Titityy, my belowed ones! A hug for you! (Yes, also for bro Squab, although he farts so much!)
The autumn was turning muddy and cold, and Henna said she was tired of pulling us toyvoyagers from each others throats, since clearly the lousy weather was effecting our mental atmosphere too. I admit it.
Anyway, Henna decided it was time to get into warmer climate, which would put the smile back on our faces.
It was time to say goodbye to the little cottage. It felt a bit melancholic. The poor cottage looked a bit melancholic too, standing there in middle of late autumn and dying nature and all.
Good bye!
In our last evening in Finland we had a candle light dance on the yard - we lit candles behind the differently formed ice blocks we got from buckets.
Then we, umm, danced around the flaming ice blocks, sang and drank a bit of something called Salmiakkikossu (which we found hidden under Henna´s bed) I don´t know exactly what it is, but it made our dancing faster and singing wilder.
It also made us to fall asleep and forgot rest of the evening.
I doubt this was a devious plan by our host Henna, since I heard her earlier muttering something about a "bunch of restles enfant terribles to handle on a night flight, what would I pay to make them to sleep!"and also by the fact that she had hidden the bottle in a place from which she certainly knew we would find it!
Anyway, there is no photos of our flight to Portugal, because we were all slumberingg like little angels.
We were waken up next day by a heavenly smell, and by Henna who told us to get out from her backbag and greet the sun.
I roamed out into a totally different world! There was sun, light, warmth, a blue glistening sea, a sand beach, and the source of the heavenly smell - fish drying in the sun!
What else could a toyvoyager ask for?
It certainly put a smile onto our faces, like our cunning host had forecasted.
We walked towards the blue Atlantic ocean.
Henna told us that traditionally this was a town of fishermen - about everyone made their living by fishing or by turning the fish into conserves or other products.
Sounds wonderful!
There are still some active fishermen, and some traditional, colourful fishing boats on the shore.
The fishing could be a dangerous occupation, though - specially in former times when the fishermen didn´t have motors to fight the Atlantic wawes - just oars or small sails.
The fishermen´s wives had their own way to deal with the risks. When their husbands were on the sea, and it turned stormy, they took a statue of Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, and put him into a bowl of water up to his neck, and told him that he would only get out of the water when the husband was safe back at home. If the storm get worse, or the husband was late of returning, the wives rised the water level in the bowl slowly.
Up upon the cliff behind the beach is the other part of the town.
There was an important center of pilgrimage, which was built around a wooden image of Madonna and child, which appeared mysteriously into a cave in the cliff in the 8th century. It was believed to be carved by Josef, the step daddy of Jesus, who was a carpenter.
We climbed up to see the church and the famous madonna, Nossa Senhora de Nazaré.
(The whole town got its name after the image, who was believed to have wandered here from Nazareth. Yeah, wandered. The holy images here have a long tradition of wandering around according to their own mind.)
Here is the church in which the precious image is reciding.
Some hundred years ago the pilgrimages brought lots of wealth to the town - they of course payed for their accommodation and food, and if they were wealthy people they were ready to pay a lot, and also leave valuable gifts for the church, and maybe purchase pieces of some relics with good price.
Here is the famous wandering Madonna. We couldn´t get very near, so I had to use a zoom, and couldn´t be in the same photo with her.
There are many theories about why she is black, since people from Nazareth at those times usually weren´t.
We came out from the church and walked following the edge of the cliff, admiring the view over the town.
Nossa Senhora da Nazaré -image made here an miracle in 1182 I´m sure you all want to read about:
"On the early morning of September 14, 1182, Dom Fuas Roupinho alcalde of Porto de Mós, Portugal (quite a name!), was out hunting near the coast, when he saw a deer which he immediately began chasing. All of a sudden a heavy fog rose up from the sea. The deer ran towards the edge of the cliff (on purpose, I´m sure) and Dom Fuas realised he was next to the small cave where the image of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré had appeared. Thus he prayed out loud "Our Lady, Help Me!" All of a sudden the horse miraculously stopped just on the edge, one hoof already outside the cliff. "
Ok. Miracle it was - the deer was saved!
We saw the lighthouse of Nazaré. It is the building in the end of the cliff. We didn´t go near, because there was a modern pilgrimage of tourism thronging towards it from every direction.
We hopped into a small museum, in which we saw miniature versions of the traditional fishingboats.
They were just the right size for us, but the auntie in the museum didn´t want to loan them to us.
The evening started to settle in, and so we finished by eating a bowl of Caldo verde soup in a small café.
It was a good first day under the sun.
Sunny kisses from Crawfish!