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Trip Includes

• Fr. Don will be with the group to celebrate daily Mass.
• Round-trip airfare from your hometown connecting in a major city to fly overseas is included.
• Airport Taxes, Security Fees, and Fuel Surcharges!
• Exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels in downtown areas.
• All breakfasts and all dinners.
• All entrance fees to all the sites.
• All tips to everyone involved in the tour.
• The tour fees for our guides. Our tour guides are well educated, caring, and professional. Most of them have their PhD's in Church history, archeology, philosophy, languages, or Theology.
• Luggage handling. Please pack light, one piece of luggage and one carry-on.
• Dress casually throughout the whole trip. Shoulders and knees should be covered when visiting Basilicas or churches.
• If you are traveling alone and you allow us to find you a roommate, you don't pay the $1,200 single supplement. If you wish to have your own room and you are not open to rooming with another passenger, then the single supplement fee is $1,200.
• Wheelchair can be provided for those passengers who cannot walk, with prior notice at registration for $150. A traveling companion has to push the wheelchair throughout the trip.
• At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 (hotel and airfare deposit) is due in the form of a credit card. For example, if your trip costs $3,700, when you sign up, you pay a $500 deposit, then your balance would be $3,200 and is due 4 months before departure date. If you sign up after the final payment due date or at the last minute, you pay the entire cost of the trip at registration.

Trip Does Not Include

• Lunch
• Insurance ~ The total trip cost is non-refundable, we recommend trip insurance to protect your investment.

Day 1: Depart the USA for Barcelona, Spain.

Day 2: Upon arrival, you will be greeted by our tour guide. Transfer to the hotel where you will have some free time to rest and refresh before Mass. Mass at the Sagrada Familia. Dinner and overnight in Barcelona.

Day 3: After breakfast, we will enjoy a tour of Barcelona including: panoramic views of the Harbor area, Montjuic, Plaza de Espana, and Plaza de Catalunya. Afterwards, continue on a guided walk through the Gothic Quarter to visit the cathedral and to view Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a beautiful, unfinished Roman Catholic Basilica of impressive proportions. Mass at the Sagrada Familia. Spend the afternoon at leisure exploring the colorful markets of Las Ramblas. Dinner and overnight in Barcelona.

Day 4: After breakfast, we make our way to Montserrat, home to the dramatically set Benedictine monastery where Mass will be celebrated. On a rugged mountainside, we will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat. Since the 12th-century, pilgrims have been drawn to the mountain to venerate the miraculous statue of the Black Madonna. According to Catholic tradition, the statue of the Black Virgin of Montserrat was carved by St. Luke around 50 AD and brought to Spain. It was later hidden from the Moors in a cave, where it was rediscovered by shepherds in 880 AD. They saw a bright light and heard heavenly music that eventually led them to the grotto and the statue. The Bishop of Manresa, present at the discovery, suggested that it be moved to Manresa, but the small statue was discovered to be so heavy it could not be lifted. Thus the Virgin had indicated her will to stay on Montserrat to be venerated there. In the 11th century, the abbot-bishop Oliba founded a monastery on the mountain of Montserrat next to one of the chapels, where the Benedictine Abbey is still preserved. Dinner and overnight in Montserrat.

Day 5: Drive to Lourdes. Visit Chateau-fort de Sedan and it Pyreneen Museum and La Cachot: It is a tiny jail room where Bernadette and her family were forced to take refuge in 1857 when her family faced hard times. It was during her stay in this jail when Bernadette came across the Grotte de Massabielle while collecting firewood in the outside. Mass in Lourdes. Dinner and overnight in Lourdes.

Day 6: Lourdes for the whole day. Mass in Lourdes. This pilgrimage was designed for those who would like to spend more time in Lourdes, to pray and reflect. You will have time to pray with your fellow pilgrims and pilgrims from around the world, to attend Mass at the Grotto, watch a video presentation telling the story of Lourdes, and walk in the footsteps of St. Bernadette. Dinner and overnight in Lourdes.

Day 7: Tour of Burgos. Visit the Catedral de Burgos where Mass will be celebrated: A UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas; the Burgos Castle; the Arco de Santa María and the Cartuja de Miraflores. Dinner and overnight in Burgos.

Day 8: Drive to Astorga and tour the Bishop's Palace built by Antonio Gaudi and the Museum of El Camino. Drive to Cebreiro with an altitude more then 4,500 feet. It is the first village in the region of Lugo. Visit the iconic Palloza styles houses, and the site of a Eucharistic Miracle dating back to the 1300 hundreds. Celebrate Mass in the Lugo Cathedral. Dinner and overnight in Lugo.

Day 9: Depart to Santiago de Compostela. Mass at the Basilica of Santiago de Compostela. Tour of the city by bus time permitting. Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Compostela.

Day 10: After breakfast, Mass at the Basilica of Santiago de Compostela. Then join the walking pilgrims at the Monte del Gozo from which the spires of the Cathedral are first visible. We will walk little bit on El Camino arriving at the Cathedral, the destination we have been yearning to reach. We will attend the International Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral of St. James, one of the finest examples of architecture in all of Europe. Tradition invites us to perform some rites. The most important and meaningful one is the hug to the Saint, go under the main altar and visit the crypt where the relics of St. James are preserved. In the afternoon we will visit to the city of Santiago to see: Obradoiro Square, Fonseca Palace, Gelmirez Palace, Franco Street, etc. Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Compostela.

Day 11: After breakfast depart for Salamanca. Upon arrival, celebrate Mass in the Cathedral and then our tour begins at the famous Plaza Mayor with its 88 porticoed arches, continue through the Plaza del Corrillo square, and on to the Casa de las Conchas. Then see the Clerecia church, the Monterrey Palace, the Ursulas Convent, and the College of Archbishop Fonseca. Spend some time in the Plaza de Anaya before we see the new Cathedral with its Gothic construction and detailed carvings on the doors (look for the astronaut, a monkey eating ice cream, a stork, and more), and the old Cathedral. Dinner and overnight in Salamanca.

Day 12: After breakfast, celebrate Mass in L Catedral de la Almudena of Madrid and then enjoy a tour of Madrid including the Royal Palace and Plaza Mayor. We then depart for Toledo which sits on a rocky mound isolated on three sides by a looping gorge of the Rio Tajo. Every available inch of this outcrop has churches, synagogues, mosques and houses heaped upon one another in a haphazard spiral, which the cobbled lanes infiltrate as best they can. Toledo is known as the City of the Three Religions or Cultures because for many centuries the Christians, the Moors, and the Jews lived together in relative equality and peace. The city surrounded by walls hides great treasures: its awesome Cathedral, the church of Santo Tome, the Transito Synagogue, Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue, the superb church of San Juan de los Reyes, Puerta de Bisagras, Puerta del Cambron, Puerta del Sol, etc. Dinner and overnight in Madrid.

Day 13: Fly back home.

Please note: We do our best to ensure that all sites listed in this itinerary will be seen. However, due to scheduling conflicts, or other circumstances beyond our control, sites may be visited on a different day than listed. Since we have several different trip configurations touring at the same time, it is likely that groups on different tours will be combined when their itineraries overlap in certain areas. In addition, because of Jewish holidays and/or when the group is small, we may be able to add a few sites that are not on the itinerary. In order to do that, in some cases we might add one night in a certain hotel and take away a night from the other one.

General Trip Information