Friday 24 August - Walsingham

I seem to be often blessed when I take these adventures abroad.  When you make last minute plans to go somewhere, and you meet someone you know there, and neither of you expected to see the other, it's at least a "small world" moment, at best a blessing.  More on that below.

We got on the road a bit after 9:00 am.  It was a beautiful drive, especially once we got past the north-eastern edge of London and reached motorway speeds.  The car handled great, and I was used to the stick being on my left.  But I was still concentrating.

The Shrine has a daily Mass at Noon in the Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria, but we didn't quite make that.  Once we got to Little Walsingham, the SatNav wasn't as much help.  There are multiple listings for "shrine" and "Walsingham".

The area looked familiar to me from eight years ago, but not enough from behind the wheel of a car for me to figure where the little dirt road was to the Catholic Shrine.  We did eventually find it, and a place for Katarina to get from the car to the wheelchair before I parked the car on the grass field.  But we were there!

Here is a photo of a gift shop post card of the etched glass window behind us.  The modern chapel Sanctuary is on the other side of it.  It is actually a series of doors that slide open for the outdoor seating to be included in large Liturgies. 

Since we had missed Mass, we decided to be a part of the 2:30 Rosary over in the Slipper Chapel, the only building dating from the 1340.  It was restored in 1904.  There was a sister leading the Rosary, and we sat in the back next to her.  There were about 20 people there with us.

 ( ↑ These photos are from the internet. ↓ )

Now for the "small world" blessing mentioned above!

At the end of the Rosary, Fr. Andrew Starkie showed up at the Slipper Chapel!  (See my post from last summer.)  He was attending a Youth 2000 event with some of his children and others teens from the Manchester area, and had arrange with the Shrine to celebrate his daily Mass there in the Slipper Chapel at 3:00.  Both of us were totally surprised to see each other!  One of the seminarians was setting  up the Altar for the Mass, and one of Father's sons was going to be serving.  People from the Rosary mostly exited, and only a few others had come into the Chapel, probably all surprised to be there for a Mass.

This was a super blessing for me, and for Katarina and Steven.  This was their second ever Ordinariate Mass, as we had been together for the Feast of the Assumption at Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory in Soho the week before.  And for me?  Well, an Anglican Ordinariate Mass, celebrated in the historic Slipper Chapel of the Shrine of Our lady of Walsingham!  This was the high point of my trip this summer!

We had a nice chat afterwards, and Katarina took of photo for us.  I'm sure my friends in Broadbottom, Michael & Raven, will be pleasantly surprised at this blessed meeting!

We got back into the car, and decided to not head straight back home, but rather to drive further north, towards the town of Cromer and the North Sea.

We stopped west of Cromer near the North Sea to rest and take some photos.

Then we continued westward towards King's Lynn and the motorway back to London.  I got plenty of UK driving experience on everything from 6-lane motorways to 1-lane dirt roads.  It was a great feeling.

Week of 20 August – Mottingham

Upon our return, we found that Lilly, the Gerrard’s cat, had been quite sick while we were in Glasgow.  So, Monday afternoon, Amy and I took her to the vet via bus.  She wasn’t seriously ill, but got a shot and a couple of prescriptions.  One of the neighbors picked us up and brought us back home.   Most of this week was just sitting back and enjoying each other's company, and doing for chores around the house.  We also did some extra relaxing - especially Amy and the pets!

(I think Amy has Chelsea's favorite spot.)

(Lilly is ready for Amy to wake up.)

We had  some visitors, cooked some interesting meals, took some walks, etc.  It was a really nice week, so far.  Then, on Wednesday, I proposed that we take a trip up to Norfolk to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.  Katarina had never been there, and I hadn't been back since 2010.

I had considered before starting this vacation that I might want to go there, and maybe even rent a car - which is definitely the best way to get there, especially with a wheelchair!  It was recommended that I find a car with an automatic transmission - one less thing to think about while driving on the other side of the road, etc.!  It turns  out that most Brits drive manual transmissions, and the rental companies only stock mid-size cars with automatics.  We're talking over £120!  It was time to get back to driving a "stick"!

I spent Thursday morning finding a car to hire.  It turned out that this was just before a "bank holiday" weekend, and cars were in short supply!  None of the lots near us on the south side of the Thames had any cars.  The closest was at Waterloo Station!  Katarina, Steven, and I took the train to Waterloo and found the Alamo/Enterprise lot.  There was a waiting line.

We checked if the wheelchair would fit in the boot, and it did.  We got a Renault Captur ...

( ↑ internet photos ↓ )

... a 4-cylinder diesel with a 6-speed transmission!  And a built in SatNav!  All we needed to do was head south - back to Mottingham.  Oops!  I made a right turn instead of a left - and headed right across the Westminster Bridge, at 6:00pm, in rush-hour traffic!

Yep.  That's the one.  I did manage to get in the right turn lane before getting to Big Ben, turning onto Victoria Embankment (A3211) to get to another bridge to head back south.  Needless to say, it was an interesting first hour of me driving the England!

It took a while to get used to, but I really enjoyed it.  It's been years since I drove a stick.  I miss it.

I think we're ready for the 3-hour trip to Walsingham tomorrow!

Weekend, 16-19 August – Glasgow, World Pipe Band Championship

Our adventure began with the #124 bus from Katarina’s house to the Mottingham station where we caught the next train to downtown London.  We chose to take a taxi from Charing Cross Station to Euston Station, as there were no convenient Tube stations with lifts to the street.  Our late morning train was the high-speed catenary wire express train to Glasgow Central station.

Then it was just a short taxi ride to the Holiday Inn Express which is on the Clyde River, just two blocks from The Green.  There was at least one American pipe band staying there.  We got settled into our room, and had dinner at Al Dente, a very nice Italian restaurant right there in the hotel building.

Friday morning, we toured downtown Glasgow, including some shopping for clothes at Primark, and then spending quite a bit of time in Heritage of Scotland buying gifts – including a mini-kilt for Amy and a regular (economy, not wool) kilt for Katarina!  They look so beautiful in them!

(Yes, Amy really likes my hats.
Maybe she looks better in them than I do!)

We had a really nice dinner with Joshua Friday evening at Mharsanta restaurant, and wished Joshua the best in the next day’s competition.

The City of Dunedin Pipe Band was the first to take the field shortly after 10:00am Saturday morning.  We got there early to check everything out.  It's quite like a US "Highland Games" with vendors of both food and Scottish gifts.

 (Amy is taking the photo.)

(I think Amy has an admirer!) 

(Can you blame him?)

This was Heat 1 (12 bands) of the Grade 2 MSR event (March/Strathspey/Reel).  Their main US competition, St. Thomas Alumni Pipe Band, was much later on in Heat 2.  Both bands played very well, and both advanced to the Final “Medley” event in the afternoon. 

We returned to hear all of the bands perform their Final round, then decided to watch the closing “march past” and announcement of the winners online from our room. Joshua’s band won! And St. Thomas Alumni came in 2nd! Last year the Houston band came in 3rd, and Dunedin 4th. This year both bands advanced well.

Here is the video of the winning performance.  This event was the "Medley" which includes a variety of meters and rhythms, more than just three pieces.  They also have a bit more time for this performance.  (I don't know how long it will be at this URL.)

But here’s “the rest of the story”:

20 years ago the St. Thomas Episcopal Pipe Band won the World Juvenile Championship.  Joshua's teacher and band director was Michael Cusack.  Mike is now the Pipe Sergeant in the St. Thomas Alumni Band.  Joshua and Mike had dinner earlier in the week on the actual date of the 20th anniversary of the win.  And now, the student’s band has beat the teacher’s band!  It was a great day for all, and everyone was both happy and proud, including one father!  I congratulated Joshua in a FaceBook message, and wished him a good trip home. 

Then we went back to the Al Dente restaurant for our last dinner in Glasgow.

The Holiday Inn provided a good breakfast buffet every morning, so we had a good Sunday morning meal before taking a taxi to the Queen Street Station for our return trip (sort of high speed diesel electric) via Edinburgh to King’s Cross Station, London.  The ride was not quite as comfortable as the rail lines are older.  Also, the coaches were not as roomy.  But it was still a great adventure!