Monday: Church history
and a very special dinner
Monday
was a lot of time in the coach (bus).
At the rest stop, it was a lot of fun because I got to play red rover
with my professor and his family.
I have to say, I never thought I could say I’ve played Red Rover with my
Professor! But, now I can and it
was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I
kind of hurt my knee while playing, but it ended up being all right.
We
also stopped in the Preston area to see church history sites. We got to stop in the Preston MTC
(missionary training center), see the Preston temple, and the River Ribble (the
place where the first converts were baptized in England). This was especially cool because some
of my ancestors joined the church around this area and were taught by some of
the missionaries who were baptizing there.
The Preston Temple
The River Ribble
Then,
we made our way up to Ambleside in the Lake District. This area of England is absolutely gorgeous! It’s green, full of low mountains and
lakes, and is simply breathtaking.
I had forgotten how much I missed mountains until I went there (you see,
I’ve never lived in a place without mountains before I studied in London).
Well,
that night we had the opportunity to eat in Dove Cottage (the place where Wordsworth
lived)! We ate food from the
Wordsworth family recipes (the best part was the lemonade with brown sugar in
it) and explored his garden and the little village nearby. It was so peaceful and picturesque.
Wordsworth's cottage
One of the lakes
Tuesday: A Man worth
his Words and a View to Match!
Tuesday
morning, we made our way back to Dove cottage and got to study from some
Wordsworth manuscripts and see some very special and early edition Wordsworth
and other authors. One of my
favorites was a second edition Jane Eyre. It was also fun to try to decipher the
old fashioned handwriting-it honestly reminded me of indexing!
That
afternoon, we went on quite an adventure.
Our scheduled hike for the afternoon was supposed to be about 2 hours
long, but it ended up being a 4 hour hike. You see, the hike was much longer than we originally
supposed. I absolutely loved
it! It was a difficult hike: there
were quite a few steep hills, it was the hottest it’s been since we’ve come to
Europe (there was a random heat wave this past week), and the map we had was
less than clear. However, it was
one of my favorite experiences of the week. The scenery was gorgeous and the company was great! It was peaceful and just gave me time
to appreciate the beauty that God has created. I also love hiking itself, so that part was fun as
well. I was pretty exhausted
afterwards though.
At the beginning of the hike
"Not all who wander are lost"
End of the hike by the lakes!
That
night, we went on another hike.
This one was much less intense and was just a nice jaunt through the
woods to go see a waterfall. It was nice and quite a bit cooler than the afternoon
had been.
Wednesday: Goodbye
England, Hello Scotland!
Wednesday
morning, we went on another hike around Ambleside and just took in the
beauty. Before we left, I had the
most delicious, and probably most unhealthy, donut ever! It had caramel frosting with crème
filling (I felt like I had deserved it after all the hiking).
After
a long time in the coach, we made it to Edinburgh, Scotland! That night we saw St. Giles’ Cathedral,
some really cool monuments, and had dinner at a super awesome place—The
Elephant House Cafe! For all of my
fellow Harry Potter fans out there, this is where J.K. Rowling wrote the first
2 Harry Potter novels. Between
Harry Potter, elephants galore (my favorite animal), and a delicious salad-who
could ask for more?
Later
that night, we hiked as a group up to Arthur’s Seat, a mountain that overlooks
Edinburgh (and the place where Orson Hyde dedicated Britain for missionary
work). Yes, that is 4 hikes in 2
days, if you were keeping count.
This was my favorite of all of them! It was somewhat steep, but we got our way all the to the
very top of the mountain. So, I fulfilled one of my life dreams-reaching the top of a
mountain and just looking around.
It was fantastic! The
sunset was absolutely gorgeous!
Thursday: A kilt and some Italian food?
Thursday,
we enjoyed some more of Edinburgh. We had an awesome tour guide (who was
wearing a kilt) and punned even more than my dad (which is definitely saying
something!). We toured the castle
and a really cool museum. I loved
Edinburgh-I just felt so at home there! Then, we had a really long coach ride
to York. We found a really yummy
Italian place for dinner and then walked along the medieval walls until it was
time to go back to our hotel.
Friday: Who knew the great wall was also in England?
Friday,
we toured York Minster and the town.
York had so many cute little shops to poke your head into and a really
cute market. I also had the opportunity to actually walk on the medieval
walls. I swear, it looked like the
Great Wall of China had been transported to England and shrunk a bit. We also ran into a really cool street
performer. He was hilarious,
juggled oranges, rode an 8 ft high unicycle and juggled knifes while he was on
it.
On the walls
Then,
we went to Fountain’s Abbey (after another long coach ride; can you sense a
pattern here?). It was an old
Norman abbey that was in ruins. It
was gorgeous in a sort of haunting way.
There was also a gorgeous buttercup field next to the abbey. It was so
much fun to play around in, take pictures, and just so beautiful!
I felt like Indiana Jones
So, it was a fantastic, pretty long trip. I had a great time and I'm just so glad that I had a chance to see all of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment