Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday & Pictures

Sunday Evening 3-8-09 Last Night in Barcelona, Spain
While doing our journals and pictures a young German, from Munich, joined us at the tables. Found out that he was anxious to show someone his picture web album so I closed out my projects…. he went right to my computer and signed on to his web album…. Guess what… his last name is Brocklemann… my maiden name is Brockman… we had fun with that bit of information.. anyway he had wonderful pictures taken during his day in Barcelona. He had seen things at the Cathedral that made me wish we had taken more time there and found the Cloisters where there were so many historical things and especially the 13 live geese that have a neat story behind them. We should have read our Rick Steves tour guide “before” going in rather than so much later in the day. Enjoyed sharing with him and also we exchanged pictures with our Boston friend Shelby. She has a good one taken of us walking, arm in arm, down the street.

Monday March 9, 2009 – Travel Day to France
Up very early, ate a big breakfast, even stashed a little food for a snack on the bus at noon. Found a taxi and made it to the bus station with lots of time to spare. Our bus to Toulouse also made a stop at the Barcelona Nard Station, which was our original bus stop for the city. We sure made a good decision to get off at the Sants station as it was in the middle of town…we would have paid double to get to our Hostel from the Nard station. As we had several people on our bus that had bad colds we decided to wear our face masks for this trip. Again we each had a double seat so we could stretch out and were very comfortable. After a passport check by the Police we entered France at 12:45 PM. Scenery was beautiful with lots of snow covered mountains on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other.
Everywhere you looked there were fields of grape vines, all neatly trimmed back for the winter season. We saw many huge Wind Machines up on the high grounds…. Most very turning due to the heavy wind gusts we experienced. Got into Toulouse 30 minutes late but as the train station was next to the bus station…. I babysat the luggage while Martha went and purchased train tickets for our trip to Lourdes tomorrow and to Arles on Thursday. Our taxi to the Etap Hotel…. Yes we have a hotel room tonight with our FIRST in the room bathroom since being in Europe….. did not have a meter and he got us for more what it should have been but as we didn’t know where the hotel was located we were just happy to have arrived for the night. Before showers we trimmed each others hair, I got a great trim but poor Martha as this was my first time ever to cut hair soooo not tooo bad, but maybe after another month we will elect to get a regular hair cut. After a wonderful nights sleep and a good breakfast we plan to do the, they say, 10 minute walk to the bus station this morning.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Toulouse France
After a wonderful nights sleep we had purchased a 5 euro breakfast that turned out to be very good and we enjoyed, along with other foods, cereal for the first time since Lisbon. Before leaving we put our long under ware on in anticipation of colder weather on the mountains for Lourdes. Turned out that weather was very sunny when we arrived in Lourdes. The trip from Toulouse to Lourdes by train was a very nice.. we had a compartment made for 8 people but as we only had 4 we were able to keep all our luggage with us and the nice man helped me with my bags on the train steps when it got time to depart. We are up in Pyrenees Mountains… the snow is beautiful and its hard not to take too many pictures. BTW our 10 minute walk to the train station this morning was more like 20 minutes with pulling our bags.
We took a taxi up to our hotel, which is within walking distance to the Lourdes Sanctuary area, found that we could not check in till after 3 so
Dropped our bags and set off to explore the Lourdes of our Childhood Memories from Catholic Grade School. In good weather the crowds here are wall to wall people, but in cold weather we can wander around as we please without standing in any lines to view things. We visited all the church’s and especially the Grotto, where the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 has made this small town of Lourdes famous.
We were able to get close up in the Grotto to view the actual niche and the wondrous spring of water that came forth in 1858 (and has cured many people of illness ) We drank of the water and lit a special candle near the Grotto. Tomorrow we will be back in the morning for the 9 AM Mass in English and to do the Bath in the spring waters. After making some purchases, of promised Rosary & Lourdes Water, we were back to the hotel to settle in. Later, with directions & a map, we wandered around until we found the hidden town square and most importantly the market called The Monoplex where we purchased our food for three days. A very comfortable evening in our Studio Room (kitchenette, table, bathroom, TV and a sofa bed for two). The internet is not free… so tonight Martha has purchased some time and was able to give Phil and Jim calls… tomorrow we will sign on to post our blogs.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Lourdes France
After a great nights sleep we were up and out the door before 8:30. Walked to the Sanctuary Area.. finding that we had time to look for the Basilica of Saint Pius X that was built in 1958 for the 100 Anniversary. This church is entirely underground …. It’s almost as big as a football field inside… we think this where they gather for the inspirational candle light night time processions, that are not held this time of the year. We plan to go back with our camera to this immense church. This morning however we went to 9 AM Mass in English at one of the small chapels in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. This was the first church built in the Sanctuaries and is on top of the rock just above the Grotto. We left all our possessions in the hotel room as we planned to do the Washing at the Baths after Mass and was not sure what to expect.. we even took our bathing suits with us… but we were told to remove “ALL” our clothing (in a very cold room) as they covered us with blue capes… holding our bras in our right hand we were let, one by one, into a stone basin with steps… several women helpers wrapped us in a COLD wet white towel like thing and then we were led down the steps into the waters while they were saying prayers over us. It all went very quick and I must say that it’s was the coldest water I have ever been in… But I do feel so special having done this as the Virgin Mary told Bernadette to “Go and drink at the waters and wash yourself” We have done both of these things. Have filled our water bottles at the spring and plan to take my medicines with this water for the next couple of days. Oh yes, the deal with holding the Bra was because when you came out of the water they put this item of clothing back on you before you were let out to finish dressing. We walked immediately back to our Hotel Room, frozen to the bone… took an airborne pill and drank hot coffee. This afternoon we plan to go back and participate in The Rosary which is said at the Grotto at 3:30 PM. It’s now 5 PM and we have returned from our final visit to the Sanctuary. We visited Pope Pius X Basilica… took a lot of pictures and actually walked all around in it and then counted our strides as we walked down the middle, 250 striding steps.. the information says that they can hold up to 25,000 people inside of this church… and the fact that it is all underground is just mind bending. We enjoyed the Rosary at the Grotto but remember it was all done in French but still just being there for it was wonderful. The sign over the bathing area read…”Go Drink at the Spring and bathe in its waters”. Tomorrow we leave in the morning on the train for Arles France so for now ……. Take care and we hope that everyone reading these blog notes are in good spirits and good health……..