We were given the choice of going to Mass at 7:30 on the Monday, and so Marie and I decided we would go, as a nice way of rounding off the pilgrimage. We gathered in the room we had Mass the night before, and it was lovely to see so many of us up and joining in the celebration of Mass. We then had a lush breakfast, there was so much stuff on offer it was crazy, but it was so good.
Then we had to go and get our bags and bring them down to the lobby. Slowly the word was disseminated that Jonny had left his passport in the safe at the hotel in Madrid. Hannah decided that she would go and help him look for it and lo and behold it was in the first pocket of his suitcase that she looked in! It certainly had everyone in the group checking that they had their passport and that it was in the right bag!
We all piled onto the coach and began the long journey up to Calais. But instead of putting on the Sound of Music and getting it finished Fr Phil put on Karol. It was a shame because I don't think one person saw the whole film because we were all still shattered.
We finally stopped at a service station for lunch in France. It was so expensive in there so my lunch was some pasta, some madelines and diet coke. The woman who served me was really unfriendly, and I was quite miffed by it all. After eating our food, we were back on the coach, said a cheeky decade, and watched Sherlock Holmes, before we stopped again. Yet again the services were really expensive and I made do with some very insubstantial food. At this services I found a make your own egg mayo kit, which was very strange. You got a boiled egg and a sachet of mayo...weird!!
The coach drivers were doing their hardest to get us to Calais in time for the 12:45am ferry. Whilst journeying on we passed Rouen Cathedral, said another cheeky decade, did diaries, did two quizzes, watched the end of Sound of Music (finally), and got some sleep until 1am when we had to get out and go through border control. I was asked by my less than cheery guy, where we'd been.
We all got back on the coach quickly and headed to the ferry. We were told that we wouldn't be getting a ferry until 3:20am, which made everyone groan, but luckily for us we managed to get on the ferry that was just closing boarding. Although we did leave one of the Leeds coaches behind in the process.
The cafe was beckoning and I ended up getting some lovely beans on toast. It certainly hit the spot. After this we didn't have much time before we were docking, just before, Rory led us with a few songs which was great.
We then got back on the coach, after saying goodbye to Sophie Barrett, and gave Andrew and Peter our gifts, of a bottle of whiskey, and (on my suggestion) a diocesan shirt each. We then said our goodbyes to them because it was quite clear that when we stopped to let them off and get our new driver, we would all be asleep, and we were, I don't even remember the coach coming to a stop!
We made our way to Norton Caines where we had breakfast and we said goodbye to Rachel. After we got back on the coach we all wrote in cards for Fr Aiden and Fr Bob before we got to Knutsford where me, Sophie Benson and Amelia got out.
Sophie's parents kindly gave me a lift to Manchester airport where I got the train down to Swansea, finally getting in about 5pm. And there ends my wonderful pilgrimage to Madrid.
No comments:
Post a Comment