Our day in Bruges got off to a very rocky start. We were scheduled to arrive at 9:00 am. Walk a short distance to catch a hired bus that would take us to the city center. Then join a 2½ hour free walking tour at 11:00 am. Be back at the ship by 3:30 pm for a 4:00 pm departure. Sounded so simple. Until the insanity. First, the ship was 30 minutes late getting into port because of a docking issue.  Second, there was a group of people on our ship that had visa issues. The port staff wouldn’t let anyone off the ship until these were resolved. You could tell that the Cruise Director was annoyed. She kept apologizing for the delay over the loudspeaker. But she also made a snarky comment about having informed these people to resolve their problems the night before. Hmmm. A small number of folks ruin it for everyone else. That’s never happened before. By now it was getting close to 10:00 am. But that wasn’t the end of it. When we got off the ship we could see the Cruise Terminal about 100 yards ahead of us. There were two sets of buses

The 8 ½ hour flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to London seemed to go by quickly, even though I did not sleep, which is typical for me. My seat television broke down about two hours into the flight and, despite the flight attendants’ efforts to reboot the system, movie-watching was not possible. It was a great opportunity for thought and contemplation. We had one day in London before heading out on a cruise the next day. We knew that we had to “push through” without sleep during the day to force ourselves into the new time zone. We had never been to London on a visit except to transfer someplace else. Rebecca left me to plan for the day, so I kept it light: 10:00 am Mass at Westminster Cathedral and a rock n roll walking tour in Soho to bring back memories of my teenage years. How’s that for two extremes? By skipping all the famous London sites, we avoided the mobs of summer tourists. We landed early in the morning and made it to the Hyatt Place hotel near the airport by 8:30 am. We opted for one of the Hotel Hoppa buses that move people between the local

St. Polycarp Relic We left the hotel at 5:00 am to catch a flight to Izmir at 7:20 am. It was early. Rebecca commented on how she tried to get the tour company to arrange a later flight but had not been successful. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We arrived in Izmir (formerly Smyrna at the time Christ) and bussed over to the Cathedral of St. John for Mass. This was a change of venue. We were supposed to have Mass at St. Mary’s church, but it was changed due to construction or something. We were in for an unexpected surprise.   The Cathedral had a relic of 2nd century martyr St. Polycarp on the right side of the altar. I never thought I would ever see such a thing. I had researched the saint for my Church history class and had an affinity for his bravery and love for Christ. Also, I have dear old friends that named one of their son’s Polycarp, and I was excited to share the relic discovery with them. St. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna for 30 years and the last person to die (that we know of) who

Hagia Sophia at Dusk St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church We began the morning with 8:30 am Mass in the chapel at St. Anthony of Padua Church. We could not celebrate Mass in the main sanctuary because the Archbishop of Milan was celebrating Mass for 100 priests. Right before he began Mass, the Archbishop asked Rebecca where our group was from. Surprising to me, she said “Texas.” She used to respond with something like, “I live in Texas, but I’m not from Texas.” Now, after therapy, she is now embracing the great state. The church was originally constructed by Venetian friars belonging to the Franciscan order. It was demolished in 1906 and then reconstructed in 1912. The Church is currently managed by the Franciscan friars. It is the largest and most active Catholic parish in Istanbul, which is predominately Muslim. Our priest celebrated Mass with a Franciscan priest assisted by two Franciscan brothers. There were three locals at Mass who sang with beautiful voices. We met two of them: Agatha from Nigeria and Librica from the Philippines. Both work as nannies. The weather was cloudy, gloomy, and cold. I had to grudgingly tell Rebecca that she was right again—always a humbling

Our Group We begin our pilgrimage in the Footsteps of St. Paul today as we fly non-stop from DFW to Istanbul. I feel like a hobbit going on another adventure. This is the second time we’ve been here, the first being on a cruise ship last October. Our flight left in the evening, and I was dreading the 11-hour flight; although we heard good things about Turkish airlines. The plane was full, but at the gate you think we were heading to the elderly wheelchair Olympics. I think there were at least 10 wheelchairs lined up to board the plane. There were 25 in our group. We had the cheap seats again, but Rebecca paid to upgrade to seats with more legroom. It was worth it. The flight was uneventful, but I must give a shout out to the airline. Even though we were in Economy, Turkish air provided a mask, toothbrush, toothpaste, and eveb slippers to avoid the urine drips on the bathroom floors. And the food actually tasted pretty good, unlike most airlines. We landed on time and, as I expected, the wheelchairs slowed the off-boarding process. The airport wheelchair drivers uploaded each participant one at a time