Today was a free day for us to do what we pleased. We gathered for Mass at 10 AM at St. Sebastian's ( I think it was based on the Latin I read on the walls. The Church is absolutely incredible ( the first time I saw it I remember thinking that it was out of a story book ). Here is a picture of the Main Altar.
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| Our Church for Mass |
After Mass STA split into two groups - one that was headed to the Castle St. George and one that was going to stay closer to the Hotel - ( I was with the group that was making our way through Lisbon to the Castle. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a writer blog about what the other group did).
The St. George Group took off towards Liberte Avenue the main road through the heart of Lisbon's cultural district. As we walked we enjoyed the incredibly pleasant Portuguese weather. After about 20 to 30 minutes of walking we stopped and had lunch at a little Indian/Italian place ( I have a picture of the name but it was on Hannah S.'s Camera and I haven't downloaded those yet). The food was great. Most of the Youth got a Pizza and most the Chaperons had some type of Curry.
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| mmmm.. Food |
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After Lunch we set out at a brisk pace headed by Fr. Wade with, Kade and Raul being pushed forwards by the rearguard of Dcn Ron, towards the Catherdral of Lisbon and the Church (located across the road from it) that sits on the birth place of St. Anthony.
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| Raul giving Kade the lowdown on how to look cool in Portugal |
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| This the knave of the Cathedral of Lisbon, St. Maria Major, this was taken from the Choir Loft |
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| This is a Statue of St. Anthony of Padua who was born in Lisbon. The Church of His birthplace was to the right about 10 yards. |
After revisiting the Cathedral and St. Anthony's Church - we made our way up the steep hills to our final destination of St. George's Castle.After finding out that our tickets were free ( normally 7 Euros) we made our way to the Castle grounds and all the guys wanted to reenact the battle of Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings. This was not the ruins of a Castle - this was the real deal right out of all the books that many of us read as kids.
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| Why? yes I am on a Castle! |
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| They climbed those stairs, one step at a time. These were the front towers. |
After leaving the castle at about 5:45 PM we meandered our way down the hill stopping at several stores on the way down. Then we made our our way down to the main square (see picture below) ( I don't remember the actual name, working on it though) and through another cultural area of Lisbon with many Cafes and shops to browse. We decided to split into a couple of groups and to wander the streets and arranged to meet back together at a specified time. When the group came back together we made our way back to the hotel and to a well earned night's rest.
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This is the Main Square of Lisbon located on the edge of the river ( I really need to learn the names of these places)
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More to come - Leaving the hotel at 8 AM for Fatima tomorrow. We will be praying for you all.
God Bless
Will
PS - Sorry for the sparse details we are leaving early tomorrow and since its almost 2AM here already I need to go to bed. 8-13-11 1:57 AM
Will,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great pictures and updates! You are all in our prayers!