Day Three

I slept so well during the night that it was so hard to get up. But by 8am I was up and getting ready. Anne-Marie and I headed down for a scrumptious breakfast, and then proceeded to go on the hunt for a toy gun with Amelia. She needed it for the skit that the Castlerigg team would do later on after catechesis. Sadly, we didn't find a toy shop and even if we had in all likelihood it would have been shut, like the other shops.

We got back to the hotal and met everyone, and were given our packed lunches. Sadly for me and Kate, the hotel did not understand the concept of vegetarian and had given Fr Augustine one bag of fruit and one bag of yoghurts for all the dietry requirements, so on Emma's brilliant suggestion we went and got a meat eater bag and switched the meat sandwich with some of the others for their cheese one's.

We then went to the coach and, after waiting for half an hour while they located one of the coaches, began to make our way to the College Gardens. We all switched seats and we were treated to an interesting conversation from some of the boys regarding shaving/waxing. One of our male pilgrims who shall remain anonymous, said 'From here (indicating his neck) down I would quite happily remain bald.' It was priceless.

A lot of our group went straight into the pool when we got there but I went for

a wander around. I came back to find Jane tending to Simon who had been stung by a bee when he accidentally kicked a bee nest whilst playing football. After that Jane, Alan and I went to the chapel, to pray for a while. It was beautiful in there, simple but beautiful none-the-less.

It was then lunchtime, and after being fed up of being pestered by the bugs where I was originally sat, I went to sit with the priests and Alan. Fr Bob had been going around trying to get people to put sun cream on and we both agreed we needed a hunky young man to go around and people would then put it on.

Shortly after this it was time to don the polo shirts before we had a group picture and then made the journey to Duenas, to the monastery that St Raphael Arnaiz had belonged to. When we got there we had to wait to be able to go into the church because another group was using it, so after our tri-diocesan photo, we made our way into the church for Mass. It was beautiful in there and it was wonderful to be in a place that was so holy. I joined the music group again and enjoyed singing in there, the acoustics were amazing. I was really moved at communion especially when singing 'Lift your eyes to heaven, there is freedom.'

Abbot Enrique said a few words to us before Mass was over and invited us to pray in the shrine of St Raphael. I took him up on that invitation and headed in, picking up some prayer cards along the way. There was a stained glass window in there that I was really taken with, it was just so beautiful. After I prayed at St Raphael's tomb, I made my way towards the door, and in came the Abbot. He reached out and held onto my arm, and said goodbye. I felt really touched by this. I quickly went to the shop and then we headed back to Valladolid.

On our return to Valladolid Amelia and I resumed the hunt for the toy gun. We managed to find a tiny toy shop and told the owner what we were after, having to use a lot of gestures. He got the picture and then he sold a toy gun to us, that should have been in a set. He was very sweet and helpful. He even said goodbye to us in English.

After showering, and washing some more clothes by hand, we headed down to catechesis in the bar led by Fr Paul, during which the Castlerigg team did the skit. They did a great job and yet again I felt moved by it. We then had tea. I had salad, spanish omlette with weird flavoured veg, and fruit for desert. A group of us, headed to the bar across the road and spent some time chatting before we were rounded up and headed to bed. Altogether a brilliant full first day in Valladolid.