Well this is becoming a habit. Once again I’m sitting in an airport, this time in Belfast Ireland. The only difference this time is Gail has not gone shopping. We have been in Ireland since this time one week ago and it has been a whirlwind of excitement. We spent the week in the company of Norman and Amy Cuthbert, the WEC directors here, but not at the WEC HQ as it was full. The other people were delayed in leaving because of the Ebola epidemic in different parts of the world. We had the pleasure of staying with their daughter in her home in downtown Portadown, and it was great.

Our first day here we spent most of our time at the WEC HQ acquainting ourselves with the people around there and the place itself. On Tuesday we started what would be a week of traveling around Northern Ireland. We started at a place called Armagh, the home of St Patrick himself who started a church there in the middle of the 400s and a church still stands there today. It’s amazing to be able to see back in history more than 1500 years. It’s a bit confusing for me to see how the Church of Ireland, a protestant church, claims St. Patrick as their patron St. responsible for founding their church and the Catholic Church also claiming him as their patron St. responsible for bringing the church to Ireland. But that’s great because they all love him and if they have nothing else in common they have St Patrick. We left Amagh and headed to the East coast of N. Ireland and journeyed north to a place called Newcastle, stopping many times along the way to see the sites and absorb the many places along the way. We headed from there back to Portadown for the night. The next day we headed back to Newcastle with the intent of traveling further up the coast but found ourselves in a place called DownPatrick, which is the official burial place of St. Patrick. We spent most of the day there seeing the sites and taking in some museums including a very old jail and government houses, we never did get back to Newcastle and found ourselves rushing back to Portadown  for tea (Dinner-super) with the Cuthberts.

We are now aboard an airplane headed to Amsterdam so I will continue to tell you about our time in Ireland. On Thursday morning we headed west to a place called Omagh where we found a live museum that depicted the plight of the Irish during the 16^th an d17th centuries and their immigration to America. It started in a one room stone cabin, typical of its time, where a lady sat in the smoke filled room and told us about the family that would have lived there. It was a tough life even at the best of times, they would only have potatoes to eat morning noon and night The children, any number of them, would sleep on the clay floor on a mat while Mom and Dad and the babies would sleep on a shelf built in the corner of the room nearest the fire so Dad could keep the fire going all night. Then we went on to the Blacksmith shop where the old blacksmith told us of his trade and the use of his 5 or 6 year old apprentice who would keep the bellows pumped and the fire hot so the blacksmith could apply his trade. From there we made our way through many different houses both of the rich and the poor and on into a town site with all its merchants, banks, doctors and infirmaries. We then went to the dock and boarded a ship, of the tall three mast type, and headed to America to a new and better life. There were 4 adults or one family in one bunk that was about as wide as a small double bed with about three feet of head room or just enough room to sit up in bed if you weren’t too tall. Having survived the trip without catching some fatal disease, we disembarked in New York, New York. Where we went through a city with its tall buildings, its many flourishing shops and businesses to the country side where we were introduced to the wooden and log structures of farm homes and buildings in the USA. The living was cleaner and healthier and all you had to do was work the land that was free for the working.

From there we went north to Portstewart where we met up with Norman and Amy and his brother Angus and his wife Sarah whose home we shared for the night. We took a long walk on the promenard and enjoyed an Ice-cream by the sea. The following day we took a tour of the Giant’s Causeway, a natural and marvellous happening in nature that is absolutely impossible to describe, so I hope some pictures may help. We made our way around the north and down the east coast. Stopping all along the way to take in some of God’s great creation and some man made spectaculars we found ourselves out of time once more and we had not yet seen the Castle at Carrickfergus. So, we returned there the following day, it is something awesome to see. A structure having been built in several stages through several centuries still standing tall and strong, even having survived the bombs of 2 world wars, it is a spectacular site to see.

We finished that Saturday off with the folks at WEC and on Sunday spent some time with our good friends, Henry and Nancy Bell and their family from Canada. After a night’s sleep, we found ourselves at the airport where this segment of this blog started this morning. We are, at present, hunkered down in a wee motel in Fehrenkamp Germany. After a few pictures I will let you go for a while. We will not be found in an airport for the next 23 days but if you’re thinking that that will let you off the hook you could be wrong.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail 

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh, Church Of Ireland outside.

Plaque Outside

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh. Inside the Church Of Ireland 

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh. Outside the Roman Catholic church

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh. Inside the Roman Catholic church

Castle by the roadside

Sitting on the East coast

Looking for Wales

Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in DownPatrick Church of Ireland 

St Patrick's Grave site

 Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in DownPatrick Church of Ireland 

Outside16th century Jail 

Inside

Inch Abby as it is

As it was

Typical one room cabin

The blacksmith in his semi dark room so he can tell by the color of his metal it's workability

The town in Ireland. Dosen;t look much different than some today

The dock  and the ship

Sleeping quarters

The dock in New York, New York

A street in New york

Typical log cabin

Ranch style log cabin

Plantation house

The promenard

Castle along the roadside

Rock formation called the camel At the Giant’s Causeway

Giant’s Causeway

Giant’s Causeway

Giant’s Causeway

In the giant"s boot

Castle along the roadside

A rope bridge

There's Scotland

 Castle at Carrickfergus

 Castle at Carrickfergus

Inside Castle at Carrickfergus

Coming to you from Ireland (Or R-lund as they say here)

Once again I’m sitting in an airport, this time in Glasgow Scotland, and once again Gail has gone shopping. So I once again will take this quite time to catch you up on all, well at least some of what has happened in the past few days. I did show you some pictures of the highways we drove on getting to places in the Scottish Highlands, now I will try to tell you why we chose to go to that particular area. There is more than one reason so here’s the first, in that area around Appin, Oban and Glencoe there is a lot of Scottish verses British verses Scottish verses British history and at this time here in Scotland that is important history as there is in the process a referendum campaign going with the question of separation and Scottish independence. That vote will take place here in Scotland on the 18^th of Sept and things are heating up all over the country. So far the only violence that has occurred is the yes side pelting the no side with eggs but when we consider Scottish history that is not necessarily to remain so violent free. Now the other reason and maybe a more important reason is, and get this, because our youngest son, Ward and his wife Heather have purchased some property in the area and according to Scottish law they, being land owners, have the right to refer to themselves as Lord and Lady Seabrook. They have not seen nor set foot on the land and so, on their behalf, we made the trip to see it and that we did. After walking for some excruciating distance up some very steep grades through the forest and pouring rain we were able to get to exactly 58 ft. from the property which is 100sq.ft. for each of them. We were unable to reach the exact location because we didn’t bring our wellys (rubber boots or Meadow Lake cowboy boots) and there was a small creek between us and it, but we were able to take some pictures of it and of ourselves near it. This property is in a Highland Nature Reserve and it really is a good way to raise money to help make it work, the purchasable plots are anywhere from 1sq.ft. to 1000 sq. ft.

I will post some more pictures and then we will talk to you all later.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail

You remember the last blog when I told you about Narrow
highways Well there is the proof the sign says
"PASSING PLACE"

The land of the future Seabrook Manor the home of
Lord Ward and Lady Heather is just down this trail

"THE LAND"

Yes we were there the Land is behind us.

Just a sample of what others have done on their land.

Ok, sorry, I need to tell you more, maybe not a reason for going to the area but a good find when we were there. I of course am not sitting in an airport right we have in fact been in Ireland for almost 2 days now and I remembered you were waiting. Ok, the other thing, our daughter-in-law Leah is from the MacDougall clan. So when we were in the area I said that I was related to the MacDougall clan and almost immediately it seemed that they wanted to tie me to the highest limb of the nearest tree. It seems that, even though the MacDougall clan had some fame, it was not of the positive kind, at least in that area. We found a place called The Castle Stalker which the MacDougall’s had some involvement in and I think the following pictures will tell the story.

This time I will say good-bye for sure.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail 

                                                                                                                                                        

The Castle Stalker   

This picture and the following one were taken as two parts
of the same info board at the historic view point

Coming to you from the scotish highlands

Since we arrived in Glasgow on Monday the 25^th of August we once again have been on the go. I don’t know where the rest we are to accomplish during this time off is to come from, there doesn’t seem to be much time between the comings and the goings anymore. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, we are enjoying every busy moment of this adventure.

Two days in Glasgow we took a bus into the city then toured via the hop on hop off sightseeing bus. Even after two days of that we didn’t see it all, but what we did see once again was history. The place is filled with history, some as long ago as the 6^th century and others as recent as the 19^th century. I disliked History with a passion when they tried to teach it in school but seeing it come to life before your very eyes puts a totally different slant on it and I am now just amazed at all there is to know.

We left Glasgow this morning and drove on some of what I can only describe as the narrowest of major highways. Some places when two buses met they had to reduce speed to a bit slower than dead slow in order to pass and other places even two cars couldn’t pass, but, there were wide spots with signs that read “Passing place” where, with great caution, two cars could meet and pass without excess damage happening. We arrived at out quaint little bed and breakfast and have been able to get our pounding hearts down to a dull roar and we will rest before another day of highway terror sets in.

I’ll post a few pics and let go for now but don’t get too comfortable, there will be a lot to tell you about the things we will be doing next.

God bless. With love.

Erwin & Gail                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

           

 Left:   Scotland from the air.

       


  Right: Downtown Glasgow

 Left: The Squinty Bridge????
Right: One of the Retunda, there is one on each side of The River Clyde They are like elevators that would lift or lower the horses and wagons down to and up from a tunnel that went under the river.

This Cathedeal is one of only two churches in the whole of Scotland that survived the reformation in tact

This is the tall ship now moured in Glasgow as a musium.  It Circumnavigated the globe 4 times and spent more than 5000 days at sea. As you can see it has a new Captian


                                                                                                           

 

This is the home of Doug and Jeanette Craig
They have shared their home with  us while we
are in Glasgow

This is one of the major cross country Highways in Scotland I haven't been on them all but am told this is quite typical

This is the Fasgad B&B Where we are at this moment in Port Appin.