Pilgrimage to Lourdes

On Saturday we commenced a pilgrimage to Lourdes flying from Nice via Paris. We arrived safely mid afternoon. Unfortunately our bags did not join on us on the Lourdes leg. This was doubly unfortunate as the heavens opened while we explored the Lourdes sanctuary and we experienced the first rain of trip. Luckily we stayed relatively dry by strategically hoping between the basilicas on the site.

On Sunday we attended the international church service which is conducted in the six official languages of Lourdes: French, Italian, English, Spanish, German and one other. We felt confident we would find a seat in the underground Basilica as it seats 25000 people and there didn’t seem to be many people around on Saturday. As it turned out there were a few spots left for us in the last pew.

The rains continued on Sunday and we bought plastic ponchos in attempt to stay dry. We visited the grotto and joined the parade of the sick in the afternoon along with about 15000 others. Just as the parade was about to start the rain started pouring down and soaked the bits of us that the ponchos missed. We got back to the hotel hoping to be able to change into dry clothes, but alas the bags had still not joined us. They did eventually arrive, much to our relief. To celebrate, we joined the candlelight procession that is held every evening. It is supposed to be a spectacular sight but we cannot confirm this as the heavens opened again dousing most attempts at candle lighting.

Today (Monday) we travelled to somewhere near the Spanish border. Tomorrow we travel to Barcelona.