Our Trip to Lourdes 2009
Thursday July 23
We had a very busy 1st day getting to Lourdes but, it was worth the wait. Our trip is run through 206 Tours with Lorraine and her mother. They have everything so well planned out and such great helpers work with them. I believe we had 52 people on the flight! The long flight from Newark to Paris was a very nice flight but I just can’t seem to sit for 2 hours let alone 6.5 hours. Adam slept for maybe 2 hours and I can not sleep on planes. Katie did a great job helping Adam with the television games during the flight. We landed in Paris France and it was morning their! So much for sleeping. We left Paris and headed for Pau after about 3 hours layover. My mother asked if we saw the Eiffel Tower on our flight out. This flight was much shorter and much easier on everyone.
There were 2 buses there waiting for us to take us the hotel. What a magnificent sight pulling into Lourdes and to our beautiful Grand Hotel Moderne. I do not know how these bus drivers could ride down such skinny streets. I think we went through a couple of places that we only had a few inches to squeeze through. When we all met in the hotel lobby we met Javier our guide and he gave us instructions and our key cards for our rooms. We had a few minutes to unpack and settle in before dinner at 6:00 at the hotel. We had soup then beef tips and potatoes (of course everyone ate the potatoes except me!) and a wonderful desert. During this time Javier asked Adam if he liked the food and told him if there is anything he did not like to let him know and he will take care of it. Adam was not to thrilled with the desert and Javier made sure he got a huge helping of ice cream!
Javier could tell why we are here and he told us about his family. You could just see him take to Adam and what we are going through. Javier could see that it had been a long, long day and suggested that we take a quick tour of the holy land. So he took a few of us to down from the hotel to some of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen. We first stopped at the Statue of the Crowned Virgin Mary and then the Basilicas. He explained all about the bottom structure was built just to support the Upper Basilica. Mary in one of her 18 sightings at the Grotto had asked for a church to be built there. We then moved on to the Grotto and to see the beautiful Statue of Mary and all the candles burning was incredible. We eventually went down to the baths of holy water. Javier asked Adam when he needed a bath and Adam said I just had one Sunday. So Sunday may be the day for Adam. We then went back past the Grotto and washed and drank some of the Holy Water as instructed by Javier. We could not have had a better person to show us around. He truly cares about his job and loves the reason we are here.
We have a busy day planned tomorrow and Adam fell asleep in about 3 minutes. Now it is my turn….