Twenty three days to go...still!

Today we discovered that our countdown to departure is a little bit out! It's actually 23 days today...ooops!

View from Terraces above the Shrine of the Bab looking out towards Haifa Bay

Anyway, the other news is that today we also received a letter from the Baha'i Office of Pilgrimage with a few pieces of travel advice before we depart. This Office deals with applications for pilgrimage from thousands of Baha'is each year. Applicants generally have to wait for up to 5-6 years before their name comes to the top of the waiting list. They then receive a wide selection of pilgrimage dates from which they can choose. Each pilgrimage group consists of 200 (soon to be increased to 400) pilgrims from every corner of the globe. With the thousands of people applying for pilgrimage each year, plus the thousands more who make the journey to the Holy Land each year, working in the Office of Pilgrimage must be a stupendous task!

It is becoming difficult for us to contain our growing excitement as our departure day creeps ever closer. We still have LOTS of things left to do (vaccinations being one!) and the fact that we both tend to be procrastinators doesn't help either!

We'll keep you posted on our progress or lack thereof!