Day before we leave

Our flight tomorrow is mid-afternoon, so we will not get into Tel Aviv until 10:30pm and then we have to get to Jerusalem by coach.  The Wongs are booked on the early morning flight so should arrive in the afternoon.  Swings and roundabouts - either you have to get up early or get to bed late!  Once we are there, we are both in  the green group and will be staying at the same hotels.

It has been well organised with us breaking into smaller groups for some of the shrines and our schedule gives the times for each group.  We have a book which gives us all the Mass readings and prayers written out day by day.  Also, we have a "duties list" - (sounds like school monitors!)  Some weeks ago we were asked whether we wanted to volunteer to do readings, bidding prayers, etc, and that materialised as the duties list.  We have a list of all the pilgrims, showing which Catenian Circles they are from.  You can see from the schedule that we will not be having much free time.

Tony has been to the Holy Land twice before; once when he was on National Service in Cyprus in the '50s and then in 1998 with the parish (I was very jealous as I could not go as it was term-time).

The packing is almost done (I opted for the large suitcase), my computer will be the last item to go into my green knapsack and then we will be off.  See you next in Israel.