This will be a tough one to write about... we've covered lots of miles very quickly. To finish off Scotland, we went further north to Braemar to take in the Braemar Highland Games. It can best be described as 'ancient Scottish traditional competitions,' like a track meet... only far more interesting. There was traditional Scottish dancing, uphill races (which took more than an hour to finish, I believe... Scots are not at all faint of heart), tug-o-war (brutes of men with very technical, strategic movements), throwing of 28- and 56-lb. 'rocks,' and my favorite, log throwing. There's a couple of pictures on the Facebook website.. they're pretty incredible. The official name for this phenomenon is caber tossing. The Queen was there for about an hour in the afternoon, so there's a couple pictures of her as well. I got the chance to see just how nationalist the Scots are... many of them (including our wilderness guides who accompanied us to the Games) stayed seating as the Queen's auto drove around the outside arena, and didn't even acknowledge her. After Braemar we drove well over 6 hours down to Keswick ("Kessick") in the Lake District in Northern England. I kid you not, this place is breathtaking. I did no alteration or Photoshopping of any kind to the pictures--it's just that beautiful. Keswick was absolutely lovely; it was small but still had everything we needed, and it was quiet but still lively. Great town. While in Keswick we stopped at Beatrix Potter's cottage and Wordsworth's "Dove Cottage," along with many sites of his inspiration for his poems. From Keswick we stopped at Chatsworth Manor (where the Duke of Somewhere lives), where a part of "Pride and Prejudice" was filmed. Ugh. However, I did take a picture of the bust of Mr. Darcy for all you die-hards. We ended in Hawarden ("Harden") in Northern Wales, where we still are. We're currently at a library(!!!) with thousands upon thousands of books, doing some intensive study on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and also the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. We'll stay here until Friday, then it's off to Oxford! The Anglican priest who runs St. Deiniol's Library is a funny man who loves to be politely satirical about our American government. I've found it absolutely hilarious that the British are so polite about making their opinion known about George Bush or whatnot.. they'll make funny little side remarks under their breath right in the middle of conversation.. absolutely great. This priest also claims he's the "real Harry Potter," as he was neighbors with J.K. Rowling. "I have dark hair, I wear glasses, and I even have a wee little scar right above this left eyebrow, see?" he says. "I was the inspiration for it all." Right. Anyways, St. Deiniol's has definitely provided a much-needed rest from the bigger towns and cities.. very refreshing. We did get a few hours in Liverpool, home of the Beatles and also the Largest Cup of Coffee in All Humanity (see photos). Hopefully that brings everyone up to speed.. by the way, if anyone feels like sending an e-mail or even a letter to let me know how the U.S. is holding up without me, feel free. It'd be much appreciated to know I'm still connected to Americans, although I'm constantly reminded of it. Letters take about a week to get here, so if you want to send one, let me know by e-mail and I'll give you the address we'll be at a week or so ahead of time so it'll get to me. Cheerio.
Scotland, Lake District and Chatsworth photos: http://bethel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031885&id=63804086
Liverpool and Northern Wales photos: http://bethel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031888&id=63804086&saved
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