Hi Everyone!
Welcome back to another long awaited update in the world of Kathleen and Keith. I’ve changed the format a bit, due to time constraints. Text at the top, pictures at the end. Works better for me, and I hope you enjoy clicking through the pictures (click to select, then click to enlarge).
We just took out last road trip before our flight back to Australia (if you don’t include us taking our cat to the pet export company for her flight home). Originally we were planning on a few days worth of travelling back up into the depths of Scotland, but we realised that wasn’t financially possible, so we went for something smaller, a weekender trip, comprised of three destinations.
The first location we drove to was in the Lakes district, the world of Beatrix Potter. Now, we can already hear some of you saying ‘Beatrix Potter?! Didn’t she do children’s books? Won’t that be for kids?!’
Well, not entirely so. Considering the books have been around for 100 years, it caters for the Adults who grew up with the books, which were introduced to them by their parents, and have since introduced their children to the stories. One day we hope to be counted as one of those (the parents introducing the stories to their children, just in case I need to clarify for anyone). Since we were still in the country, we made the effort to check this out for ourselves, and for some friends of ours.
After checking out the Potter attraction, we had a bit of a drive ahead of us (the use of ‘us’ is purely because there are two of us in the car. ‘I’ had a bit of a drive ahead of me, Kathleen had a bit of a nap ahead of her) for the next destination. About 3 hours of drive from the lakes saw us arriving at the famous Rosslyn Chapel.
This has been a place Kathleen has been wanting to see for years, and especially since we were in the country, and Kathleen is a fan of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (though it should be noted Kathleen wanted to see this long before the book).
Right now, I will say that ’The Da Vinci Code’ is a work of FICTION, using real-world references! No-one should ever believe that there is any relation to Christ within, or has been within, the chapel. There is no secret cellar with manuscripts depicting the lineage of Christ, and there is NO star of David above the stairwell going down to the lower basement. Hollywood put a plaque of the star there for the movie, and once removed, has left a circular mark on the wood, which the people there call ‘The mark of Hollywood’. Its all taken with humour, because since the release of the book and movie, the popularity of the place exploded, bringing in much needed money to restore the ancient chapel.
Before the book, the Chapel was known for its amazing stone work, especially the pillars (which the movie sort of misses altogether, for some reason). Almost every stone surface has intricate carvings, depicting various early christian beliefs.
To say the least, its quite a place to see, and definitely worthwhile if anyone has the chance. Though you will have to excuse the scaffolding around the building and the tin roof over it. Its been there for almost 20 years now, in an effort to dry out the stone. Since some botched preservation work involving coating all the stone in a concrete caused the sandstone to hold all water in itself, the chapel was almost lost as the water started to cause the stone to crumble. The Tin roof keeps most rain off, and the chapel is showing signs that it is drying out. With the money that the Da Vinci code has created, there are plans to put central heating in, not for the worshippers, but to dry the chapel out even more. I wish we had more photos of the place, but photography wasn’t allowed inside (but we did buy the CD of photos at the gift shop). For a quick look, check out http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/. We will be more than happy to show our friends the photos when we get home.
On the Sunday we took a little drive down to the town of Bath, to check out the Roman baths. Its amazing to think these were only discovered because someone complained to their landlord that warm water was seeping into their basement. If you want a more historical info, feel free to look it up, as its quite good. The whole place is set up to allow visitors to wander around the site (within reason, of course), with audio tours for adults and children (which I thought was a great idea). They also have two or so people who dress in period clothing, I’m sure for photographic purposes (Though they have a great sense of humour, as I heard one of them say when a camera failed to take a photo ‘The mystic box has fallen asleep’).
Squizz the photos at the end, peoples.
I apologise if you were expecting a greater narrative, but we are quite busy with getting our house packed for the eventual fly home. Not long now (or according to Kathleen “49 days and counting”).
Love you all, and talk again soon,
Kathleen and Keith
