A Visit to the British Isles

Last week, it was time to take Florence to university in Scotland; since there's no direct flight from Rome to Aberdeen, it gave us an easy pretext to visit relatives and friends in England, as well!

On the road near the farmhouse

Flying into Bristol, we stayed in a farmhouse near my cousin Paula's house and had a great couple of days with her and her family. So nice to see everyone! In England, there is a right to roam, meaning you can walk on footpaths across "privately owned" fields. I absolutely love this and couldn't resist taking advantage of the gorgeous weather for us all to go: six children, two adults, two dogs! We made quite the procession, although I confess to having held things up due to the perfection of the blackberries....

The boys spent a huge amount of time here, unsurprisingly

We found Paula's runner ducks hilarious

Breakfast en masse

Next stop, Edinburgh! Flying from Bristol directly, we only had one night in the nation's capital, and not even 24 hours for visiting. We had to make the most of our limited time! Obviously, the castle was a must-see, and so we went from the Castle to Holyrood Palace. It was somehow really affecting to see the room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James, and then to see her tapestries displayed at Holyrood Palace.

A fairly intimidating prospect, just outside the castle walls

The castle is not a building, but rather a complex of protected buildings,
many of which were built during Victorian times

The castle is perched on a rock island high above the city,
commanding a fantastic view

We liked the red truck, and the sky was so gorgeous that day! 

Turret!

Proceeding to one of the higher gates within the castle

In the middle of a city, it's hard to believe you're near the coast

Holyrood Abbey; the structure is magnificent

The detailing on the remains is just superb

Walking in the grounds

Then it was time to leave. Having had tea in a shop where the old lady was a bit batty and clearly didn't really want to have customers (and where Ashley tried IronBru, a local soda...which tasted of bubble gum!), we made it to the station just in time for it to start raining. The light from the train was fantastic, though.

Crossing the Firth of Forth

A note about Aberdeen: the local rock is a light(ish) grey granite. Every bit of architecture is built with the local stone. Meaning everything (everything) is grey! Michael laughingly declared that he was wearing "Aberdeen Camo":

After having completed a long list of errands (banks, phone companies, etc.), we wandered up to a cemetery which looked interesting, and it certainly was! It turned out to belong to a church that at some point in its history had been divided into two churches (our friend Ann posited that it was to divide sections of the city based on class lines, which made a lot of sense based on what we saw there). One side is completely dug out and in the process of excavation (how active the excavation is would be open to debate) and the other side is still in active use and furnished accordingly. The pews still go along the original longitudinal axis, but half face one way and half the other; the pulpit and altar are in the middle of the church (the pulpit on one side of the original aisle, the altar on the other). Behind some curtains were some 17th-century embroidered (not woven) tapestries that were actually attributable to a female artist. This seems really unusual to me because many projects like this would have been group efforts, and women were rarely given credit for this type of work during the period. So interesting!

Post office

 After general wanderings, we took our first (of several) trips to Florence's campus.

Deer on campus

The room as we arrived

We had to check out a few things and then wanted to go to the main campus (detached from the housing "village" by a public park), so we had the most delightful walk!

What you see is mostly manicured, but they had a walled garden, a wooded area, a grassy naturalistic section, a Japanese-y section (not traditional in the sense of bare, manicured sand beds but more naturalistic with a sense of bamboo somehow), and more!

Loved the mortar work on this building; we saw it a few times

Off to Marks and Spencer, the local department store, to find bedding, plates, and the basic necessities...

Trying out pillows

Ashley held onto the rejects 

Bed all made, mostly moved in!

And, time to move to the gym, where we could easily picture Florence in her natural element:

The gym was amazing, and the pool the prettiest I've ever seen

Having kissed Florence goodbye, it was time for a quick visit to our friends Ann and James in Ampthill, where we did our charity shop and antique shop rounds, and then back to Rome!

Love,

Alexandra