The Joy of My Salvation

Hopefully this will be my final blog on my Scotland trip, even though I could post pictures forever, there are just so many other things to tell you about.

We left from Edinburough on a sleeper train just seven of us, Dr. B and Mrs. Donna, Me and Mac, Josh and his brother Ben, and Natalie. Here are a few of us with our heads out of our tiny sleeper doors. This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me, because I had never been on a train, let alone a sleeper train. We picked up cars throughout the night, and ultimately stopped seven hours later in London. I also took my first cab ride, my first "underground" or sub ride, and was generally amazed.

We also bought the most expensive water of our trip there, it came out to just over $4. One other weird thing, everywhere we went the ketchup was called tomatoe sause and was in those little tomatoe shaped plastic squirt bottles. I was incredibly amazed by the British Museum and the British Library, one of those was my favorite part of the trip, though I can't decide which one. In The Museum I roamed for a couple hours by myself trying see it all, though I spent most of my time in the Greco-Roman, and Middle Ages area. I never would have dreamed in 6th grade when we were touring the Parthenon in Nashville, that a little more than 10 years later I would get to see the real stuff in the British Museum. I didn't get a good photo of the outside of the building but here is the expression on my face and here is two of my favorite exhibits: the Lewis Chessmen, the oldest in Europe, dating to the Early Medieval period, and a horse's head from the Parthenon.

I don't know how to describe the Brittish Library to you other than to say it was simply amazing. I was blow away by all the stuff that the little nation had accumulated over the years, but this place. I don't mean to be sacreligious, but it felt a little like I would imagine holy ground to be. It was a historian's dream. I was four inches from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, I was 6 inches from Shakespeare's first folio,

and I was a foot from 3 of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta. I was on cloud nine. They had the oldest known copy of the King James Bible too, but we couldn't get into to see that. There were too many people and not enough time. I kept telling myself that I was awake, and I asked Dr. B. "How can I get a job here?" It was amazing! I took a few photos with the flash off so as to not damage the paper, but someone stopped us after a few, and told us we had to buy pictures from the gift shop. Here's one though...

That was the first day in London. The second day we took a tour of the surrounding area. We were able to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford University. We couldn't take pictures in the Castle but let me say, if you ever get a chance to go, then do it. I wasn't sure how it would be but Matthew insisted that the best part of his London trip was Windsor and Oxford. It was MAGNIFICANT inside. I think the Queen could sell off everything in that one castle and be able to pull ALL of Africa out of poverity. It was amazing, huge, gold encrusted, and unbelievable. 2 hours wasn't enough time. Here are a few photos of the outside area. The second one is of the oldest part of the castle.

This is my favorite photo of stonehenge. I was a little disappointed. I guess I should have known that they would NEVER let us near the stones, but I guess I expected to be able to get some pictures without lots of tourist in them and get a little closer. Some of you may not know, and I won't bore you all day, but stonehenge is one of just many henges all over not only the British Isles, but Europe. There is a much larger cluster at Aveberry nearby, and there are woodhenges, and stone or wood henges on the seaside. No one is possitive what they were used for or who put them together. This henge is the third on the spot, and there is a nearby woodhenge that completes it. Best guess is that they were used for astrologic purposes. One fact to know, the Druids, HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH STONEHENGE. Tada, I am re-educating the world, one person at a time.

Finally Oxford was nice. One of the exciting parts for us was first, we saw the first ever Oxfam, and second we saw the Eagle and Child. Oxfam, is sorta like the salvation army, it was first founded in Oxford to meet the needs of families who couldn't afford the rising rate of goods. Needless to say like today, students made the most of it. Winn and I looked for these places all over Scotland, and managed to find more than half of them. The second place was the Eagle and Child, which was the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and others met every third Tuesday to discuss what they had been working on. I just can't imagine what that would have been like. They were known to get a bit boisterous at times. The inspiration for Alice and Wonderland was here as well, Lewis Carroll taught Mathematic and Phillosophy for a time here, while he observed Alice playing in the garden below his window. We saw the Chesshire Cat's tree, and learned the reason why he smiled. It was because he could see into the clergy's garden. Since the clergyman disliked children Alice was never allowed inside and she called it the secret garden and was convinded that it was more wonderful than any other garden in the world.

Finally on our last day in London, we had a hop on hop off bus tour. Lots of major cities have these even in the US, and you can get tickets alot cheaper online ahead of time. I would suggest it, it enables you to easily get to most areas of the city you want to see and lets you get into various things at no charge. We spent most of the day at London Castle, built to terrify and intimidate. (It now also houses the crown jewels.) Then we took the cruise down the Thames River. We saw Big Ben, Parliment, spent extensive time in Westminster Abbey, saw the statue of Boddicca, walked through Trafalger Square, and went on a ghost tour of London. Here are a few of the best pictures.

White Castle the center of London Castle, oldest part, and home to torture chamber, famous exacutions, and burrying place for over a hundred bodies, and 13 members of royalty/nobility. Next, Big Ben and the Parliment Building from the River Thames.

This was Westiminster Abbey, which was incredibly moving to me. There were so many famous people beneath those floors, and so many people who tried to worship God just like we do (the try part, not in the same manner, of course). I made a B-line for Mary's tomb, and stood there for about 10 minutes in awe. I really have enjoyed learning about her. I was also saddened to see folks come through who said, just another queen or wanted to know if she was Elizabeth's sister Mary. I wanted to yell to you understand who she is, she almost became Queen of England instead of Elizabeth. Imagine how different the world would be! Alas. Then there is the Statue of Boddica. Mac did a project on her, and so we had to stop by. It was Boddicca that stopped the Romans time and time again from invading upper Albion (meaning white clifts, the old name for the whole of the British Isle). As the Romans could never get across the Thames it's kinda a fitting location for her statue.

The final picture that I will leave you with from our trip is one from our Ghost tour. This is Ye Old Cheshire Cheese. It has many claims to fame. Founded in the 1520's it burned to the ground in the Fire of London. However, it was the first building to be rebuilt in 1677. Making it the oldest, consistant running pub in all the English speaking world. It also was the home of the famous talking Parrot. It was said that it could cuss in more than 17 lanugages and over 150 papers recorded his death. Odd what we value, huh?

7:57 PM 4 random thoughts

9:44 PM 4 random thoughts

Well, I've been scrubing the house down, since I haven't done ANY cleaning this week, so I suppose I can take a small break right?

The last few days that we were in Scotland we spent in Edinburough. This is the capital of Scotland. Edinburough Castle is on Castle Rock towering above the rest of the city, and as a result is virtually impossible to capture. Only once in it's history has it fallen into enemy hands, and then it was due to a traitor inside, not because it's defenses were breached. Holyrood Palace is the Queen's official Scotish residence and it stands at the end of the Royal Mile down from the Castle. It is so named, because a Scottish King of olden times was hunting boar and was wounded. He fell from his horse and was about to be trampled by the boar, when he cried out "Christ save me!" Legend has it that at that moment, a stag appeared before him and scared away the boar, and when he turned to face the king between his antlers was hovering a holy rood, or a cross, and the king built a monastary on that spot. The monastary was gradually added onto and became a residence. Along the Royal Mile between these two great buildings is the Old Town. This, along the river, and inside the city walls, is were Edinburgs lived for years. Many of the buildings are 10 stories or more up, and just as many stories underground. By the 1800s without proper sanatiation and running water, it was getting unbearable. The wealthier constructed fancy homes with yards on the other side of the river, and it became known as the New Town. All the poor were condeemed to live in the older buildings which became known as the Old Town. When plagues came through there were many instances where the city fathers would just brick up an area leaving those inside to die in the dark. Many of these areas still have not been reopened, and ghost tales and tours abound in the lower levels of the Old Town.

Welcome to Linburough Castle, Mary's birth place. Below St. Michael's Church, most likely the place she was christened.

We found Mary's head!!! Below Holyrood Palace, and Castle Rock and Edinburough Castle.

While in Edinburough we attended a Ceillaugh (I know the spelling isn't quite right here). Some of us went in our tartan garb. Winn allowed us to get him a kilt, and if I might say, it looked GREAT on him. Anyway, we were dance partners as well as fellow conspirators. Below we enjoyed our haggis and learning to dance. Even Mary recieved her royal haggis.

For many Edinburough has been inspiration which might help to explain why so many authors are from this area. Below, the real life Dr. Hyde and Mr. Jekel, followed by Greyfriar's Bobby. For those who don't know a Bobby is a common name for a Scottish terrier. This terrier everyday after his master was burried in Greyfriar's cementary, would hang out around this pub and play with school children, and every night he would curl up and sleep on his master's grave. The dog was loyal for almost 15 years before his own death. Attempts were made time and time again to give him a new home, but he always returned to the cementary.

Finally I'll close out this one with the boar rock at Holyrood Palace, see I didn't make up that whole story.

3:16 PM 1 random thoughts

This is yes, a snow-covered mountain. The week before we came they had snow as far South as London, and four feet deep in this area of Scotland. I love how the light through the mountains looks. The view heading up into the higlands...

The Peacock that the Indians that ran our hotel owned, and the view from my bedroom window.

The Highlands are usually what one thinks of when they think of Scotland. It was by far the most beautiful place we saw. The scenery was amazing and while we were there we had the oppertunity to attend church at a Scotish Kirk. I believe I mentioned before that Kirk is Scotish for church. However, it is also a way to differentiate between the Catholics and the Kirk (which are more or less

Presbyterians). It was different from our services in so many ways. They did have an organ, they had picked out four or five songs before hand, and they broke up the song service by singing, then reading and preaching, then more singing, then preaching and reading, and so on until they closed with the last song. However, I was tickled to recognize one of the tunes (Be Thou My Vision) set to different words, and "Crown Him Lord of All" to a slightly different tune. And even though the preacher was a woman, and even though we were a gazillion miles from home, she had something good to say, and she talked about Christ (which according to Dr. B is a rarity amongst European services). I really could feel the Lord's presence there.

Final thought, I know that it is completely out of order, but I took communion with them. I didn't know how to get out of it without being rude. I was kinda of glad that I did however, I really felt that they were worshiping the Lord the best way that they could. They did it in faith as well. There were about 7 members there, and there were ten who were at decoration days at other places. However, since this was the time for their communion they had poured wine in al the cups. They didn't know that we would come, but they did it in faith, and the Lord sent people to worship with them. They were so excited to have us there, and to share "tea and buscuits" with us. They seemed encouraged, and reminded me of so many of our little churches that are dying out. I prayed right then that, it never happens to Crossroads. So I know I shouldn't have, but hopefully no one excludes me for it.

We are having "tea and buscuits" which really means coffee, tea, and cookies. Finally below, we saw the castle from Monty Python.

5:00 PM 3 random thoughts

4:39 PM 2 random thoughts

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