The next place we stopped as we continued up into the Highlands, was Inverness. Inverness Castle was one of the last, great, Jacobian strongholds. Scots are very much like us here in the South in alot of ways. It should come as no surprise as most Southerners can trace most of their heritage back to the Scots-Irish immigrants. They love to sing the hardship but glory of the "good ol' days." They are fiercely independent, and not afriad to fight for that independence. Many Scots, primarily in the Highlands, didn't feel as though joining with England had been a good idea. They felt as if the promised benefits had not come through, and besides they had not been for it or consulted about it in anyway. Their solution was to restore the Scotish monarchy, and campioned around Bonny Prince Charlie amongst other decidence of the Stuarts. Most of these princes had been born and raised overseas either in France or Italy, and some had no real feeling for their homeland. Bonny Prince Charlie was one of the notable exceptions. He was born in Scotland, though raised in France to protect him from the English, he was an ardent romantic for all things Scottish. Through a series of events, he landed in the Northwest area of Scotland, and the clans when called upon for honors sake ralleyed to his side. They fought and were little more than 50 miles from taking over London, when the cheifs refused to go further. They wanted an independent Scotland, not a Scottish king sitting in London on a Scottish and English throne. But it wasn't meant to be. The English went on the offensive as Charles pulled back through Scotland. Before long between the English and the infighting of the cheif and lairds (Scottish for lords) the army crumbled and Charles went into hiding. The famous Flora McDonald hid the king for a time. They gave him a place to sleep, and passed him off as her lady in waiting to get him to a ship off shore and back to France.This is the statue to Flora McDonald in front of Inverness Castle. Below, Inverness Castle. I wanted to include this shot of the castle to give you a perceptive of modern Scotland. This place really, is unreal. There is history but you have to walk through the city and turn a corner and there it is. To one side you are obviously in 2007, you turn and you could believe that you are in 1507. One last shot of Inverness Castle below, from the water.While in Inverness we went on a dolphine cruise up the bay. If you can imagine this is where the Vikings sailed in each and every year for nearly a hundred years. That is why Inverness is a strategic point. It was beautiful out on the water, but incredibly cold...

Some of you out there might be fans of the Mel Gibson movie, "Braveheart." Some of you also know that all you have to do is talk about how much you love it, and how it is a true story, for me to go off the deep end.

I'm going to take a moment therefore to tell you all about the real William Wallace. In truth William Wallace was not a commoner by birth but a member of the lower noblity. Thus, a man of leisure, a man of arms, but not great land, or power amongst the nobles. His father and brother died in the Battle of Culloden, not in the way the movie portrays. (However in defense of this one scene, there is legend that says something of that sort happened once in the border lands. HOWEVER, in truth there are no monk records to back it up, meaning it most likely NEVER happened.) William had an uncle who was in the clergy and William was to follow in his footsteps, he learned Greek and Latin from him as well as law. So in addition to speaking the Normandy-French of the noblity (he was a Saxon, not Scottish) and a little bit of Scots-Gaelic to communicate with the locals, he spoke Greek and Latin. Hardly the country bumpkin of the movie.

Braveheart was associated with a lady, Marian. Her father was wealthy and dead, and she was suppose to marry an English officer. However, she had sympathy on many occasions. Despite laws banning Scots to carry arms, William did and made a show of it as well. So as he repeatively got into tussels with the English in charge, Marian hid him and delayed the English. There were rummors that she was pregnant with his child, but no record that they were ever married. On one instance, he killed several men, and escaped to her house, and she helped him get away, when the English realized her involvement she was killed.

This however, was not the start of his career as the movie portrays. He was first branned as an outlaw (literally meaning outside of the protection of the law, and thereby killable at any time, by anyone without consequences) because an officer, of course English, asked him to surrender his dirk. He refused and instead killed, 8 men, and another managed to get away. To say the least he was a hot-headed man. He killed tons of men, and the English had reason to be after him.

However, the commoners and most of the outlaws of the land rallyed to him as he set off to kill all the English in the area. He began defeating larger and larger groups of soldiers, and after John Bailol (current King of Scots) was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London by Longshanks, King Edward of England William Wallace starts declaring victories in the name of John Bailol, never yelling "FREEDOM!"

Now to understand Scottish history, especially at this point, you need to understand the relationship of England and Scotland. Just a few short years before this, Alexander was King of Scotland and as an old man married a rather young lady. He was eager to get home one night, and left in a rain storm. Something happened, his horse ran off a cliff and he was found dead a few days later. This left a crisis because there were no near claims to the throne. Twenty different men, had incredibly distant claims, and no one could decide who's was the nearest. The three men with the closest claims were John Bailiol, Robert the Bruce, and John Comyns. They all called in King Edward, and all agreed that the only way he could decide was if he was their leige lord. This in turn meant that the King of Scotland would be a subject of the King of England. They all agreed and then all when made King went back on their promises made to him.

Therefore, when you see the Lords working in turn for and against England, it isn't because they dislike Scotland. They HAVE NO idea of NATIONALITY! They don't. They are working for their leige lord, and leaving him when they feel that they have better chances for themselves. One final point on my rant about democracy and the like. Throughout this stuggle it is a search for a king of Scotland, and more power for the nobles, NOTHING is being done for the people, the commoners, those that will one day find a place here in this country.

A few more serious errors are in the movie which need to be addressed. First, William Wallace never had an affair with or met the Princess. She was three at the time and had her first child 14 years after the death of William. Second, the Battle of Stirling was actually the Battle of Stirling Bridge. They didn't flash the English, but they were able to force a large number of mounted cavalry over Stirling Bridge, through mud, until it collapsed leaving the Scots on foot the ablity to sweep through and escape. Third, the Scots of this period didn't wear blue face paint and kilts, they wore long yellow shirts. It would have been like doing the Patriot, and dressing Washington up in Indian facepaint, and a space suit. Fourth, the end of the movie says that the Scots won a big victory, but the truth was that they won a battle after that then were trounced by the English before signing over their indepence.

Well, without further ado, here are the photos.
This is the gang hanging out in front of the King Robert the Bruce statue at Stirling. This is me and Ryan hanging out in the courtyard of Stirling Castle.So check this out! There is a palm tree growing in the Stirling Castle Gardens. No joke! Also in real life at nine months old Mary was crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling Castle, so we crowned our Mary here as well, with a 2 Pound Crown from the gift store. This is the Wallace Monument. There are about 267 stairs to the top. It's on the only hill in the Stirling area so it's pretty impressive. The picture below is all of our men folk around the William Wallace statue that is modeled after Mel Gibson. They are all yelling Freedom! Front and center is our professor, who is getting into this more than anyone else.This is the theoritical Wallace Sword at the top of the Monument. It is 6 feet in length which matches the discription of the broadsword that Wallace sometimes carried. Only problem it was made in 1600s not the 1200s. Below, Natalie climbed out on the edge of the monument, over open spaces, and is standing on a curved area, very far from the ground. But it's a great photo...Finally this is Loch Moray. Loch is Scots for lake. It was beautiful. We saw it on our way up into the highlands, after leaving the city of Stirling.

We have been truely blessed this weekend with a few marvelous sermons by Brother Charles Kitchens. It was also quite in credible for me to be able to visit with some folks from back home. We spent several hours over at the Ulmer's place fellowshiping, but also eating. Some of you may know that I have been having some trouble adjusting to being so far from home, family, and everything I know. Little things have been a huge ordeal, even involving some tears. I try not to complain and be a burden on Gary, the Lord knows he has enough to deal with at work without me adding to it. I should be a helpmeet not a burden. It's hard to do simple task: go grocery shopping and find the few items I need quickly, get around the Walmart, I go to town and get lost and can't get home. The biggest thing that hits home on nights like this is how few and far between home visits will be. Every fourth Sunday I would be up and on the road about 8 or 8:30 winding my way through the beautiful Tennessee Valley on the way to I-65. I would follow it down to the Jasper exit and drive Alabama highway 69 through the hills. Every morning I would roll up to find all the young folks just a waving, and I knew I was home. I suppose I'm a bit bittersweet tonight, just thinking on all of this on the way home in the dark down a toll road with almost no one else on it. I'm happy to be married, but sad to be leaving all I know behind, but even here Little Union Church all the brothers and sisters have been such a blessing. Even in Florida far from home, the Lord can still see me, reach me, and bless me. It reminds me of a song...

In our first few days in Glascow we stopped by the Kelvin Museum and the Burrell Collection. In my opinion these were the finest of the many museums we stopped at along the way. So, before I continue on with the report from our trip I thought I would spend a little more time here. One of the most enjoyable parts, was that we could touch most of the exhibbits and there were alot of interactive parts for small children, that Winn and I of course tried out!
The museum itself was a massive work of art, and inside was my first good look at an organ. Huge!
I really enjoyed the armor room. One of the highlights of the entire trip to me was getting to see all the armor that we've talked about, and actually knowing what kind of weapon made the mark that was left on the sheilds and breastplates. Something I actually liked alot were the sculptures. They really are very danity and expressive, and to think they were just a big piece of rock. This one is "Motherless" done about 1889 by George Lawson, it is suppose to be a father holding a daughter, who lost her mother in a plague. It's suppose to be one of the favorites at Kelvingrove, but I was the only one there that day.
This is another one that I especially liked. It is "Modesty" done about 1866 by Glosue Argenti. Her downward look and cloth covering her bossom is suppose to be modest. The painting is "Balmoral, Autumn" and was painted in 1896. This is of the area of the Scottish Highlands that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made famous, after they bought Balmoral Castle as a retreat.
This one was just very cool lighting of Winn filming a chapel scene. One thing I found very interesting on the whole trip is the different ways that people have understood God and worshipped him. Remarkable things can be learned by looking at wording and designs on headstones, art reflecting Jesus, and styles in building churches. The remaining pictures are at the Burrell Collection. This one is of "The Thinker" we decided that he was pondering how to get an A in Burton's class...
We were even amazed at the detail in the ceiling. This place was amazing. They had a great deal of stained glass which I also thought was beautiful.
The three areas that the Burrell Collection concentrates in are 1600s furniture, stained glass, and tapestry. The top is to try to give you the size of these pieces. Some of these took decades to produce. Imagine that you are doing all of this by hand in winter, by firelight. Now look at the detail in the woman's face below. Simply amazing. Just as a side note, this figures are close to 4 feet apiece.
This photo is an upclose of another tapestry. It's a German piece, from the 16th century. It has 34 scenes from the Old and New Testament, from God making the heavens and the earths to the birth of Christ. We had alot of fun trying to fiqure out all of the scenes. This one is of Jonah being vomitted up on dry land. I had to take it after Brother Ronald had preached so much about him back in April. Besides we decided it looked more like Nessy and less like a whale. Finally this is some handmade 16th century furniture. I was impressed!