It is done. We got our tickets and we will be flying to Lisboa on may 4th. We want to visit Fatima in our way to Santiago. We have plenty of time.
The question for all of you familiar with Portugal. What is the best way to accomplish this?
Is there a well marked camino from Lisboa to Fatima or should we follow the Camino Portugues to Santarem or Tomar and walk from there? or are there buses from Santarem or Tomar to Fatima?
I will appreciate recommendations and or comments; what is the best way?
Thanks
There is a really well marked way from Lisbon to Fatima. It's a very beautiful caminho, except for the first 2 or 3 days, depending how you manage to put up your stages. You can find about the first stage in here:
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...-to-vila-franca-de-xira-considerations.30966/
You can also check out some pictures from my Caminho de Fátima in last September/October in here:
https://www.facebook.com/stonedtroo...50172781185.1073741832.100008286481160&type=3
There is another route from Estoril via Sintra and Torres Vedras which was way marked in 2013, this is about 205 km and roughly goes through the places that the other historical route of Lisbon to Santiago went, it is called the Camino do Mar, the big difference for present day route is it turns of to Fatima instead of continuing to Coimbra.
Actually, a small consideration about this. Although marked with some point of view to historical events and places, all the Caminhos that go to Fatima have nothing to do with any descriptions for routes taken to Santiago. Fatima it's a phenomenon only 98 years old, and the majority of the pilgrimages started only after 1953, when the Basílica was finally constructed, after Salazar wish to make a portuguese place of faith on Fatima (it was really kind of a political thing to be honest, since the country was ruled under the moto "Motherland, God and Family").
With this being said, there is no historical connection between the Caminho de Fátima and the Caminho de Santiago. The project to construct the Caminho de Fatima with waymarkings started in 2003, after the Centro Nacional de Cultura (National Center of Culture) decided to do it, regarding the accidents that happened every year with pilgrims, being hit by cars on the National Roads. So it was designed something very similar to the Caminho de Santiago, being the difference that there are no use of historical references to mark it (we don't have texts saying that X person went to Fatima via that way). The simple purpose to do it is to put pilgrims out of the N roads. Simple has that.
This it's a problem here in Portugal, since it's getting way out of control. Any person today paints an arrow in a place, and say that the Caminho goes through that way, a thing that kind of mess around with pilgrims.