Day Eleven - Rome/Athens

It's hard to believe, but our pilgrimage is winding down. Tomorrow is our last full day of activities before flying home. As you can tell through this blog, it has been a wonderful and life-changing experience for all of us. To family members and friends who have been following our journey, know that we all can't wait to see you soon and share the blessings of the pilgrimage. But we're not done yet!

This morning, we began the day early with Mass at the Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome, celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the church where the original of this icon is preserved. It was quite a privilege to be able to celebrate Mass at the main altar in this church, directly in front of the image. As has been typical for our Masses throughout the pilgrimage, a few other people joined us for Mass who were just passing through the area or who had stopped in the church for a prayer at the beginning of the day and saw that Mass was being celebrated. From the church, we headed to the airport for check-in for our flight to Athens. At the airport, we bid farewell to our Tour Escort, Mary. For those who have not been on an organized tour like this, there are many details that you cannot even begin to imagine would need to be taken care of. Mary was with us the entire time while we were in Rome, and her sole responsibility was to make sure that everything happened as it was supposed to and that we had everything we needed. Among other things, she kept us updated with the daily schedule, confirmed all buses and drivers, served as a laiason with the churches where we celebrated Mass, made sure everything was taken care of at the hotel, and helped everyone learn how to get around Rome, from directions to the best gelato to instructions on how to use the subway system. Mary was an excellent Tour Escort and made our trip to Rome much more enjoyable. Today, she flies to London to lead another tour group, this time through seven European countries!

Our flight to Athens was a bit delayed, but otherwise fairly uneventful. We met our transfer assistant and bus at the Athens airport and then drove into Athens to meet our tour guide, Evie, who had also been with us on our last day in Athens. Today, Evie took us on a tour of the Acropolis, definitely the most famous site in all of Greece. On a hill overlooking the city (about 80 steps up - nothing like the 300 steps to the Acropolis of Lindos that we visited on Rhodes!), the Acropolis was the ancient place of worship for the Greek people. It is dominated by the massive Parthenon, the temple to the goddess Athena - we all know what it looks like, but to be standing right in front of it, you really appreciate how large and imposing a structure it is. There are several other temples located on the Acropolis as well that we toured. We then visited the ancient Olympic Stadium, used for games in ancient times and reconstructed for the first of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. When the Olympics were held in Athens in 2004, this stadium was the site for the archery contests, the oldest Olympic sport, and the finish line for the marathon race. On tablets next to the stadium are lists of all cities that have hosted the Olympic Games since 1896 - all listed in Greek, of course! We then made a quick visit to the Temple of Zeus, a Roman temple built by the Emperor Hadrian that was actually larger than the Parthenon. Today, only 16 of the origial 104 columns survive, so it is not nearly as imposing a structure as the temples on the Acropolis.

After checking in at our hotel, we were off to a buffet Greek dinner in the hotel restaurant, and then a free evening. Tomorrow morning, we head to the Peloponnesian Peninsula for visits to the ancient sites of Corinth and Mycenae. We will end our pilgrimage by visiting one of the most important cities where St. Paul lived as well as one of the most ancient civilizations in the world.