A 1st Day-pilgrimage to Rome

Diary- Pilgrimage to Rome- Anno Sancto 1950
May 1st-May 12th.

Holy Year 1950
Diary of my pilgrimage to Rome with the 1st Liverpool Diocesan
Pilgrimage led by Bishop Halsall.

Monday 1.5.50.
We set off from Charing Cross Station at 7.30 pm. Mr. and Mrs.
Butcher
saw us off on the train. We arrived in Folkestone at 9 pm and
were
taken by coaches to the boat. After a customs and passport
examination,
the boat sailed at 9.30 pm reaching Calais at 11 pm.

It was dark. Margaret and I stood on deck, straining our eyes
across
the water for the first lights from the French coast. They came
into
view, drew nearer. The sea was very calm and no-one was sick. It
was
cold and windy and we wrapped our blankets round us. Soon we were
in
Calais, and seizing our luggage, disembarked.

After another customs and passport examination we found our
numbered
seats on the train which was to take us through France and Italy to
our
first stop, Turin.
On the train to Folkestone we had been issued with our Pilgrim's
Prayer
Book, Guide to Rome and official badge. We had received with our
tickets a tessera entitling us to certain reductions to places of
interest in Rome and certain other privileges. As I had been
issued
with a tessera bearing the name of Miss M. Fortune, I had to find
this
lady, who was luckily in the next carriage, and change my tessera
with
hers, as she had been issued with mine.

This mistake having been rectified, Margaret and I settled down in
our
carriage. There were only two other occupants, a Mr. Peate and his
wife.
As the train was not due to leave until 1 am, we strolled round
the
platform. Some other people had also left the train to buy cups
of
coffee in the station cafe. However we soon returned to the train
and
tried to get some sleep.
The Bishop visited each carriage to wish us good-night.