Scotland....

Well Kristen and I have just returned from a very quick two day one night stay in Scotland's capital Edinburgh. It began with a 4.5 hour train ride from London. I had to look at a manuscript of Queen Elizabeth's that is not published. It was a translation of John Calvin's institutes that she translated from French to English. So I had to go to the National Archives of Scotland.

I got a reader's card and Kristen did too since she was with me. The National archives of Scotland was small and so nice. The people were so nice. I saw exactly what I needed and was even able to make color copies of it.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast a few miles outside of town. And to be honest Kristen and I fell in love with Scotland. The city Edinburgh was so cool and the people were so nice and authentic. One guy on our train who took our tickets when he heard me speak asked if we were Americans and I said yes and he said he loved Americans because we were so polite. Hard to believe but the Scottish people were so cool.

Here's a pic of Kristen outside our bed and breakfast which was called Aynetree Bed and Breakfast right near Ballie Place.

Here's a traditional scottish breakfast. I could hardly understand anything our hostess said to us. Apparently baked beans go with eggs in the morning. I had hot tea and porridge (oatmeal) with mine. It was awesome.

We went to Edinburgh castle really early on Thursday. It was at the top of a huge hill overlooking the city and dated from medieval times. We saw the Scottish crowned jewels that Mary Queen of Scots actually wore. And we saw the little room that James I of England, Mary Queen of Scot's son, was born in. Inside the castle.

That's James on the wall and this is a little shot of the room. It was about the size of my hotel room in London.

We went shopping and walking around the city and I spent some more time in the archives looking at 400 year old letters. It was so cool.

We also went to the Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, a huge Gothic cathedral and it was so cool. When we walked in a choir from Maryville Tennessee was singing and included a few spirituals in their performance. They boomed all over that Cathedral. I loved being in such a huge house of God hearing East Tennessee students praise the name of Jesus.

These are a couple of other pictures. The sun came out. It was such a cool city. It may be our favorite now. Here's a picture of me with William Wallace, you know the guy from Braveheart.

Tomorrow we aren't sure yet what we will do. We have had so much fun on this trip. I also felt Eliza kick for the very first time and I got her a little Loch Ness monster doll. It is awesome. Cheers.