#3 or "I no longer know how long we've been traveling."

As i write this, we’ve just boarded a cruise ship bound for Ireland. Also known as a ferry, but hey, it’s as good as a cruise ship to me! We have enjoyed our short stay in bonnie Scotland, and i do mean bonnie. Traveling over highways has always lulled me to sleep, but it’s hard to allow myself to sleep when there’s so much beauty everywhere. So here’s my recap of this last week:

Tuesday: in Northampton; Richard picked us up and drove us to the bus station, where i said goodbye to my 2 boys as they headed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to start their hike of Hadrian’s Wall. Rainy morning. The bus station was in the towne centre, so i spent a couple of hours exploring the mall, the market, and the pedestrian street as far as Tesco’s (grocery store). Bought a bunch of tasty cherry tomato’s for 1GBP at the market. Ate early lunch at Subway (going for the cheap). Took bus back home to Elaine’s. Spent the rest of my time till Wednesday evening at home sorting out my own travel arrangements and watching the Beth Moore simulcast.

The Northampton Town Centre Market

Northampton Town Centre

Pal on his second European journey with his buddy Andrew

Wednesday: Richard’s wife, Denise, picked me up late afternoon to take me back to their home for dinner and company (yay!). She made some kind of yumminess-casserole with chipolata (similar to sausage links but not as greasy), “rasher” bacon, red onion, leeks, butter beans, and topped with bread crumbs. I couldn’t get enough. 

     Meanwhile, after spending the night in a cheap hotel, Randall & Andrew caught a bus to the Sagedunum Roman Fort museum to learn about Roman life on the frontier of the empire, toured the actual ruins of a Roman fort, saw a reconstructed section of the wall, and got to watch archaeologists actually uncovering parts of the wall. They officially started their hike around noon and made it 8 miles before Randall's knee gave out, then he hobbled for 3 more before stopping for the night. They pitched their tent along the path, literally, just off to the side. By this time Randall’s knee was in so much pain that he was doubtful about continuing on with the hike.

At the Sagedunum Roman fort museum

They literally set up their tent by the path. Andrew sent me this text:  "Just like in The Way - we're sleeping on the path."

Thursday: Had a text from Randall waiting for me when i woke up saying he'd spent the night in excruciating pain so there was no way he’d be able to continue on with the hike, and they’d be catching a bus to meet me in Annan, Scotland. Richard drove all my luggage and me to the train station to begin my journey. Missed my stop in Carlisle because in my distraction of trying to maneuver all my luggage around this guy standing in the doorway with a large buggy, i didn’t realize i needed to push the button to open the door and i couldn’t see past him to even see whether we’d pulled into the station. All this time on this trip we’d never gone more than about 20 minutes between stops. So when the lady at the snack bar said we’d already pulled out of the Carlisle station and that the next stop was Glasgow 1 1/2 hours away, i got a little unnerved. She called the conductor, who helped me/all my luggage find another seat, looked up the information to get me on a return train to Annan, then brought me Pepsis and treats. When we got off at Glasgow, she led me to an employee and explained the situation, and he took me to the first class lounge to wait the 45 minutes, then he came back to escort me to my train. It was all quite delightful, almost. Because here i was, mistakenly in Glasgow and not able to stay. 

     But i did eventually make it to Annan a few hours after my boys arrived, so they’d already had time to check into the b&b, shower and eat dinner before i arrived. My dinner after arrival? Steak pie at Cafe Royal=yumminess!

The Annan train station

Friday:  explored town, went to the Annan museum. While Andrew & i were upstairs looking around, Randall was chatting with the curator downstairs about his family history research. Then a lady walked in, and the curator exclaimed, “Now here’s just the person you need to talk to!” To say the 82-year-old Mary R. is an expert on Scottish history and family geneology would be an understatement. She whisked him off to the library for some research while i went down the street in search of a mocha at the coffee shop. When Randall finally caught up with me, he said she’d offered to take us to Dumfries the next day for some further research, and she’d pick us up at 10:45. 

     Following her suggestion, we walked over and up to Mott and Bailey, where Robert the Bruce used to have his fort. 

We went through this gate to reach the top of Robert the Bruce's Mott and Bailey

The River Annan

    

  Ate dinner at Cafe Royal again. Trying to frequent the same places as much as possible in order to get to know people better. Best. Fish & chips. Ever.

This plaque is on the wall outside the Cafe Royal restaurant entrance. Robert Burns 

Saturday: Well Ms. R. is quite the authority! She drove us all over the countryside today, and there was not one thing Randall pointed to that she didn’t know something about; not one house, one field, one hill, one barn, and she has family connections to nearly everything. They never did have any luck with the family history research, but we definitely got a tour of the Dumfries-Moffat-Lockerbie area. She even pulled the car off the side of the road, went up to a tower house that her ancestors had some connection with, and asked the lady there if we could see the inside! Turns out the lady there was the one who had renovated it and was waiting on a potential renter to look at it. It was quite posh on the inside.

This photo doesn't do justice to the full height of the tower house.

An Ecclefechan Tart, anyone? (short e-klu-fe-kun {the u's are shwas}. Ms. R. gave us each one of these; it has  fruit & nuts in it, and is named for the town near Annan.

     When i finally told her i was ready to call it a day because i had laundry to figure out, she offered to let us do our washing at her house. Then while the second load was in the dryer, we all went to Cafe Royal again for dinner. 

     Now, i have no idea why the Lord provided that opportunity in Annan, but we sure weren’t seeking it out. I asked her if she goes to church anywhere because we were uncertain about where we’d go the next day, but she said no, she’s a member at one of them but never goes.

Sunday:  Went to church just a few paces down the street from our b&b, St. Andrew’s Parish Church of Scotland (nearly every Church of Scotland we saw was named after St. Andrew - he is Scotland’s favorite). Had no idea what to expect, but it was surprisingly similar to our services in the U.S. (except for the robed minister and the organ). We stayed afterward for tea and biscuits (cookies) and had a very pleasant visit with the minister till everyone was gone. 

Walking to church, which is just on the other side of the trees in front of Randall's head. I'm thinking we can document Andrew's growth on this trip by watching his pant length, because he wears the same pair of pants to church every Sunday. :-)

Today was their Harvest Sunday, so towards the end of the service they had the children come out to do a special presentation of food items they brought for the "harvest table." It was really cute.

     

Spent the afternoon trying to make travel arrangements for our next journey. Not easy! I enjoy traveling from place to place, and i enjoy exploring a place for a time, but i’m finding out that making the arrangements is a pain in the neck. It’s difficult to do this on an extremely limited budget and as we go. This way of traveling is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.

     Had dinner one more time at Cafe Royal, then stopped by the church to say hiya/goodbye to the minister. (People here say hiya for hi.)

And that brings us to today. Got on a bus in Annan for Dumfries, got on another bus to Strenraer, got on another bus to the ferry, and now we’re on the ferry to Belfast. Then we’ll have to figure out where to go to get on the bus to Dublin. And i kid you not, as i live and breathe, while i was on the ferry typing this, a lady walked up to us and said, “I know you; you go to Mt. Comfort, don’t you?” (in Fayetteville) “Well, not anymore, but we used to.” She’s Susie Lamb. We didn’t know her, but she recognized us. Craziness! On the ferry between Scotland and Ireland.

Random thoughts from this last week:

- I'm quite certain that the sheep outnumber the people in England & Scotland

- Overall, people in England & Scotland are just super-nice and helpful

- It is mostly impossible, i believe, to capture the exquisite beauty that is everywhere - every bridge, every river/creek/babbling brook, every hillside, every blade of grass - with a camera. 

- I love the actual traveling around from place to place, mostly, and i love being in a new place, but i strongly dislike working out the logistics of getting from one place to another. Also laundry. Laundry is hard when traveling.

- Twenty days is how long it took me to "hit a wall" with traveling like this. Today is day 21.

#2

This is just going to be a short post, i think, and not as lighthearted as last week's as i've spent all day dealing with one crisis after another, some minor and one in particular not so minor. My only goals for today were to school Andrew, do laundry, pack us up to part ways tomorrow, and catch up on communication (such as this post). School - check (except that i just realized that i packed the wrong logic book - one that he'd already completed :-(); laundry - check (although cause for one of the minor crises - i hate trying to figure out European washers - there's no logic to them at all!); packing=check (except for the clothes that are still hang-drying by the gas wall heater); communication=we'll see if i get this completed. Oh, and that little matter of figuring out what I'm going to do once R & A leave for their hike. That would be the not-so-minor crisis i've been dealing with most of today.

Their bus for Newcastle-upon-Tyne leaves in the morning at 9:05. They won't arrive till 3:30, so they'll have to start their hike on Wednesday morning. I'd always pictured that by now some super-cool opportunity would have popped up for me to do while they're gone, but alas, here it is 12 hours away and i have absolutely no idea what i'm going to do or where i'm going to go. I keep hitting walls everywhere i turn. Going back to London to spend more time with the Olivers & Sams is not an option because it'd be too expensive and because i still can't find any rooms available near them. It seemed to make sense to go on up to Annan, Scotland where R & A plan to end their hike, but there are several walls blocking my way there too. Fortunately i just found out a short time ago that i can continue to stay where i am in Northampton, so i may stay put for at least a couple more days. I'm just major-bummed; feeling very alone and stressed out.

As far as this last week, it's not been too bad. Here's a quick run-down of what we did since my last post:
Tuesday - went to the British Museum, then over to the Olivers' for one more visit before leaving town.
Wednesday - took the coach from Victoria Station to Southampton because another lady from my Christian, mostly-homeschooling, mums facebook group had invited us to come stay with her family. So we did. Nigel & Leonie have 5 children, 3 of them under 6. We slept in their loft schoolroom on air mattresses that had been loaned to her by yet another member from the fb group (but whom i didn't get to meet). I'm really loving English hospitality so far. These people, most of whom we'd never met till this trip, have rolled out the red carpet for us.
Thursday - Leonie took us to an abby ruin, Titchfield Abby to have a look around, and then to the English Channel beach near Portsmouth. She invited us to accompany their 15-year-old son, Brandon, to his "Cadets" meeting that evening, which was similar to our ROTC. Quite interesting, as that wasn't an activity that i'd pictured doing when we visited England. But it was good.

Friday - Brandon was preparing to make some brownies when he discovered that a bag of flour had spilled into the bottom of a cabinet. I have no idea how exactly it happened, but one thing led to another and i ended up spending the rest of the day and part of Saturday morning reorganizing Leonie's kitchen. My third kitchen in 3 weeks! I guess maybe just call me the kitchen fairy, i don't know. But i do know that she invited me to do it, i didn't just take over. She said they'd moved into this house 1 1/2 years ago when she was recovering from a c-section and couldn't do anymore than just quickly get stuff put anywhere, and has been so busy with her 5 children that she's never had time to go back and sort it all out.

The English use a lot of different flours!

Saturday - Leonie offered to drive us to Northampton because she could get us here so much faster than the bus could (see what i'm talking about - that English hospitality?) So we got here mid-afternoon, and since our friend Richard had plans till 5:30, he'd arranged for us to go to another church member's house till he could get by to pick us up. So Johnson and his 2 adorable children, Rachel and Darius, babysat us for a couple of hours, and honestly he didn't stop feeding us the whole time we were there. Then Richard picked us up, took us by his house for a few minutes, then took us over to his mother-in-law's home where we are house-sitting till tomorrow. Or later, for me apparently.

Those eyes! Can you EVEN?

And Rachel's smile!

Sunday - Richard had invited Randall to preach at the church in Northampton, so he happily did. The church was packed, which it normally is; they have 110+ members, i think. Wonderful service and wonderful people all around. Afterward, since his wife was sick at home, Richard took us out to a wonderful restaurant where we had a traditional English dinner of roast beef (roast turkey for A and roast lamb for R) and Yorkshire pudding. Then he took us to nearby Olney to the church where John Newton (Amazing Grace) and Thomas Cowper used to serve and write hymns.

Richard & Randall

The Church of St Peter & St Paul in Olney

So stay tuned to find out how the Big Hike goes, and what i end up doing while they're traipsing around the English countryside.

First Days

So here’s where i try to journal what’s going on with us as we travel through Europe seeking what God is doing, in a way that other people actually want to read. Because i don’t consider myself an engaging writer. Some people can make the most mundane things sound so exciting and funny; i feel like i just sound like a whiner. But the purpose of this is not to sound whiney. The nature of our travels is NOT that of the normal tourist or the latest family blogging their way around the world. I’m expecting this adventure to be full of difficulties, messes, thrills, and blessings. I don’t even know how frequently i’ll be able to post entries as it will depend on wi-fi connections and just overall craziness. But several people have asked for travel updates, so here goes my attempt. Enjoy!

First Day: The flight over here went really well, other than the fact that when one flies coach class one is squeezed in like sardines. We do not take for granted that we incurred no baggage fees, and even though we were asked several questions by “border force” that made me think the other shoe was going to drop at any moment, we got through with no problems. Our friend Oliver was there to meet us with 3 of his 7 children. He took us by a giant travel plaza-food court and bought us McDonald’s coffee treats, then on to his home where we spent the afternoon visiting with he & Leah and all their children. After dinner, Oliver drove us to our hotel. Now things are not going quite so perfectly.

At the time i made these hotel reservations (which are, in fact, the only reservations we made for this entire trip), we were hoping to book a place somewhere in/near Woolwich (a borough of London) so we’d be convenient to the Olivers & Sams. But as luck would have it, the Olivers were busy with sick, whooping-cough children and having their 7th baby, so they were unavailable to advise us about hotel locations. Booking a hotel was turning out to be no easy task as any that were remotely affordable were not available for our dates. We finally booked a hotel in Croyden (another borough), thinking partly that it couldn’t be that far away, and that maybe God had a reason for not having us any closer anyway. This is a Spirit-led trip, after all. The difference on the map of London is that Woolwich is basically on the central-southeast side, and Croyden is south. In reality, it takes no less than 1 hour to drive it, either by car or by bus. So when he dropped us off, we knew we were on our own for a few days. 

Also, and i know many of you are going to bristle at this news, we came here expecting to pay cash for nearly everything this first month, because we’d done our research and decided that cash was very often better than card. And we knew that the international exchange rate for dollars to pounds was around $1.50. However, we didn’t know that the reality of exchanging the dollars would be a minimum of $1.68/1 pound. Ouch! So that basically means that we give away nearly half of our cash to non-needy people in order to be able to function in their country. And for the first 2 days we’ve been here, we’ve not been allowed to cash more than 100 pounds/day. Thankfully our hotel has allowed us to pay as we go.

All of that, combined with other nuisances with this hotel, and we looked into finding another hotel somewhere closer to Woolwich, but so far, still, nothing is available. 

Thursday, our first full day in London, our only 3 goals for the day were to figure out where to get food and local cash, re-pack our suitcases to fit this trip (we had packed them solely based on carry-on/check-on restrictions), and to rest. We did all 3 fairly well, except for finding better exchange rates for cash, so we decided to take the bus to the city center (Regent Street) hoping to find more banks to choose from. We purchased our oyster cards, figured out where to go to get on the correct bus, and rode 1 1/2 hours to get to downtown. We really didn’t plan on getting off the bus till we saw a bank, but the bus forced us off at “the end of the line” at Regent Street. We walked around in all the frenzy that feeds the Global Fashion Industry; no banks. Trying to get back on the correct bus proved to be quite the ordeal, walking around looking for the correct stop, standing on a somewhat dark street after 8:00 for around 25 minutes, then another 1 1/2 hours back to our local bus stop, then the 15 minute walk to our hotel, and the 5 minute walk from the hotel lobby to our room via a series of halls, stairs, and doors. 

Friday something between jet lag and culture shock hit me, and i didn’t want to get out of bed all morning. I did get myself ready, did some stretches, finished watching my first Bible study lesson (I’m doing Beth Moore’s Breath, a video study on the Holy Spirit), and then it was back in bed for me for most of the morning. Thinking, “i can’t believe we thought of something so reckless as this.”, “This is going to be a disaster.” “What are we even supposed to do?”

Saturday, Andrew did a couple of subjects for school in the morning, then we met Sam  and his young son, Caleb, so they could take us on a private canal tour!  (Almost) Perfect afternoon! We walked for about 2 miles along the canal, bought our (picnic-style) lunch at Tesco (grocery), then visited Sam's dad, who lives on a canal boat (his mom was out for the afternoon). Then Sam drove us to his house and we met Bethan and their other 3 children, and had dinner, and then he drove us back to our hotel. 

Sunday, despite our best-laid plans to get to Oliver & Leah's church on time in Woolwich, we were 30 minutes late. We left our hotel at 8:30 to walk to the train station by 9:00, but the train we'd expected to take apparently doesn't run on Sundays? Even though the internet schedule didn't say that? So we were told to take a different route, except we got on the wrong train and ended up at Victoria Station (opposite direction of Woolwich). This happened because Randall had not had his coffee yet, so he & Andrew bought their espresso in Victoria Station, and on we went. We had to finagle our way to the Woolwich station, where Leah picked us up to take us to church. We got there during the prayer right before Oliver's sermon. 

When church was over we'd been invited to stay for lunch with Sam & Bethan & littles. Cottage pie = so yum! Since the church doesn't have wifi and we couldn't FaceTime with Emily, we just texted back & forth so she could "join us for lunch," sending a pic of us at the table and her sending us a pic of her as she was ready to leave for church. Then we girls went over to Leah's for a bit, then back to the church for tea & cakes, then evening service, then more tea & cakes, then back to Oliver & Leah's so Randall could spray their house (several months ago a couple of guests left them an unwanted gift of roaches, and Leah had been anxiously awaiting our arrival so Randall could take care of it. The demand for his services has gone international!). While littles were being put to bed and Leah was emptying out her kitchen and Randall was supervising the clean-out, we face timed with Emily = totally fun. It was after 10:00 when Oliver got us back to our hotel, but what a fabulous day of awesome fellowship. 

Tips i've learned so far:

-It might sound creepy to fly across the ocean to visit people whom you only know through facebook, but actually it’s not much different than people visiting pen pals over previous decades and even centuries. 

-This is the cereal to eat in Europe. THere’s simply nothing better.

   -Riding the upper level of double decker buses, especially at the very front row, is a great way to see everyday London life in action. 

    - Everybody in London seems to know how to work together to navigate traffic without getting hit or killed, meaning pedestrians,  cyclists, car drivers, and bus drivers. It’s nothing short of amazing.

-When going for a walk along the canal with a London friend, these are not the shoes to wear.  

(This pic doesn't show the terrain we walked on for 2 miles

to get to this point.)

 - I may or may not have been willing to sell my birthright for a pair of flip flops at Tesco’s, but unfortunately they didn’t have any.

      - When you find yourself with blisters all over your feet because of the beautiful ballet flats that have not been sufficiently broken in yet and Tesco’s doesn’t have flip flops, socks work nicely too. Even in London. 

P.S. Moleskins and band-aids do not help in this situation.