. Should it be a day trip from Lisbon or should we stay in Fatima??? Has anyone been there and what was your experience? Is it over commercialized or still a great spiritual journey?

If your buddy is a fiend, then she really should meet Fatima! sorry could not resist!

Nice one Silly. I like it. <BR> <BR>Mary, be careful with what you write. <BR>

Since I'm not Catholic, maybe I shouldn't be answering this one, but I have been to Fatima. We thought the town itself was nothing special - it had a lot of shops with what, to me anyway, were ticky tacky religious objects.

I was in fatima in march 2000 it is very NICE but it is a very short distance from Lisbon 1/2 day trip also in that day you can visit, THE SILVER COAST , OBIDOS ,NAZARE BATALHA MONESTERY

Fatima is a day trip from Lisbon. It's pretty close. You don't need an overnight. Two things struck me on the visit. <BR>1. There are a lot of faithful praying and kneeling the 100 yards or so up to the church. <BR>2. The little church is absolutely beautiful.

to the tippy top

Was at Fatima in September of 1997. Don't expect to see what was in the movie. Did it as a day trip from Sintra and then went to Obidos for a lookaround, shopping, drinks at the castle and dinner on same day. This side trip was done via car. <BR> <BR>I am Catholic and yes the town is FILLED with shops (stalls actually) that sell all manor of religious items many of them VERY tick tacky but some have very nice religious medallions. The cathedral is nice but the mass area in the parking lot where the children saw the Virgin Mother, is typical Catholic Moderne. Wish they had just marked the spot with a pole or a stone or something. No matter, if you're Catholic and at all religous, you HAVE to go there!!

Whether Fatima, or any other place, is a great spiritual journey sort of depends on what you bring to it. As for myself, I didn't bring much more than an open mind and heart and was surprisingly enriched by the experience. Yes, there's the tacky dimension, but that's just part of the history of such places (check out Chaucer). Between the Virgin Marys who float down the barrels of pens and the inevitable old and crusty snow globes, there is a real substance to Fatima. At least I thought so. The piety of the faithful was overwhelming to me, and the atmosphere at the Chapel of Apparitions, unforgettable. If you enter the heart of the place, I can't imagine you will be unmoved. <BR> <BR>I stayed in Santarem, which I enjoyed for its connection to my roots (my grandmother came from there); I'm not sure how someone without a personal connection to it would find it. Santarem is interesting, to my mind, but not full of tourist attractions. <BR> <BR>If you like Fatima, check out Aljustrel, a nearby village where the home of Lucia still stands. There's a small shrine area there, with a statue and walkway. We went later in the day, and were the only ones at the shrine (actually the only tourists in the village). It was beautiful. We strolled along the walkway, listening to cuckoos and goat bells rise up from a valley of olive trees in the distance. It was a good place for contemplation.

THank you all for your responses. I am taking my 20 yr old daughter and a good friend and I just want them to enjoy the experience.