It's difficult to fully describe the first couple of days of the trip

From the point that I woke up Monday morning in a hotel in Dulles, Virginia until the point I went to sleep last night here in the Lumen hotel in Lisbon, Portugal, this has been a marathon.

I got maybe a half hour of total sleep on the 7-hour flight in a cramped seat and I got off the plane totally sore and exhausted. Unfortunately, my ordeal had just begun. Upon arriving in the airport, I quickly made my way to the security checkpoint where I encountered a mass of humanity at least equal to what I saw in Miami earlier this month. The number of persons wound through successive stanchion lines the easily covered the size of a football field and they were all fed through a final single row before being dispersed to the 16 security check points. I marveled at this monument to inefficiency and soon realized I wasn't in America anymore.

We arrived in Lisbon about 10:00 AM local time but it was close to 2:00 before I finally cleared customs and baggage and was able to track down our driver for the ride to the hotel. I commented to her that it seemed like tens of thousands of people in that airport. She responded that that was an accurate guess and that this was a daily phenomenon in that airport primarily because of the millions of annual pilgrims to Fatima. She said it was even more on special days like October 13th (The anniversary of the miracle of the sun).

It was nearly 3 PM by the time I got checked in the hotel but the pilgrimage wouldn't wait.

We climbed aboard the tour bus and began winding our way through the streets of Lisbon. After viewing tropical trees, cobblestone roads and picturesque buildings from another time, the tour bus stopped, and we made our way on foot.

After about a half hour of walking through the town and up steep hills, we arrived at a church built on the actual birthplace of Saint Anthony of Padua. Saint Anthony is one of the so-called Saints of impossible causes

We walked the half hour back to the bus and the Lisbon tour continued. Among the highlights were a monastery dedicated to Our Lady of Bethlehem.

We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 7 upon which time the hotel staff lost 2 of my bags. We managed to find them in time for dinner at 7:30. By almost 10 PM, the desert course had not yet arrived, so I excused myself, went upstairs, said some prayers and stumbled off to bed.

That is when the Lumen hotel and light show decided to demonstrate their craft by blasting earth shakingly loud music and filling the entire courtyard with light. I somehow fell asleep anyway and woke up 2 hours later freezing to death, probably due to dehydration. I couldn't get most of the lights to work so I wound up taking a shower in the dark and now, I'm at this laptop giving an update. It's 2:00 in the morning here and breakfast is about 5 hours away, followed shortly after by road trips to Santarem and Fatima. The adventure is just starting. I'll try to get a few more winks now.