Day 16–July 2–Paisley Abbey
On our last full day in Scotland, we deliberately took a day off from tourist stuff and went to church–the church where Kristin’s great-great grandfather and mother were married. The pews do not have hymnals; you are given one as you enter the sanctuary. We did not know to ask for the version with music; the standard version only has words. We will remember this the next time as we would have loved to sing; we have long been fans of John Rutter and other modern British composers, and attending a service made it very clear from which traditions their melodies and harmonies derive.
After church, we went to the parish hall for coffee and had some very interesting conversations. All of them started out with a few minutes of delicate questions and discussion that could be summarized as “did you vote for the idiot Donald Trump?” followed by a frank series of questions that can be summarized as “how on earth did elect an idiot like Donald Trump?”
When coffee time was over, we walked through town and visited the high church on the top of the hill in town to walk the cemetery. Like the Greyfriar’s cemetery, the monuments were very interesting; you could tell when money flowed freely and when times were tough. We had a late lunch/early dinner at a pub before heading home to pack for an early train to London and then the Eurostar to Brussels.
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Day 15–July 1–Isle of Bute
We had planned a day trip to the Isle of Bute based upon the weather forecast, and were rewarded with a generally good day. Because of high winds, the ferries were running late so we had about an hour in the Wemyss Bay train station waiting for the ferry. It was actually kind of nice as the Victorian-era station is an architectural delight. We both took a lot of photos. The castle on the island is historically significant to the viking era, but only took an hour or so to tour the ruins. The highlight of the island was lunch at the cafe/pub Brechin’s on Bridge Street. The food was great. It was raining and we were the only customers, so we ended up having a long and enjoyable talk with the owners about island life, life in the UK, and life in general.
After lunch, we walked through town and along the beach to the Royal Bute Yacht Club. There were some sights that would could have seen, but we had already overdosed on castles and estates.
By the time we got back to Paisley, the weather cleared and we had both the time and energy to explore the wonderful Victorian-era fountain that was recently renovated.
This was another day when we appreciated good rain gear.
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Day 14–June 30–Bus Tour of Ayreshire
We had planned for an all-day bus tour of Ayreshire, the county where both of our ancestors had started out. The two major stops on the tour were Culzean Castle and the various museums and monuments to the poet Robert Burns. Culzean Castle provides an excellent history of the late years of the monarchy and the landed gentry in England and Scotland. The tour’s time budget of about two and a half hours was enough time to tour the castle, the grounds and enjoy a reasonably leisurely lunch in the cafe.
We understood that summer in Scotland is about like a winter in Texas, and had packed for day-time temperatures as low as the high 40s. For the walks around the Culzean Castle grounds, I used the fleece pullover, wind breaker, wool hat, and fleece gloves that I had brought for cold days and I was not overly warm.
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Day 13–June 29–Another Day at the Library
Today was another rainy day, and we really needed another day at the Mitchell Library, so we took the train in and spent another fruitful day at the library. I spent more time with guild records, and ended up reading a very interesting history of penal transportion to America before the revolution. Convicts were essentially slaves and conditions were so bad that second time offenders who had been previously transported to America would advocate for execution rather than another trip to America.
This was another day when we appreciated good rain gear.
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