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.