Frankly speaking, when i heard my dad insisted in going to Lourdes when we are in Europe, i felt that the holiday is becoming a pilgrimage and was not too keen. And to spend 4 days there....

In case you do not know where Lourdes is, its in France and is the place where Mother Mary appeared 18 times to a girl in a cave. please log on to the official website for a better explaination @ http://www.lourdes-france.com/index.php?texte=1&langage=en


Settling in our super small apartment at Lourdes,the worst thing is that there was only 1 toilet and all had to share. We had to fight for it!After settling in, we set out on foot to find the cathedral and to get our bearings.

its a small town and many shops were selling the same stuff. Rosaries, Mother mary statues and mainly religious stuff.Here, my daddy became a shopholic... keep buying rosaries and mother mary statues. I even bought my own statues for my future house under his influence!

mummy choosing her rosaries!

The cathedral with the blue sky. looks majestic huh? looks like holy disneyland,

Top view of the taps for the miracle spring water

the miracle spring water is tapped into 32 taps near the grotto. Everyday, we will drink the water and wash ourselves there. My dad said that he is cured of a itchy rash on his body after drinking and washing himself in the water.The water is icy cold and super fresh. We did not even boil it before drinking.During our stay, we never ran out of water.

Every day, we went to the grotto to collect the water. We even bathed in it in the apartment!Its so cold that whenever you hear a yelp in the bathroom, you know someone just bathed with the holy water.At the end of lourdes, we filled up 2 5 litres bottles and whatever water bottles we have to lug home! We are not kiasu. everyone does it too : )

Statue of Mother Mary at the grotto, the exact place where she appeared.This is what i saw that made me tear the first day.

a closer photo of the mother mary. I think she looks so pretty, The saint said that this statue does not totally portray Mary's beauty as she is a hundred times prettier.

Mother Mary told the saint to build a church here so that pple can come and pray and they did...literally!

At the top of the church with such a nice backdrop!

Artistic shot of the cathedral.

This photo show you the size of the church!

We went for processions as well, there were alot of pple taking part.

Also went for stations of the cross on a very steep hill. oohh...the legs...

The inside of the church is super beautiful as well,There are many walls of these menaingful scenes form the bible and they are all made in mosaic!imagine tile by tile...

Candles continue your prayer, so we brought IKEA candles there, all 50 of them! But look at the size of the candles there!

Not to be outdone, we bought one candle there, and wrote all our names and the godchildren

One candle for all.. haahahha...

My sister playing with the candle.hilarious

Got so sick of france's food that is bread, sandwiches and pasta that we decided to cook at our apartment. My mum brought 1 kg of rice on our trip and before we all laughed at how prepared she is but after 3-4 days of pizza and pasta, rice was so precious! Thank godness for mummy's kiasu ness. Who ever is going to europe, please bring rice or noodles plus its so much cheaper. now you just mention pasta, mac donalds, pizza, we will gag on reflex... enough!Bring me chicken rice or prawn noodles any time!

Whew, got the gist of the lourdes experience out. When i have more time, i will add more pictures and more comments.This post took me the whole afternoon.