Are you religious? Whether you are or not there are places on the Peninsula Iberica that are of a profound historic importance, places that are recognized as sacred by millions of people, regardless of their creed, Europeans and from elsewhere. Places like Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwest corner of Spain and Fatima in Portugal... I say to you my friend, sometime in your life time you must visit these sacred places, if you haven't done so already. We did, me and my wife and our daughter and I am just sorry that we didn't stay longer... A totally moving experience, a trip that remains on your memory for as long as you live. There is something that I can not explain, something that calls me back, so we plan to return and spend more time in these sacred places.

You can find a lot of information about these places on the internet, so I won't inform you here about the history, I am no expert by any means. The only quick note I make, in case you didn't know, Santiago is declared to be a Holly Town just like Rome and Jerusalem and that it is the second most visited place on earth after Vatican.

I will only write about things related to our trip and some unexplained details that made it even more remarkable, as you will see.

I drove from our house on the Costa Blanca near Torrevieja and did approx. 2500 km in 2 1/2 days; pretty crazy eh...? (rest of the time, visiting sites). The closer we got to the City of Santiago the more people we saw on the site of the road, bicycling or walking. We were surprised because there were still several km more to go, yet, people were walking... God bless them! We get to the Cathedral... One can not describe the overvelming feeling of such a grandiose place... you do feel you stand on sacred ground... I cried and felt meek and humbled... I assume that all the people arriving in front of this grander must feel some kind of emotion - or otherwise you are not human, you are Martian! We got there on a Friday; visited all that there was to visit, took in the neighborhood around the Cathedral, it's really nice, these cobblestone narrow streets, a little bit too commercialized in my opinion, but nice overall.

On Sunday morning we went to the Mass, the church was overcrowded but in was a beautiful Service. The Service finishes, people finally talking to each other and some are heading for the exits in all directions, we wonder around for few minutes and end up standing close to the center of one of the wings of this majestic site; all of a sudden I feel some warmth around, I look up and see a shining of sunlight coming from one of the small windows high above on the top of the ceiling right over the three of us and not bigger than the place we were standing on; that sunlight was not there before, I look around the church and I don't see sunlight in any other place... I tell my wife and my daughter, they didn't notice it till I told them... we all sat there preying for maybe 10 minutes and all that time the light was over us and only there... nowhere else. I can say that, at that time in our family we needed help with our teenage daughter, we were praying for her and for all of us... we felt that our prayers were heard... I can not describe the sense of inner peace we all felt from that day and for a long time after that.

We ending our stay in Santiago and head up for the border with Portugal, only about 1 to 2 hours to the south. Drive straight down and by late afternoon we are in Fatima. I was surprised to find on the internet that the name Fatima was the name of the daughter of Prophet Mohammad the founder of the Islam faith!

After a quick settle in the hotel we go to the Cathedral close to the place where the Virgin Mary appeared to the children for an evening procession. This Place... near an oak tree which still stands today, where the kids saw the Virgin, gives us an inexplicable feeling of humility and piety... here in open air the Service and the prayers are taking place in several languages. Everybody has huge lighten candles, after the Service we walk into a procession around the grounds... must have been thousands of people there walking after the priests in this procession... Magesting, it was spectacular!!! The Service finished well after midnight, we didn't realize whether it was late or that we were tired. I wish I can show you night time pictures of people as far as you can see, with lighten candles. Just Beautiful!!! Next morning again, we go to the Service held in front of the Church by several priests and clergy standing on a special arranged tribune, again must have been thousands of people in this immense plaza. Such a relaxed atmosphere, people were sitting on the paved grounds everywhere, a lovely summer day, not hot, just comfortable... truly memorable times... as said in the beginning of this, things you don't forget in a life time. You should do this trip, at least to one of these places... it's good for your soul, you will be moved... unless you are extraterrestrial...

For the non-believers out there in a higher power, and there are a lot of them... for people who believe only in things that they can see and touch... which is fine, it's your right to believe what you want! I have an example here, a proof that you should think about... You have probably heard of an incident that happened in August 2001 with a flight of Transat Canadian Airlines form Toronto to Lisbon, Portugal. Midway through the flight the airplane lost all its fuel through a leak, it's engines were shut down and it had no power of any kind. The lights in the cabin got shut off and through sparse messages the pilot told the passengers to prepare for a crush... The plane 'glided' for 20 minutes and the pilots managed to have this plane with no power at all land on an island with a military airport in the middle of Atlantic Ocean. Nobody was hurt! This transatlantic plane had over 300 passengers on board with luggage and all and must have weighted over well 30 tons... you throw a kids paper plane in the air and it glides for a few seconds, that' all...

Can anybody out there with technical knowledge on this subject reply through the e-mail at the bottom with some logical answer to this'? I was looking on the internet to find an answer, an explanation, I can not find it...!

I will give you my answer, the only way that makes sense, never mind the logic! The plane was full with Portuguese passengers, either going back home or going to visit family. When the lights got shut off and they couldn't hear any engine noise they all started praying to Fatima to help them stay alive, they all prayed very hard... so, 30 tons of steel stayed up in the air until the pilot found a strip of land to put it down. If that strip of land wasn't there would the plane stay in the air longer? Probably, already 20 minutes is a long, long time for that massive weight to float.

If that is not a proof of a higher power, I don't know what it is... God bless you my friend!!!