[EUROBOUT CONTINENTAL CAROUSEL - 1984] DAY 19

Travel Notes
August 29, 1984 - Day 29
FRANCE

Lourdes

All right, these rooms are not exactly designed for comfort. There is no place to put the suircases on the floor, so we use the beds. On the other hand, the bathroom more than makes up for the smallness of the room! So does the room's location : on the very top of the hotel, like living in a belfry!

We went back to the grotto after breakfast, and caught up with a Mass celebrated by the parish priest and bishop of the Irish diocese of St. Elphin. Then time for a quiet walk around the grotto and the Basilica while the weather smiled on us, being deliciously cool. Ma was able to offer a thanksgiving Mass in one of the chapel offices. The thing that gets me about European churches, is the question of how did they move all those blocks of stone by hand? It's awesome to think that most everyone worked at it to glorify God, and not much for fame or money (at least, we hope so).

Ma took a rest in the afternoon so I went down to the river Gave for some fresh air. On our way out later, to do some souvenir shopping, we saw Bart patching with tape and plastic sheeting, the window that got broken in Barcelona, which was a very nice, masterly job. He says as long as nobody sits close to, or beside it, it should hold till we get back to Dunkirk.

Tonight's dinner, thanks be to God and the Virgin, was more substantial than last night's! Talk about the tips due to Bart and Earl have started and Gene Nocon passing out envelopes for this purpose (bit forthcoming, eh?). My personal opinion is that money can't begin to express what those two have done to make this trip a good one.

Ma and I had one last look at the candlelight walk from the top of the basilica. It was awesome - a sea of light in the dark, and there are those who would find a comforting symbolism in that. Earl mentioned before we pulled into Lourdes that it wuld be hot and warned about the dangers of fainting, but it seems he was proven wrong on both counts, fortunately!

There's an early start scheduled for tomorrow's loooong drive up to Paris, the last stop of the tour.

The *last* stop! Where has the time gone?