Phew, now that I´ve gotten all my pilgrimages out of the way...

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I was actually surprised to have headed to Lourdes so soon after Fatima, but it was the 150th anniversary of the first Marian apparition there so we figured it would be the best time to go!

We took a bus to Madrid through the night and then a discount airline to get to Pamplona, where we were staying with a friend of a friend who works at the University of Navarra. The first day in Pamplona we took a bus an hour south to the town of Olite, walked though a huge castle and toured a wine museum where we recieved complimentary bottles of Crianza from the Navarra region. That night we ate at a restaurant frequented by Hemingway, next to the hotel La Perla, where he always stayed. His favorite room 217 is never empty.

Pamplona is the historical capital of the Basque country, so we noticed a lot of words did not understand! We were getting a tour of the old town by our host´s German friend who had been living there for awhile and we ended up in a strange sporting arena for Frontón. I had never heard of the sport. It is of Basque origin and the players use an extremely hard ball made of goat skin, which they whack against the wall with their hand from various distances. Why do people invent painful sports? ( Cross country for example, although that at least has some healthy benefits )We were talking to someone, possibly the owner, who enjoys to play. I got the chance to have a firm handshake before I left the building, satisfied that his right hand was indeed slightly larger than the left.

We were naively expecting to buy a bus ticket straight from Pamplona to Lourdes, but I did not realize we would have to go completely around the Pyrenees mountains, the largest "switchback " I´ve ever taken. We were given a rough idea of what cities had connecting bus routes, so we headed off at 7 am to San Sebastian, Spain. There we found a tiny little office to buy the next tickets to Bayonne, France. We were told the connection was in Biarritz, so we got off there, only to find out we should have stayed on, and had to hop the next bus to Bayonne. From there the only transportion was by train to Lourdes. The bus ride from San Sebastian to Biarritz was the prettiest, as much of it ran along the rocky coast. We had a huge baguette to eat for breakfast but the driver yelled at us not to eat on the bus. Fearful of having our only food confiscated since we were sitting right behind him, but dying of hunger my friend handed me tiny morsels that I lifted to my mouth and chewed ever so slowly should he be spying from the rear view mirror. I had to keep my knees up to hide the bread so my stuffed backpack kept falling down off a step next to the driver with a loud thud. Everytime I went down to get it I hoped he didnt notice all the crumbs falling out of my lap. It was a beautiful ride, but a curvy ride, and although I usually don´t get car sick íf Im not reading, I gracefully ralphed into a plastic bag near the end of the ride. So I guess I can truly say, the first time I saw France I puked. The next train ride I laid across about 5 seats and slept until I was feeling much better.

Lourdes was more beautiful than I imagined. We met up with Hannah Wallace and Steve Beery (Benedictine students studying in northern France this semester. ) We went to the grotto and filled up bottles of the holy water. It was also encouraged to wash your hands and drink out of it. I´ve never dranken holy water before..and it tastes much like secular water. A lot of places closed at 5-6 pm. and since we didnt get in until past 2 we didnt get much in besides mass at the beautiful basilica. We ate at a little restaurant and I had my first French crepe with chocolate. I had also ordered some type of potato/vegetable soup that it you squished the actual contents together (besides the watery broth) it would probably fill up a teaspoon. So, I guess their dessert:vegetable ratio is as it should be.

We had bought tickets for 8 am the next morning since we didnt know times of any departing buses and didn´t want to get stuck in a random city. We all felt like we hadn´t "squeezed Lourdes like a sponge", and were feeling more like tourists than pilgrims so we took a gamble and changed our ticket to noon. It gave us time to walk the stations of the cross (which was, I have to admit , a little more impressive than Fatima´s), and visit the places recommended for ¨the Jubilee year ¨in Lourdes. This included the old prison that St. Bernadette´s impoverished family had lived in during the apparitions, the hospice chapel where she recieved her first communion, and the church where she was baptized.

When we got to Bayonne, we wandered around aimlessly for the bus station, and went back to the train station for information. After much confusion, we pardoned their french, and they pardoned ours. The bus stations were apparently closed because it was Sunday and we were able to buy train tickets to Bayonne about 3 minutes before it left the station. It stopped in Hendaye and we frantically searched for our connection which was a metro type train in a corner of the station. We weren´t sure how to get to the bus station from this one in Bayonne, but a woman 3 seats back overhead a conversation and volunteered for us to follow her there since she had a bus to catch as well. Since we didn´t have to wander around looking for it, we arrived with about 5 minutes to buy our ticket and hop on back to Pamplona. I think we had some divine help in making such smooth connections, and am surprised we got home the same day!

Our last day in Pamplona we walked around the old town, and saw the streets and bull ring of the famous running of the bulls. We met up with some of the university of navarra faculty and ate at the cafeteria in the oldest building on the campus. For the first time we got some ¨bang for our buck" and paid 5 euro for a huge plate of food. Ah, poor hungry college students must be a universal concept. This university is the origin of the Opus Dei prelature of the Catholic church, and although controversial organization, I do like many quotes by Jose Marie Escriva. I snapped a photo of his statue in the courtyard. We returned to Sevilla with no problems !

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Comments

[Dad]

Pilgrimage
Sounds like a pilgrimage whether you visited any holy sites or not! Thanks for the update.