Transitioning from Scotland to France

Daffodils in Scotland (photo for Judy Haselhoef)

Before I offer any observations and pearls of wisdom about the last 24 hours, I want to note that I made a mistake in my last post.  I originally said that there were ten Catholic churches in Scotland when I meant that there were ten Catholic churches in Coatbridge, quite a few for a city of 40,000. This is due in large part to all the Irish who traveled to Scotland to find work. 

Until recently, there was a lot of what our hosts called sectarianism--major and sometimes violent competition between Catholics and Protestants. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian. According to Wikipedia,  in Glasgow, the sectarianism has been reinforced through the rivalry of two football (soccer) clubs, the Catholic Celtics and the Protestant Rangers. Coincidentally, these two teams were playing this past Sunday. The heavily favored Celtics were defeated by the Rangers. Think I will choose not to read too much into this.

We have been recipients of wonderful and humbling hospitality on our trip. Our friends in Scotland took good care of us and we enjoyed hanging out with them. Below is the view from the picture window in their kitchen. 

The funny-looking tree in the middle is called a Monkey Puzzler. It's a very hardy pine tree.

They had chickens. Luke enjoyed feeding them and. . .

. . . collecting their eggs.

Our main purpose in traveling to France is to visit the beaches in Normandy, where John's dad was during World War II. But we have a little more time there then we need for this visit and we were trying to figure out what else to do. As the theme of this trip is pilgrimage, we were thinking about going to see the Cathedral in Chartres. This has been a site for pilgrims for centuries, and I've always wanted to see it.

When we mentioned to our Scottish hosts that we were thinking about going to Chartres, they told us they had made a pilgrimage to the Cathedral there. It was a true pilgrimage as they walked 50 miles from Paris to Chartres. This sealed the deal.

So we boarded our easyJet flight from Edenborough to Paris.

They line up (queue) differently in Scotland. Here we are waiting in tunnels.

Doesn't easyJet sound like the name of a made up airline company?

Everything went well. The biggest challenge of the day was negotiating rush hour traffic in Paris in a stickshift Citreon. My clutch skills were a little rusty. Did you know that more than 12 million people live in the Paris metro area? It is the biggest city in Europe, aside from London.

It was a relief to arrive in the calmer town of Chartres. While we were driving around town, not exactly lost (can you be lost when you're not sure where you want to wind up?), we got an up close view of one of the most Gothic Cathedrals in Europe.

We are looking forward to seeing more of it!

Coatbridge, Scotland

Luke leaping his way back from the museum in Coatbridge.

For the last few days, we've been staying in Coatbridge, a city of about 40,000 in the south of Scotland, not far from Glasgow. In the 19th century, it was a major Scottish center of coal mining and ironworks. 

                        

The town has a nice museum that covers its history from prehistoric to industrial times.

                              

Coal mining and iron working was unbelievably hard and dangerous work. 

People's lives were hard and often cut short. 

It's easy to see where Charles Dickens got material for his novels.

From early times in Scotland, people had Christian faith.

Coatbridge is heavily populated by Irish Catholics, who immigrated to Scotland for work. There are TEN Catholic churches in Coatbridge, unusual for a country that is mainly Protestant.

We attended Mass at St. Augustine's Church. It was designed by Peter Pugin red sandstone. The interior featured a curvilinear Gothic style.

The altars and stained glass windows were beautiful.

On the baptism font, there was a scallop, which is one of the symbols of the Camino de Santiago

The Royal and the Ridiculous!

You can't go to Great Britain without visiting a castle and so on Saturday we went to Scotland's Stirling Castle.

This is an old castle--it dates from 1110--with a convoluted history as Scotland and England fought back and forth over the years. Mary Queen of Scots spent her childhood at Stirling.

William of Wallace, who was depicted in the movie "Braveheart," defeated an English army at Stirling.

A guide explaining to Luke how impregnable Stirling Castle is.

King Luke and Queen Maria at the head of the Great Hall

It was interesting to visit a castle as the British are ramping up to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday. An article in the Telegraph Magazine described the current Queen's travel arrangements. The tours are planned down to the minute and every situation is considered. She and Prince Phillip bring along their own blood. All of the Queen's skirts are weighted so they won't blow up on the tarmac and reveal a peek at the royal undies, a precaution that our hosts said Kate Middleton should take as well. Among the almost 35 people in the royal travel entourage are included many secretaries, a physician, ladies-in-waiting and occasionally an artist. 

The other end of the Great Hall, where guests would eat sumptuous meals.

The Queen's favorite drink sounds like a stiff one--Dubonnet and gin, served in the combination of 50/50. She has never revealed what her favorite meal is because it would be served at every occasion but there are instructions to include no garlic in the meals so that the royal breath remains fresh. The Queen sometimes displays the dry British wit. When Canada's leader Justin Trudeau was getting emotionally, remembering the Queen from his father's days as prime minister, the Queen said, "Thank you for making me feel so old!"

If the above sounds a bit much to American ears, our hosts explained that the Queen views her appointment as a God-given arrangement to serve the people for life. Last year,  at age 88 she went on a mind-boggling 306 engagements in the UK and 35 abroad. In 2011, Queen Elizabeth was a huge hit in Ireland.

The Queen's inner chambers.

Luke asked about the codpiece, which had the kids dissolving into giggled. The jester explained that men would often store money and other valuables in it.

The Union Jack flied above Stirling Castle.

A band of students from New Jersey marches into Stirling Castle, carrying the Scottish and American flags.

From the royal to the ridiculous: Luke and the kids went walking on water at the Wheel of Falkirk.

The adults were laughing pretty hard as standing in the bubble, much less walking, was difficult.

But Luke got pretty good by the end. Watch the boy go!

Continuing our Pilgrimage in Scotland!

We are visiting our friends in Scotland who know we are on a pilgrimage, so the first place they took us in Scotland was to the Carfin Pilgrimage Centre. The Centre contains shrines to our Lady of Lourdes and St. Therese of Lisieux that were established in 1922 in part for pilgrims who don't have the time or money to journey to Lourdes.

We prayed for a special family intention at this shrine.

The centre is a good place for praying. . . and playing!