SCOTLAND - ENGLAND

Catching up on this blog is quite a challenge! We are still in Copenhagen but have scaled back our activities a lot. Sometimes we just have to slow down. Sometimes we  really feel our age and are just tired. So, we have had a couple of 'at home ' days. Thursday weather was interesting - cloudy, not raining but 98% humidity. We could see the moisture in the air.

Going through our photos to choose those for the blog  reminds me of the wonderful times we have experienced in the past few weeks. With each photo I remember what we were doing and what was going on around us. It is impossible to write all we have experienced or to even show all of the photos we took but hopefully you will feel a little of our experience.

It was a new adventure to go to Scotland. Steve has Stewart ancestors from Glasgow, and Gillespie ancestors from the Falkirk/Stirling area. Our reason for going to Scotland was to see if we could check out areas where his ancestors lived. But  too much has changed in  more than a century since they emigrated to the USA for us to be able to find anything in Glasgow.  And there have been many changes in Muriavonside, Larbert, Madison, Falkirk and Airdree  so there was really nothing ancestral for us to see. And we had not done enough research on those family lines or the area to really know what we were looking for. Falkirk is still there but we did not see anything that would tie us to his ancestors. I copied a page of the phone book with Gillespie names but did not pursue them yet.

Instead we spent our few days driving around the area and seeing  a lot of beautiful countryside where we knew his ancestors must have been. So that was pretty cool. We also had a chance to see Loch Lomond which is beautiful and to see our dear former sister missionary from the Australia Sydney Mission, Natasha Colborne, when we met her in church in Edinburgh.

There was much more we could have seen but of course there is never enough time to see everything. The downside was that Steve took a fall on the street of Glasgow which kind of put a damper on our day. He was OK but bruised and shaken. Sometimes he just has a hard time walking and the downhill slant of the sidewalk did him in.

The Kelpies!!! One day as we were driving around we saw this from the motorway and had no idea what it was. A little research helped us learn they were the Kelpies and that we could go see them. They are HUGE as you can see by comparing their height to the people walking by. And they are magnificent. The 'kelpies' are supposedly shape-shifting water spirits. Lots of mythical history about them if you care to check them out. But definitely a sight not to be missed if you are in Scotland.!

As we got off the ferry in Cairnryan we saw immediately that the landscape was different from Ireland and there is a completely different feel. It has its own kind of beauty! The architecture is different and it is definitely another country.  It was late afternoon when we arrived.

Beautiful coastline.

On the road again.

Lovely vista!

Yes, it was cloudy.

If you look carefully in the distance you can see the shape of a lone island which is apparently  a lovely protected area.

Loved all the seagulls!

Along the roadway and the dark clouds.

These are newer homes along our way.

Along the road.

And a ruin of course!

More homes.

We watched the sunset off to the west.

Then I had to stop and take a photo! We saw the lovely red sky and hoped the adage of "red sky in the morning sailor take warning, red sky at night sailor's delight" would hold our but it did not. We still had cloudy rainy weather the next day.

We drove through a lot of farm country and saw the results of harvesting.

I love to see the hay bales.

just along the way.

By the time we reached our B&B in Slamanan it was full on dark. We had trouble finding where we were going because we thought we would have a place kind of to ourselves when in fact we had an ensuite room in the owner's home. Our hosts were lovely people who did everything they could to make us feel at home.

This lovely little stream was at the back of their property.

This little fairy door was one of three which our hosts had installed. There is a degree of superstition around here.

The landscapes were lovely!

We drove to Glasgow one day and took a Hop on Hop off bus to see the sites. But it was a rainy windy day with intermittent sunshine. The architecture of the buildings is amazing! I loved it! But it was impossible to get good photos because the bus was quite bumpy. But we enjoyed seeing things. Steve was still recovering from his fall on the way to the bus so he was not as engaged.

This building looks lopsided I guess it is the direction from which I took the photo.

Somebody has a sense of humor!

An interesting bridge. We were also told of a new movie that was coming out pretty soon that was shot in Glasgow. I don't remember what it was called. It seems we have learned about a lot of movies. I guess there are many great locations.

I like this cute little taxi!

Now this looks like the Sydney Opera House, or a least it reminds us of it. But they call it the 'armadillo' because the back of th building looks the same.

We took the opportunity to drive to Loch Lomond. I had heard so much about it, not to mention the song "if you take the high road and I take the low road" and I wanted to see it. It was a nice drive out there and fun to just be there. We took a boat ride around the "loch" which apparently has MANY islands and is quite large.

At one time, I think  back in the 80's, a TV series was shot in the little town by the lake. A series of cottages had been built for the TV show and are now privately owned. They were really quite lovely.

The owner of one of the island has stocked it with wallabies from Australia. But we did not see any.

A lovely old church and yard near the loch.

We found a restaurant which served lovely soup but we missed our Irish soda bread!

Buskers in Falkirk. It was so cute to watch the young boy turn to his father  and smile whenever someone put money in their case.

Clock tower in Falkirk

Falkirk

I had hoped to see more of these cows but only in one field too far away to be able to take picture did we see any. So these statues will have to do.

On Sunday we made our way to Edinburgh so we could meet up with our sweet former sister missionary.  I love that  we can find a place to go to church pretty much any where we go. The Spirit always feels the same and I love that!

What a delight to meet up with Natasha Colbourne! She was always a bright  spot in our English classes while we were all serving in Sydney. She like to remind us that  her way to pronounce some words was correct and we had to tell the missionaries that we were teaching them  "Amercian"  English. Lots of fun and she is awesome. We wish her luck as she goes to university.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh

On the road south.

As we drove south we stopped at Gretna Green to check it out. Back in 1754 in England and Wales a marriage law  was passed so people had to get permission from from parents or guardians and have banns read before they could marry. There were many who made a fast trip to Gretna Green to be married at the famous blacksmith shop across the anvil. It was legal but the trips to Gretna Green were sometimes  a race between the engaged couple and those who wanted to prevent the marriage. And those of us who have read historical romance novels will remember this place very well where fortune hunters would try to make off with heiresses and marry them. It was a fun place to see.

Marriages are still being performed here. It is quite a destination. When the curtain is drawn a marriage is taking place.

A little history for you!

Transportation back in the day.

These are examples of wedding dresses back in the day.

The Blacksmith Shop

Locks of Love Gretna Green style! Hundreds of padlocks with names of lovers. Kind of cool.

On the road again on our way to York.

No we were not students but this student housing facility also rents out some very nice rooms, in fact very nice rooms with parking and close to restaurants for a very reasonable price. 

The Jorvik Center is in York. It is a Viking museum built over a dig. This was the floor on which we could walk and see the actual dig site. It was really fascinating!

We sat in this little suspended 'car' which shuttled us through a lot of interesting dioramas depicting life in Viking times. There was a lot of demonstrations with a lot of interesting information given.

A diorama

A diorama.

This hemet was not a Viking helmet but was found amongst the Viking artifacts .

Right by the parking lot of the Jorvik center but I am pretty sure this is from a much later period of history.

A York street just down from where we stayed.

And then our time in the UK was near its end. We drove south to London. Our son and his family had recently moved to London so of course we wanted to see them. They live in a newer section of town and our SatNav was NOT giving us correct directions! We drove around for about an hour and I was literally in tears. I needed to use the toilet and there was no relief in site. It was a tender mercy when our daughter-in-law called instead of texting and told us where she was standing on the street corner. We found her and picked her up and she directed us to their apartment complex. I don't care to EVER drive in London again!

And here we are with our wonderful family!!! This was such a treat to spend time with them. It had been 5 years since we last saw them when the lived in Tokyo. We could only see them one day but we get to go back and spend Christmas with them in London and we can hardly wait to see them again.

Walking to breakfast past the American Embassy.

Time to turn our rental car [Peugot Rifter]back. There were 7 km on the car when we picked it up on April 19, 2019. We had driven all over Wales, Ireland, North Ireland, into Scotland and now England for a total of 12784 km [7944 miles] we averaged 37 miles per gallon and paid an average of $5.68/gallon. A bit more expensive than the USA. It has been such great car to hold up to 5 people and all of our luggage as we drove around.

Cheesy us in our hotel near the airport. We had to be to the airport by 6 AM for our flight to Amsterdam and it was so nice to be right at the airport.

One of the best things about this hotel was that it sat right at the end of Terminal 4 and there was a walkway over the road right to the terminal. Steve just pushed our luggage cart right to checkin.

A fitting farewell after our 5 months in the UK. So many wonderful memories!

Leaving England.

Now I am only 5 weeks behind with this blog but will soon write about our time on Rügen and in Dresden and Freiberg and of course Copenhagen and our other Danish adventures. Thanks for reading.