February 1, 2011

Hello everyone out there in blogger land...I am ready to sit down and catch up with some photos, etc., as I am shamefully long overdue again...and I can't make it work today. I "presently have trouble with" (Tony Horton, P90X) pulling up the pictures I have stored in IPhoto. Dear Gussie. This happened to me once before and I managed to get it going after a couple of tries. The problem this time is that it was so long ago, that I don't remember how I solved the problem. Anyway, stay tuned. Hope you are all doing GREAT!

Later...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to EVERYONE!!

I resolved to finish up my posts from our fall adventures when the Velas and Hillsteads were here--BEFORE I went home for Christmas. I have tons of other things to get done, but this has AGAIN been put off for way too long. This took most of my day...but I feel good that I am done! We missed little Rach being with us...but she was in school and enjoying it. She really did have a great semester! Rachel was here for six weeks in the summer though, so she got to do some things with us during that time. Most of it was here in England, but that's not such a bad thing because the summertime here is beautiful and we got to see a lot of really cool things. ANYWAY, I put up 5 posts today...our fall trip broken down into four sections. So, if you are in the mood, keep looking at the last 5 posts (which includes this one) to see some pics from our fall adventures.

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Donna and Brian

December 13, 2010

The Holyrood Palace in Edinborough, Scotland

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND & LONDON, ENGLAND

October 2010

Jake, Jenna and Goldie arrived here one week before the Hillsteads came. They wanted to go to Scotland and London and so we did.

LONDON, ENGLAND

October 2010

Jenna and Goldie in St. James Park -- just down from Buckingham Palace...

A beautiful walk in the park...

Goldie loved the pigeons...

Outside the gate at Buckingham Palace...

The gate at Buckingham...

Buckingham Palace

The driving entrance to the Palace...

St. James Park...

A few sights from the Bus Tour...

Inside the grounds at the Tower of London...

The Tower of London...

Tower Bridge

London was beautiful...weather was fantastic! Looking forward to going back again!

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

October 2010

We love the bagpipe players...

Goldie was loving her travels...

One of the places we went to see was the Edinburgh Castle which was amazing. It is a city within a wall, built up on a high granite mountain. The picture below was a garden area inside the walls. It was especially pretty here, with trees and flowers.

This is an example of what the streets looked like inside the Castle walls. Most of the buildings here had been made into museums.

This monument is in front of the Scottish National War Memorial which is also located inside the Castle Walls. It is a very sacred place for the people of Scotland and inside are huge books listing all the soldiers with dates and wars where they gave their lives. It is a place where reverence is expected. It is one large room with names and pictures and verses displayed. One of the verses posted inside said this:

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

I had written the verse down when I was there the first time back in August. On November 11th, on Armistice Day, at 11 a.m. in the morning all of the churchs in the UK took a moment of silence to remember the soldiers who died in battle. Then, Br. Sparks read the above verse from the pulpit. You could have heard a pin drop. I will always remember feeling of their reverence for those who died.

The entrance to the Castle...

One of the buildings within the Castle wall...

A couple views of the city from the Castle...

Jake in all his glory ready to let off the cannon inside the Castle...there was a whole row of them here...

A little reenactment going on here...

Another place we went to see was the Holyrood Palace. This is the Palace that the Queen of England stays in when she is in Scotland. It is a working Palace. When she isn't there, parts of it are open to tourists. I loved it!

This is the courtyard just inside the Palace entrance.

This is the gate to the Palace grounds...

Inside the Palace grounds are the ruins to the Abby. The ruins are beautiful and the following pictures are from the Abby.

This epitaph was embedded into one of the outer walls of the Abby. I loved the tribute given to the man that it was written for. Here is what it says:

From the Abby at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland

September 2010

Here lies the body of

THOMAS LOWES, Esq.

Late of Ridley Hall,

In the County of Northumberland

One instance among thousands,

Of the uncertainty of human life,

And the instability of earthly possessions and enjoyments.

Born to ample poverty,

He for several years experienced

A distressing reverse of fortune,

And no sooner was he restored to

His former affluence,

Than it pleased Divine Providence

To withdraw this, together with his life.

READER,

Be thou taught by this,

To seek those riches which never can fail,

And those pleasures

Which are at God’s right hand

For evermore,

The gracious gift of God,

And to be enjoyed through faith

In JESUS CHRIST, our Saviour.

An only Daughter, over whom the deceased

Had long watched with the tenderest care,

And many Friends who admired

His liberal and generous mind: unite

In deploring his loss.

He departed this Life

On the 18^th day of September,

In the Year of our Lord 1812, and

In the 61^st Year of his Age.

Bibby and Goldie inside the Abby...

And Papa and Goldie inside the Abby...

Some of the Abby walls...

The next picture is of the Roslyn Chapel...which is the actual chapel from the movie and book "The DaVinci Code"... it is currently being restored to its' original condition. It is really beautiful.

Edinburgh is really a NEAT place to visit!

PARIS

October 2010

This is the week that the Vela's and Hillstead's were here together with us and the plan was to go to Paris. We took a flight out of Manchester, England and enjoyed four days of sight seeing.

We found a little breakfast place that was unbelievable! Everything we ordered was "D-i-v-i-n-e" with a capital "D"!! I can still taste it :) Below is a picture of someone's hot chocolate and chocolate croissant. The hot chocolate was totally made from scratch and it was the best I think we have ever had.

Goldie shared breakfast with daddy and quite enjoyed it!

The little street markets -- I love them!

I love the Patisserie's even more! Just look at all the goodies in that window!

These eating area's were all over the place...and it was cold outside! A lot of the restaurants used outdoor heaters, but not all.

Hey howdy...just happy to be here!

L'Arch de Triomphe

Andrew and Abby are ready for the day's adventures...

Abby make me think of a little lamb. I think it's because she loves soft fluffy blankets and soft clothes.

The Hillsteads go to Paris.

Jenna enjoys the bus tour...

with Jake of course...not sure what they did with Goldie? No worries, Bibby has her.

Always happy...

Loved the bright window awnings...

The Eiffel Tower

Some Merry-Go-Round shots...across from the Eiffel Tower.

The following seven pictures are scenes around the city.

Bonjour Pierre...

Les jeune filles...

Loved the sidewalk art...

This is a famous Cathedral in Paris...for the life of me...I can't think of the name of it! I will look it up and come back to edit this. I can't look it up now...I am afraid I will mess up this whole post and then that would have been a waste of my afternoon!! Bear with me. AHA! Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris!! Thank you very much.

I love the detail in the architecture. It is everywhere...and a great place to find patterns for designing.

This is the ironwork on the entrance doors. Beautiful.

Just a few inside shots...

Versailles...incredibly huge and ornate.

Part of the grounds at Versailles.

I loved this table. Look how beautiful the top is.

All the ceilings were similar to this one.

Famous wall murals were everywhere.

The Hall of Mirrors

Just inside the entrance way...

A bit of detail from one of the bedrooms.

Outside again...Andrew is enjoying the ride.

And Goldie, too...Abby is crashed as you will see in the next picture.

She's up again and happy!

The Louvre

This is the REAL Mona Lisa. It was hard to get a good picture of. It is all enclosed behind glass with guards standing by.

We walked A LOT! It was chilly outside but no rain.

Our lost boys have returned.

Paris was great. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. We have tons of them and it's hard to decide which ones to put up. It was a fun trip overall. It is true though, that some of the Parisians hate Americans. We were treated quite RUDELY a couple of times. I sort of couldn't believe it! Oh well...there were nice Parisians also. I'm sure there are a lot of RUDE Americans as well. I have tried very hard to behave while I am in someone else's country! :)