Rain, rain, rain in the South of France

We just returned from our annual pilgrimage to Lourdes, France yesterday. We had a wonderful pilgrimage but met with so many challenges on our journey there! It's amazing that we made it all!
We purchased our plane tickets in January, got a really great deal; $346 roundtrip for three people from Munich to Toulouse, France on expedia.com. However, I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize until three days before we flew that we were leaving Toulouse on Monday at 9:20pm and not 9:20am like I thought. Matt was hot! That put us back in Munich at 11:00pm and home at 12:45. oops.
We made hotel reservations in February. The military pilgrimage to Lourdes is the biggest pilgrimage and rooms are very hard to come by. Our hotel was perfect! Only 100 meters from the St. Michael's gate, A/C, breakfast and dinner included. However, the hotel did not hold our reservations, they booked the Slovenian Army instead. So, we were leaving on Wednesday and on Tuesday, I was calling around to some of the other military communities trying to find a room. The Heidelberg community graciously took us in. The hotel was a family run hole in the wall. The room was tiny, the shower was even tinier. We had to set our shampoo/conditioner/soap on the toilet in order to have room to shower! But we were on a pilgrimage and grateful to have a room and beds!
And then, our plan was to fly into Toulouse and take a two hour train ride to Lourdes. France is famous for strikes and the day we were travelling was no exception. Yep, a train strike. So we had to sit all morning and afternoon waiting for the ONE bus to Lourdes. But, we made the bus and made it to Lourdes!
And then, to top it all off, it was cold and rainy the whole time! The South of France this time of year is supposed to be beautiful but we had Germany weather. And guess what else, it was beautiful, sunny and hot back in Germany!

There were many obstacles and challenges getting us to Lourdes, however our desire to get there was much stronger.

Pictures coming later when I download them from my camera!