New Year (Ad)Ventures

Ah, holidays . . . over for another year, having succumbed already to the pressures of January sales. Ours ended quite as merrily as they had begun. After the excitement of Christmas and Boxing day had waned (I am informed by my British friends that Boxing Day is the biggest shopping day in the UK, although that did not seem to be the case for St. Andrews, which verily shut down even the grocery stores to celebrate), Isaac and I led my parents to lovely Stirling Castle, my favourite thus far both for its painstaking attempts to reconstruct the Stuart courts and fr its spectacular and breathtaking views of the highlands. Here's the "green," with the palace of a James in the background (the palace was closed, as it's their current reconstruction project):

And this: our spectacular view . . .

For the last full day of my parents' visit, we ventured into Edinburgh, the capitol city, where Hogmanay festivities were already beginning. We had far too little time to catch most of the city's popular sights, so settled for a tour of the National [Art] Gallery and dinner at Isaac's and my favourite pub. We stayed in a beautiful and cosy flat just off the Royal Mile (also called High Street on maps), which is a mile-long street that stretches from Edinburgh Castle down to the Palace. We arose painfully early on the last morning of their visit and had time for a quick breakfast, a staggered trek down cobbled alleys, and three leisurely cups of coffee/tea at the airport--before Isaac and I dashed back to our rented flat to retrieve the luggage we'd forgotten in the bustle of departure!

From Edinburgh, we ventured to lovely Linlithgow, a commuter village not far from Edinburgh. We spent several days with some good friends of ours, enojoying their company, beautiful flat, and charming village. On the second day of our visit, Isaac and I braved the icy paths to the nearest Loch, which was beautifully frozen over. As we wandered about, enjoying the birds and loch and castle, we were delighted and surprised by more snow!

We spent Hogmanay with many friends in the tiny but lovely village of Torphichen. We did not actuallt go "First Footing" at midnight (a tradition in which one treks to visit friends and take them gifts and, I believe, coal), mostly because I was exhausted. We spent several more days in the area, also visiting Torphichen Kirk on Sunday. With the fresh snowfall, I though it looked just like Narnia!


We've got a few more days to relax and breathe, and I'll be settling back into full-blown research at the end of this week. It's been a busy holiday but a joyous one!

God bless, and Happy New Year!