The day before yesterday we woke up in a burnt forest.

How did we end here? Well its a story that starts two years ago with a trip to Caldas de Rheina. It was a sunny November day and we drove on the national road from Marinha Grande. Suddenly we saw on our left side an incredible beautiful building. Before we really realized what it was we already passed. We checked on our map and found out, it was the monastery of Batalha.

Right now we are on our way to Lisbon and again we almost just passed by the monastery. We were driving out of Marinha Grande, this time on a more little road, when Zoé discovered a plate to Batalha. It was already late afternoon and the sun almost setting, so we decided to look for a place close and visist the monastery the next day. Like we said in the last episode of our travel diary Travel beyond, this year was the summer of the century. And also in this area were big fires. We did not have much choice but to stop between black trees.

Well, here we were, waking up in a burnt forest. After washing clothes, making Yoga and having breakfast we drove to the monastery. The front we saw already from the road, but the other sides are not less beautiful.

When we went inside we were first a little bit disappointed. Although the architecture was impressive, it seemed a bit empty. But then we discovered how magical the light was:

And imagine, the place was full of angels. Some different than you might imagine …

… others easy to recognize. 🙂

Did we mentioned that the monastery of Batalha is a world heritage? And it is not the only one in this area. Closeby is another one, the monastery of Alcobaca. We decided to have a look.

What we liked more than in Batalha is that there was a beautiful city around. From the parking we walked through little streets, passed one of the most beautiful kindergardens…

…saw medieval passages…

…then we arrived to the impressive entrance of the monastry.

We also continued experimenting with videos. Joshua found out that you should not turn the camera, so don’t worry, it is not the monastery that fell, but Joshua learning basic knowledge of making videos.

And here is another video from the inside. We found out that the monastery actually would be a great place for a gig or recording an album.

Although it was easy to drift away in the bubble of peace inside the monastery, the outside world was calling us.

We made a walk through the historical downtown.

And here Zoé tells you a bit about our day. Unfortunately it was very windy, and some of the information got lost.

If you do not know yet from our Facebook or Instagram page, Dexter Daily was making an interview with us. If you want to read it, click here.

We wish you a beautiful time!
Hugs,
Zoé and Joshua