2016-08-05 Off to the UK (Feast of Mary Major)

We are off to the UK. Our flight leaves in the afternoon so I had some time to wind up some things in the office. Looking at the calendar for the coming days, there's plenty of feast days. Tomorrow is Transfiguration, Jean Vianney is August 9, Lawrence the Deacon is August 10, St Philomena is August 11, St Clare is August 12, St Maximillan Kolbe August 14, Assumption on the 15th. Looks like a nice season to travel with the saints and our Lady.


Today being the feast of Mary Major is quite interesting. I will begin my trip on the feast day of the dedication of the first major basilica devoted to Mary going back to the 5th century when during the council of Ephesus in 431, Mary was pronounced Theotokos or God-bearer to point out the full humanity and full divinity of Christ. This will be a good pilgrimage dedicated to our Lady.

The plane ride to Vancouver was quick, 15 minutes (as usual). The flight to London was reasonably smooth. Marie and I had the whole three seats to ourselves. No one was booked for the other seat so we had some chance to stretch out.

Arriving in London, there was no problem at the Border. I notice they use several terms differently. Whereas in Canada, we call them Immigration and Customs, here, they call it border.

Coming out, we were waiting for the taxi our daughter ordered for us. We waited for some minutes before he arrived. London to Northampton was about 2 hours by taxi. It seems that taking a taxi for 2 hours is not a big deal here. The first thing I notice is the taxi is a Mercedes Benz. I later found out that the taxi driver owns the car.

Northampton street. 

The driver was chatty that as I was about to fall asleep, he would say something. As we enter Northampton, I commented that there is a BMW dealership there, so there must be a lot of rich people in Northampton. To which the driver laughed and said the BMW is a normal car in the UK.

We arrived and saw our daughter. Our son met us from his pilgrimage in Poland and my sister-in-law also met us from the Philippines.

We touched down on August 6 (Saturday), the Feast of the Transfiguration. Sadly, I was not able to go to mass in the morning as I was in flight. But thankfully, we were able to go to mass in the afternoon at the Cathedral.