Figs From Thistles: I'll gie ye a skelpit lug!

This month, we traveled to the U.K. for a week. We were able to land ahead of the tropical storm that threatened the western coast of Scotland during the first days of our trip. Signs above the motorway warned drivers to expect severe gales and heavy rainfall.

Despite the undesirable weather, we ventured into Glasgow and to the area immediately surrounding our hotel, the MacDonald Crutherland. The hotel was quite nice and featured the warmest indoor pool; it was like diving into bath water and the kiddos loved it. We spent mornings in the hotel completing school work and used the afternoons to explore. J had a terrible time of understanding the Scots and often looked to me, who after watching BBC programming understood them quite well, to tell him what was being said! The title of this post is a Scottish phrasing meaning, "I'll box your ears in!"

We visited the cathedral in Glasgow, which is home to a shrine said to contain the mortal remains of St. Mungo. Glasgow reveres St. Mungo, and its coat of arms reflects the four miracles St. Mungo is said to have performed. The cathedral in Glasgow is the only Catholic church on the Scottish mainland to have escaped the Protestant Reformation unscathed. The cathedral's stained glass windows are among the most beautiful I've ever seen.

We visited the Glasgow Science Center during the worst of the storm. The museum was fantastic, and we enjoyed ourselves.

Bop making a stop-animation movie

Littlest had her ears pierced while in Glasgow!

The high winds destroyed many umbrellas!

Glasgow doesn't have the same curb appeal that other Scottish cities have in spades, so I doubt we'll travel there again. The latter half of our week was spent in England, and the drive south to York was beautiful; everywhere we looked we saw rolling green fields and grazing livestock.

Because the kiddos are currently studying ancient civilizations, we opted to stop at Hadrian's Wall. The wall runs roughly 73 miles, from coast to coast, with the remains of towers at regular intervals. We also visited a largely in tact Roman fort.

Log and Littlest standing in the remains of one such tower pretending to be archers staving off the Scottish barbarians :)

Kiddos on the nearly 2,000 year old wall

After spending time in the borderlands, we drove to York. We were able to stay in the nicest of apartments within the city walls. The proprietors gave us a bit of a test when disclosing the key code to the front door saying, "It's the Battle of Hastings!" Luckily, we were up on our history of the Norman Conquest.

York is beautiful. York is beautiful; I can't say it enough. We visited many sites within the city, learned about Richard III, shopped and ate delicious Piri Piri chicken.

Remember, remember the fifth of November! The kiddos had recently seen a program relating to Guy Fawkes and spotted this placard before either J or I did.

Kiddos standing in front of the Shambles, a street that is purported to be the most visited in all of England. The one-time butcher-filled street features timbered homes, some of which date back to the 14th century.

York Minster was lovely. Charlemagne was visiting York when his father died, so he became aware of his being the new King of the Franks while in York. A statue of Charlemagne stands in front of the church. York Minster is also fascinating because it's possible to see the Roman foundations and Norman additions as well as the present day Gothic structure while touring the minster.

I love this man!

We walked York's city walls.

We visited Jorvik, a viking exhibit. In fact, present day York derives its name from the viking name of the settlement. The exhibit featured historically correct recreations of the viking village and genuine relics found in the Coppergate excavation site including the "Lloyds Bank Turd." Seriously. It is possible to see the 9 inch long, 1/2 pound fossilized excrement while touring the Jorvik Viking Center. As if that weren't bad enough, the curators have opted to pipe in 'realistic' smells to recreate a sensory experience one would have had visiting Jorvik hundreds of years ago. The smell was described to us as one encompassing rotting meat and human waste. Our kiddos covered their noses and mouths for the first 20 minutes or so of our visit. The exhibit was fantastic, and we learned much about vikings.

The center was partnered with a gladiator exhibit which featured the skeletal remains of 6 gladiators whose bodies were found in a cemetery in York. Their remains featured the marks of a gruesome death: bite marks from a large animal (either a bear or lion) and deep gashes. All of the gladiators had been beheaded; some more skillfully so than others.

Log had fun dressing up at the Gladiator exhibit; he's pretending to be one of the front ranks of the Phalanx formation.

Littlest had fun, too!

We also visited the dig site where the kiddos were able to test their archeological skills and handle real relics including...fossilized poo. Our guide at the dig was informative and told us that the vikings used fermented urine to wash their hair in order to kill the lice and fleas. Fermented urine contains ammonia which bleaches the hair, and our guide asked Littlest, because she's blonde, if she washed her hair in the same way!

Bop dug in the Norman area.