Nov 1st. Southwest through Scotland

On Friday we started heading back home. Our first stop was Rosslyn Chapel recommended by Alex I. It is one of the most beautiful churches we had ever seen.

The inside is covered almost entirely in intricate carvings covering the subjects related to the bible and good amount of pagan imagery. There are some controversial studies showing that the artwork in the chapel is just the work of fanciful imagination of the builders. I am not so sure after looking at.

The types of images and amount of detail of on them, and how they overlap seems to indicate tremendous amount of thought and planning faultlessly executed. Save to say that if you only see 2 places/things in Scotland, Rosslyn Chapel and Edinburgh should be it. The sad part is that the carvings look washed out. They were whitewashed with cement to try to preserve them in the sixties. The process killed the sharpness of imagery,  and made them soapy and molten. It also increased the rate of decay. Check out the link above. The chapel has been in the possession of the same family for about a number of centuries. 

Next we’ve visited Melrose Abbey ruins. They were beautiful. Red limestone made them appear almost glowing among the molting trees in the autumn sun. As we continued our trip south, we’ve stopped many times to take in the scenery on the way.  Pictures hardly do it justice.
The next two points were Smailholm and Dryburgh Abbey where Sir Walter Scott respectively grew up and was inspired by the stories of the troubled life in the border and almost completing the full loop his final resting place at. Sir Walter Scott features prominently in Scottish history. He was the one who unearthed Scottish royal jewels after they lay untouched locked in a chest for a long time when Scotland gave up its claim independence. 

A few more stops later, we reached our dinner destination. We had positioned ourselves to explore Hadrian's wall on Saturday. The penultimate stop was Tynemouth. Originally we had planned to see its castle as well. But the short autumn day cut our plans a wee bit. The town was very pretty - lots of interesting restaurants. One of the churches was changed into a mini new age shopping arcade. We strolled towards the castle and almost walked into it – it was not visible in the dark. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant with very artistic décor. Can't remember the name. The food was very creative but tasted somewhat bland.

At last we arrived to South Shields to spend the night at William Fox house hotel. For the price we was expecting something half as good at Knock them Dead hotel in Belfast. We were pleasantly proved wrong. Our room was small but impeccably clean and freshly painted, there was en-suite bathroom, proper comforters, and free parking downstairs. And we even got the fireworks show going on right outside our windows. Kids were super thrilled!! Halloween parade yesterday and fireworks today - we are living it up :)