Tel Aviv to Haifa

We hung out in Tel Aviv until the appointed hour and took a nice evening train ride to Haifa, arriving at our hotel just after 9pm. (St. Charles Hospice located near the bottom of Ben Gurion St. which lines up perfectly with the terraces leading to the Shrine of the Bab)

The hotel was already filled with other Baha'i pilgrims from different parts of the world. The African lady with us on the front of the is Nancy O. Roberts, related to Hand of the Cause Roberts.
One of the most attentive nuns is in the doorway.

Journey Rome-Tel Aviv

The Gang of Six left Rome (less one of our bags which had gotten lost somewhere between Caracas, Venezuela and Mila, Italy) the day before our pilgrimage was to start. We always sat together on the flights, but this trip I was seated next to an Israeli gentleman who saw the Baha'i book (Door or Hope) I was reading and asked if I was a Baha'i. When I said we were a group of Baha'is going to Haifa for pilgrimage he told me that he had met our "president". I was intriqued! Turns out he was an environmentalist and had attended a large conference in London with Prince Phillip and had been seated next to Amat'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum (what you could call the Baha'i First Lady)! We had a cordial conversation.
The photo above is of our mischievous Marco opposite an artful bronze near the Tel Aviv airport.

Six on Pilgrimage!

Dear friends and family
Five Costa Ricans and myself as guide (having been on pilgrimage twice before) enjoyed the most amazing experience of a formal pilgrimage to the Baha'i Holy places in Haifa, Israel, from April 10th through the 18th, 2006.

I will begin postings, as the hundreds of pictures are culled through, of the images from four of the friend's cameras.

Meanwhile, here are a few of those just to have something to post. (These first pictures are enroute to Haifa where we stopped for two days in Rome, Italy. We stayed with my sister, Lisa and her husband, Paolo Nardini, who were the most gracious of hosts! Thank you Paolo & Lisa!)




We were grateful as well for the great services that the Nardini's Peruvian housekeeper, Claudia, provided for such a large group of invaders . Her sister, Isela (in blue), offered to be our tour guide and showed us how to navigate the subways and crowds at the market places and gave us a great tour of the Vatican.