Images from a Pilgrimage

Images from a Pilgrimage

(from group members, composed by Bonita & Leitha, pictures from Dan)

   The sound of a holy hush descends on the bus for morning prayer.  Outside the bus window, olive trees dot green fields scattered with red poppies swaying in the sun.

   The poppies follow us even inside ancient ruins.  At Ephesus we pass under stone arches where Paul walked to the marketplace to preach.

   A few miles away we celebrate communion and do it again a second time in Corinth.  We feel the presence of all those who have gone before-- celebrating this same ritual in these same places. 

   Something special happens.  Dan has brought his flock across the world to see the site of his Paul conversion experience:  a huge fallen marble beam that dedicated the temple to “The World Conquer Caesar, the Son of God, the God Augustus.”   Dan’s tears make ours flow.   

   Tears flow . . .  sometimes in joy:

   Ginny sweetly struts down the aisle of the bus as she models her 50^th wedding anniversary present, a new leather coat.  Applause, whistles, cat calls! 

   In such near memory our treasured child, Kelly, now grown to youthful bloom, keeps us in tune with her ukulele and pure voice.

   Tears flow . . . sometimes in awe:

   We marvel-- a Catholic High Mass wedding upstairs, a Russian Orthodox worship service downstairs, simultaneously taking place in the same church.

   Our rich, full acappella Alleluia fills the domed chapel in the ancient catacombs.  Once again we feel the presence of those who’ve gone before, singing this same sacred word in this same room.

   Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place, we sing, as we exit each country.

   Day after day we’ve experienced over and over what St. Paul was up against:  emperor worship, oracles, idol worship, a world pre-occupied with pagan rituals.  Yet Paul with his rag-tag groupings of people changed the course of history.  His voice rings out:  Gentile and Jew, servant or free, woman or man, no more.  Peace through Justice.  The Body of Christ, he calls the Church.  It’s not something you attend.  It’s something in which you participate, he says.

  

   We end our pilgrimage with this song.  St. Paul, we learned to love you, as we traveled on this journey.    

Ephesus

From our third day in Turkey:  Ephesus video

Home

Our day began with a 3 a.m. wake up call in Rome.  We left the Busics behind and true to their word, they actually woke up to wave goodbye at 3:30 a.m. from their hotel room on the 8th floor. We arrived so early at the airport, we were in line a good 15 minutes before the employees showed up to check us in!  (So much for the 2-hour rule.)  We departed Rome for Frankfurt at 6:40 a.m.  Then we had all of 5 minutes between planes due to 20 extra minutes in a holding pattern above Frankfurt.  Three of our members with different flights said goodbye as we flew through the airport.  One more left us in Seattle and the Reitzs were left to take a later flight as the puddle jumper to PDX couldn't handle all of us.  Assuming all had no vehicular difficulties, we have thus returned home safe and sound, all present and accounted for (without any unplanned separations for a change!).

Now that I am back home with full internet access, I'll upload another video.

last photos

Last day in Rome

Farewell dinner

What a great group!

Final day

We had a great last day in Rome.  We started with a quick stop at the 4 rivers fountain that is quite spectacular and then visited the Pantheon, home of the 3 major Roman gods and 9 minor ones.  Built in 132 by the Emperor Hadrian and converted to a church several centuries later, it is a phenomenal building and an architectural wonder.  From there we went to an english speaking service (Sung Eucharist) at All Saints Anglican church.  Very nice service.  Finally we ended at the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) and saw the Res Gestae (Acts of the Divine Augustus) written in its entirety.  After a free afternoon, we then had a farewell dinner at a fine restaurant that opened just for us and just a block from our hotel.  This has been a fabulous trip and I am certain all gained new appreciation for the work of the apostle Paul to spread God's justice in Christ in the world's empire of Caesar.

It will be a short night as we have to leave at 3:30 a.m. to catch our 6:40 a.m. flight.  We are not eager to leave this beautiful city, but we are anxious to get home!

Rome

We started the day at the Vatican.  The crowd was stifling and we only got to see about half of what I had hoped to see.  We did make it to the Sistine Chapel, which, in spite of the crowd and the annoying guards shouting "no pictures" and "shhhh" every few minutes, is still an amazing place.  Two delightful things we learned:  1) a certain cardinal that complained about the nude figures in "The Last Judgement" was portrayed by Michelangelo as the guard into hell just above the entry and 2) when the cleaned the ceiling, they discovered that Eve appears already with God, loving over God's shoulder as he gives life to Adam.  Interesting concept!

We entered St. Peter's Basilica just as a mass was ending.  The abundance of images in that amazing building is overwhelming and provides for some interesting comparisons to the many images we have seen of the Roman era throughout this pilgrimage.

After lunch we toured the Colosseum and part of the Roman Forum.  By then we were maxing out our input tolerance so decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel for an early dinner.  Tomorrow is our last day and we have decided to visit the Pantheon, then attend a sung Eucharist (in English) and conclude with a visit to the Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace).  That should leave a fair amount of free time.  The final activity will be a farewell dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.

I have given up trying to get video posted from this hotel so have uploaded more pictures instead on Facebook:  Pilgrims in Rome

note on the photos

Though the photos are uploading to Facebook, it may take a while for all to upload so check back in a few hours.

Italy photos

Here are some shots of our group in Italy.  Note the pictures of the true Saint Nick on his way to visit surrounding villages.  Looks pretty good from someone 1400 years old, but a little stiff!
Italy photos

Greece photos

Can't get video to load so uploaded some pictures from our group in Greece here:
Greece photos

Rome

We had great tours of Pompeii and Herculaneum yesterday and moved on to Rome today where we took a tour of the catacombs.  Our priest guide was most entertaining.  One would not think that an area of ancient tombs would be a place of levity, but when you see all the images celebrating the good things of life around the tombs, a little humor seems fitting.  Tomorrow we have a tour of the Vatican in the morning and ancient Rome in the afternoon.  Hard to believe we are drawing near to the end of this pilgrimage.  This has been a great traveling group.

The pictures I tried to upload from Naples evidently didn't go through so will try again here.

Naples

Made it to Bari after a nice night on the ferry.  We had a delightful 2-hour tour of the town that included two weddings in Bari's historic churches and an annual festival moving the beloved Saint Nicolas statue to nearby towns for a two-week tour.  Then a 3-hour drive to Naples where we visited the incredible National Archaeological Museum and saw a number of famous works.  Tomorrow it is off to Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Aphrodisias video

Our fourth video from the World of Paul Pilgrimage.
Video link

We are about to board the overnight ferry for Italy after a great day here in Greece. Another near catastrophe when we learned the site for which we took this route was closed. After spending a year planning this particular visit, however, I was not about to give up that easy. So I found a small road behind the site that gave us a good view of the monument of Augustus, gave my mini homily, and left a satisfied man. The group seemed pleased to have made the effort as well. (or they are just being kind to me!)

On to Naples!

Lefkadas

Had an exhilarating, and cold, swim in the Ionian sea this morning.  The group consensus is that we would all love to come back to this beautiful island.  We are sorry to leave.

Asklepion

Here's another video from Turkey for folk on Facebook:  Asklepion

Lefkadas

Long drive from Delphi, but gorgeous views and lots of entertainment from our guide.  We arrived on the island of Lefkadas just before 8 pm and after a couple of phone calls, found our lovely hotel on the eastern shore of the island.  Looked like we were going to have rain at Delphi, but it cleared up just as we arrived.  The place was quite spectacular.  The Ybarras, Kerri, Bonita, Mary, Mel and Dan made it all the way to the stadium at the top, a heart-pounding climb!

We have an easy day tomorrow, our last day in Greece, so are going to sleep in a bit and do some debriefing after breakfast.

Internet connection looks pretty good so I'll try again to get some videos posted on Facebook.

Hierapolis

Got another video to upload on Facebook.  Here's the link:
Hierapolis

We are headed this morning to Delphi and then the western side of Greece.

Corinth

We celebrated this Mother's Day by remembering in our morning prayer the origins of the holiday as proclaimed by Julia Ward Howe in 1870.  See this link: Mother's Day proclamation
Then we visited ancient Corinth (after a stop at the Corinthian Canal) and held a communion service just a stone's throw from where Paul was brought before the city council (according to Acts 18).  Our tour guide, Kosta, is a professor of archaeology at Boston University and is a native of Greece.  He is outstanding and has quite the faith story to go along with his knowledge of history, religion and archaeology which will be evident when I get the videos done.
After Corinth, we returned to Athens for a tour of the Acropolis and the new Acropolis Museum.  All most impressive.
I should have our video from Hierapolis up on Facebook in an hour or so and then another later tonight.  So be sure to check back.

Pergamum video

If you are on Facebook, you can see our first video here.  For the moment, Facebook appears to be the only way I can upload our videos.
Pergamum video

Frances

Those of us who knew Frances Hyland gathered for a time of remembrance on the deck of the ferry and shared a few stories.  Somehow the setting seemed appropriate given her own love of adventure.  She was special to so many of us on this trip, we could feel her presence amidst the sea breeze.  We love you dearly Frances!

Athens

Our cancelled tour of Delos yielded a delightful tour of Mykonos.  Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable about Delos as well and gave us quite a bit of history on both islands.  Though Delos looked to be only a few miles away, the seas were too rough for the ferry.  Highlight of the tour was the monastery built in the 18th century, though established several centuries earlier.

Our ferry to Athens was also cancelled so we had to change to a larger and slower ferry, made it to our hotel just before 9 pm.  Tomorrow we head for Corinth then return for a tour of Athens.

The internet here appears to be a little more solid than previous locations but the rooms only have ethernet which limits my options, so I am seeing if I can upload video to FaceBook and will then provide a link here.  Unfortunately, this blog site seems to prefer YouTube.  But for technical reasons, I can only use YouTube with my iPad which requires wifi.  So hopefully I can provide a link to FaceBook to work around that limitation.  I have 4 videos ready to go so will see how many I can get loaded before I fall asleep!

No photos

Well, can't get the photos to upload either.  Maybe when we get to Athens will have better internet service.

Delos

Big disappointment tonight.  Just received word that our tour of Delos has been cancelled due to high winds.  (The small ferries that go to Delos are not capable of handling heavy seas.)  So the tour company has scheduled us for an alternative on the island of Mykonos.  Of course they see us more as tourists.  The person who informed me that they had something much better planned, not knowing that our whole reason from coming to Mykonos was in order to get to Delos.  At some point I'll give a virtual tour so our folk have at least an understanding of why I wanted them to see Delos.

And I am still having difficulty uploading the video.  The bandwith here just hasn't been able to handle the upload.  So I'll throw in some more pictures in the meantime.

Mykonos drama

We have arrived in Mykonos (Greece) for some R & R after 5 wonderful and event full days in Turkey.  I am in the process of editing and posting some video to give a bit of flavor from this fabulous pilgrimage.

One bit of travel advice for anyone leading a group:  when in a foreign airport, never let the group split.  (We are all experienced adults, what could go wrong?) We had a little extra adventure today when we arrived at the Athens airport.  Unbeknownst to us, security in the airport was unlike any we had experienced before.  (Consequence of the killing of bin Laden?)  We flew in from Samos and simply needed to change planes.  We had 30 minutes to complete the simple task.  No problem.  Simple, however, was not in the plan!  We had to board a bus to get to the terminal, but it took two buses and 3 members were on the 2nd bus.  When we got to the terminal, I sent the main group ahead to find our gate and waited for the last 3 to arrive from the 2nd bus.  Barely 2 minutes later, the drama began.  First I learned that 4 members of the group (who shall remain nameless!) misread their boarding pass and thought the gate was A3.  Another member of the group discovered that the actual gate was B13 but was unsuccessful in stopping the wayward 4 from proceeding.  Second problem:  the gates were on the upper level and to get to it, one needed a boarding pass (which we all received in Samos).  One spouse (who shall also remain nameless!), however, had the boarding pass for the other spouse and went through the checkpoint while the spouse, who was waiting for me to inform me of problem number one, went to a different checkpoint (different stairs to upper level) but couldn't proceed.  I found the spouse with the boarding pass waiting on the other side.  Problem number two quickly solved.  Twenty minutes to go. Meanwhile the search was on for the wayward 4.  Turns out the A terminal is for international flights and the 4 had to pass through passport control.  (You know how they do things differently in foreign countries.  Who knew you needed to get your passport stamped to fly to another island within Greece?!  Evidently only 4 people in the whole airport knew that!)  I left my camera and computer bag with two members of the group in a central location and sent the rest ahead to B13.  I headed the opposite direction for the A terminal.  Long line at the passport booths.  I flagged down an official looking person in an airport uniform and explained our problem.  I gave him a description of the four (look for a young redhead--easy to spot and not the leader of the wayward 4--and gave him her name which I shall not reveal for fear that her mother will learn that I had lost her!)  Five minutes later I made it through the passport control and raced for A3, only to find the wayward 4 with the airport official on the way.  He walked us through the passport control where the officials undid the now 5 wrongly stamped exit visas. Problem one solved. We quickly headed for the central meeting point and picked up the waiting 2 and my 2 bags.  Terminal B and another boarding pass check.  Less than 10 minutes to go.  Racing down the hallway I am searching with growing concern for the keeper of my bags who is no where in sight and I think cannot possibly be moving faster than me.  I arrive at the gate where we have to go through the x-ray machines.  A couple of our members are standing in line.  Have you seen so-and-so I ask?  No, they reply.  Problem number three.  I hand off my 2 bags to Bonita, brilliantly enabling me to move faster and simultaneously creating problem number four.  Running back to the boarding pass check point down the longest terminal this side of Chicago I find the missing person who is stuck without a boarding pass (not the same person as problem number one).  Said nameless person assures me they will figure something out with the airline and has a little emergency money on hand.  I run back to B13 while texting ahead to Richard's Blackberry to talk to the airline people at the gate to see what can be done to assist our stranded member.  I arrive at the scanning checkpoint to find Bonita holding my computer bag.  Do you have an iPad in here? she asks.  Turns out iPads have to be removed from the bag just as laptops do.  Anyone who has flown in the last 10 years knows that there is this little security thing about bags in airports.  So what do you do when the security guard asks, "Do you have an iPad in here?" Do you say, "Beats me, I didn't pack this.  I am carrying it for someone else."  (not recommended) Fortunately, Greek security personnel seem to be a pretty understanding bunch and my Bonita managed to give an adequate explanation to the situation. Problem 4 solved. In any event, now reunited with my computer bag, I went through the checkpoint and found Richard and Michael to explain what little they knew about our missing member to the airline personnel.  I explained what happened and asked if they could get a new boarding pass to our stranded member.  Sure, they could print a new one.  Sometimes when communicating in a foreign country you don't always communicate what you think you did.  Reunited with our group, temporarily, I was surprised when the helpful airline person came up to me and handed a me a new boarding pass.  You may want to leave your things here, she said.  Recalling the long terminal I had just run through, I quickly again passed off my bags to other group members and headed for the first check point, then realized that it might be good to grab my phone, went back and retrieved it, then realized it might also be a good idea if I had MY boarding pass, went back again and without even stopping, ran through our group and grabbed the pass out of Sandi's hand who had quickly fished it out of my bag and I made the dash through the security checkpoint.  Time for boarding had expired.  Fortunately, the plane arrived a little late but I wasn't sure how much time I would have nor where I might find our passless and phoneless member.  Just as I shot pass the waiting line to enter the checkpoint, praise be to God, there said member was with found boarding pass in hand.  Final problem solved.  Back through the security point we went just as boarding began.  45 minutes later, we landed in Mykonos, all present and accounted for.  Whew.

Samos

We have completed our time in Turkey and are now on the island of Samos for a brief stay before we fly to the island of Mykonos.  The stay in Turkey was quite inspiring for the group.  Unfortunately, internet access was a bit more challenging than I had hoped so loading pictures and movies was not possible.  And here on Samos our internet access is limited to two computers in the hotel lobby.  So stay tuned!

Pamukkale

Great tour of Aphrodisias yesterday and a nice relaxing evening in the hot pools at Pamukkale.  Off early this morning for Ephesus.  I have been trying to upload a video from Pergamum but keep running into internet problems and haven't been in one spot long enough to work it out!  But all are well and enjoying the trip, though the schedule has been a bit full.

Pergamum

Had a fabulous day in spite of the somber beginning.  We made a short stop in Thyatira on our way to Pergamum, ruins of a hilltop palace, Roman theater and Temple of Trajan.  From there we went to the Asklepion, an ancient hospital that offered both physical and mental healing.  Returned to the hotel at 7 pm and are now having dinner.  We are monitoring the news closely but do not feel any less safe than we would anywhere else in the world at this moment.  Will post pictures later this evening hopefully.

Somber news

(I tried to post this before we left the hotel this morning but had some technical difficulty.)

Woke up this morning to the news of Osama bin Laden's killing.  We are not joining in the celebration that is occurring in DC.  This has cast a pall over the group as we head out on our first day's journey.  Not the way we wanted to start this trip.  And yet, it is perhaps good that we are here, that we have the opportunity to experience this critical moment not just in our nation's history, but the world's, precisely in this place--the World of Paul and now a Muslim nation.  We feel fortunate to be in Turkey, one of the most stable and secure nations in this area of the world.

So we begin this day in prayer, as taught by Jesus, we pray first for our enemies and for those who mourn this day.  We pray for peace and reverence for all life.  We pray for all those who live under terror and threats of violence and an end to its endless cycle of destruction.  We pray for soldiers and for victims of war.  We pray for guidance and new understanding as we begin this journey.

Izmir

All is well here.  More to come.

Izmir

All here, safe and sound, and by now, sound asleep.  The long journey did not dampen their jovial spirit though.  We had fun connecting in the early service with the folk back home via Skype.  Hope it came through! Tomorrow we begin the journey to the World of Paul with stops in Thyatira and Pergamum.