Continuing our trip with Brian and Linnell.

This was an interesting exhibit in the Natural History Museum.

This is Edinburgh castle.  We could see it from our hotel window and it was just a short walk away.

This is Doune Castle (pronounced Dune) in Scotland.  This is where a portion of the "Monte Python and the Search for the Holy Grail" movie was shot.  I think the wall on the left side was where they catapulted the cow at King Arthur and his men.  We heard that there were coconut shells available in the gift shop, but it wasn't open while we were there.

 This is a picture of a rock on the coast called Kilt Rock.

 This is one of the many lochs (lakes) that we saw on the trip.

The dark rock sticking up is called The Old Man of Storr and there is a Scottish folktale associated with it.

 This is one of the native cows of Scotland.  It is a Highland Cow, but our guide always referred to them as "Hairy Coos" (Hairy cows).

This is Eilean Donan castle, probably the prettiest castle we saw on our trip.

This a picture of several of the Lochs.  There are a line of them that cut diagonally through Scotland and you can cross the middle of Scotland by boat.

 Back in London we walked across the Millennium Bridge (above) and toured St Paul's Cathedral (below).

 This is a view of London from the top of the London Eye.  It was a pretty good view, even though it was raining.

Here we are sailing down the Thames.  It was kind of cold that day, but we still had a good time.

 

These are the adventures we had with Brian and Linnell.

The day they arrived we went to Windsor Castle.

This was taken in Trafalgar Square looking at Big Ben in London.  It was cold, rainy which is normal England weather.

We went to the Natural History Museum.  This is what greets you when you walk in the front door.  Really cool.

 Christmas in England at the temple was very different.  Most of the workers are British and they all went home to be with their families, leaving just us foreigners here to kind of fend for ourselves.  We decided to have a "simple" Christmas dinner and just visit and watch videos.  As you can see by the decorations, the decorators got a bit carried away.  The things on the place mats are Christmas Crackers.  You pull on the two ends and they pop.  They have funky little paper hats (see the second picture), a cheap toy (think Crackerjacks) and a corny joke.  The British love them.   Anyway, we had a good time with this group and it made the holiday enjoyable.  There were about 13 of us, including a young couple on a date who kind of got stranded at the temple.

We also went to Midnight Mass at a Church of England church (See the picture below).  It was interesting, even if they read everything word for word.  It is a lot like a Catholic service.

 The next three pictures were taken at Canterbury, the headquarters of the Church of England.  This is Canterbury Cathedral.  Cathedrals are all built in the shape of a cross.

We went to Battle.  Battle is where the Battle of Hastings was fought.  It was the where England was fighting against William the Conquerer.

This is part of the Abbey that was built there.

This is the battlefield.

We are now at Lullingstone Roman Villa.  Roman ruins of a village are here and they have built a building around them.

This is a train bridge.

These two pictures are at Basildon house and gardens.

The picture below is of Chiswick house.We toured the house.  

The gardens at Chiswick house.  Just gorgeous.

Wakehurst place.  This is a botanical gardens.  You could spend days here and not see it all.

There are trees and plants from all over the world here.

Natural sculptures made out of vines and set around the gardens.

The mansion at Wakehurst place.  People love to have weddings here.

It is only about 7 miles from where we live.

 Church History Tour

Remember the story of Pres. Hinckley being discouraged and wanting to go home from his mission and his father wrote and told him to forget himself and go to work  This is where he was living in Preston England when that happened.

A plaque in Preston honoring the first Latter-day saints in Great Britain.

The River Ribble where the first  baptisms were performed

The Hodder valley where John Taylor preached.

Stonyhurst College

Liverpool docks where the immigrants left from going to America.

George Washington's family came from this town and they honor him here.

Benbow farm where Wilford Woodruff baptized many saints.

The pond where the baptisms took place is behind the fence.

Gladfield Elm chapel which is the first church owned by the church.  When Wilford Woodruff and others baptized 600 of the United Brethren they gave the church this building they were using.

Preston England Temple

Getting ready to board the Hogwarts Express.

OUR IRELAND TRIP

With the closing of the temple for cleaning, we had a little time on our hands and were asked by another missionary couple if we would like to go with them to Ireland.  We jumped at the chance and took off on a "coach tour" of Ireland.  We were welcomed to Belfast, our first stop, with rioting both nights we were there.  I think they just wanted to make me feel at home.

Here is the capitol building in Northern Ireland.  It is called Stormont.

This is a new building recently built in Belfast.  It is part of the Titanic Experience.  The Titanic was built in Belfast.  The people here say of the Titanic, "Well, it worked just fine when it left here."

This is a strange statue in Belfast.  We never found out much about it, although we did find out about the doll on the ball and the floozy in the jacuzzi.

From Belfast we headed North up into the Antrim coast to see the Old Bushmill's distillery and the Giant's Causeway.  Even with free samples, the distillery wasn't all that neat (except for the gift shop, where Peggy found lots to buy), but the causeway was very impressive.

These pictures give you a little idea of what the Giant's Causeway was like.  From here we went back to Belfast and went on a tour of the city.  Then it was on to Donegal and into the Republic of Ireland.  At this point our money (pounds) weren't much good and we had to use Euros.

This is Donegal Bay, not to be confused with Galway Bay or Dingle Bay.

Donegal has a very beautiful bay and is a small city with quaint buildings.  We went to a show in the evening that was pretty authentic Irish entertainment, with folk songs, Irish dancing, and Irish humor.  We also had a chance to do a little shopping and Peggy found an Aran sweater she liked.  From Donegal, we headed to Galway. It also has a famous bay and is quite a bit bigger than Donegal.  We found Galway very beautiful and interesting.

This is the carriage and driver we took on a brief tour of Galway.  Below is Galway Bay.

From Galway we headed for Killarney.  On the way we stopped to stretch our legs and get some lunch in Limerick.  Limerick has a nice big castle, but we had seen enough castles in England and passed on the opportunity to pay money to see another one.  But we could tell that we were getting to the heart of Ireland from the scenery.

The street signs (and many other signs) in Ireland are printed in both English and Gaelic.

From Limerick we headed to Tralee and the Ring of Kerry.  The Ring of Kerry is a loop of 107 miles that you can drive around and see some pretty spectacular scenery.  Most of it is coastline.

As you travel around the Ring of Kerry you come to several small villages, but no large towns.  It was in the little village of Sneem that I finally found an Aran sweater that looked good and fit me.

After the Ring of Kerry and Tralee, we headed for Dublin, the final stop on our tour.

We toured Dublin and visited Trinity College where they have a very old book called the Book of Kells.  It is three of the gospels and was hand-written by monks a few hundred years after Christ.  From Dublin, it was a short flight back to Gatwick and then to the Accommodation Center.