06/19/2026
Tuesday, June 16 - We left Lisbon for our final destination in Porto. Along the way, we stopped at Fatima to look around the grounds and the white Basilica commemorating
the appearance of the Virgin Mary.
Our Lady of Fátima refers to a series of Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children: Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, in the town of Fátima. The children reported seeing the Virgin Mary monthly from May to October 1917, culminating in the famous "Miracle of the Sun" on October 13, where an estimated 70,000 witnesses saw the sun seemingly dance and zigzag in the sky.
After Fatima, we stopped in Coimbra, overlooking the Modego River for lunch and some shopping.
Before checking into our hotel in Porto, we toured the Cockburns Port Lodge to learn about the production of Port wines. Cockburn's is a historic Port wine lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, known for having the largest wooden Port cellar in the region and being the only one with an on-site team of coopers (barrel makers).