Blog

Friday, March 27, 2009

Touring Stirling Castle and Our First Concert in Scotland

Hi everyone!  It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Scotland.  Feels like its close to 60°  and we are heading out for our 3 hour drive to Northeastern Scotland to the town of Peterhead.  We are having a great time, and making new friends all the while!  Yesterday was a fun, adventurous day for us!  We had several hours to go to the Stirling Castle… where we learned about the legendary William Wallace “Braveheart” from the Scottish insiders!  The castle was built in the 1500s and has been preserved and restored to allow tourists to enjoy its history.  We were fascinated to learn about King James V  and also visited the Regimental Museum inside the castle where we learned about the history of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.  There were 1000nds of  pictures, stories and remains from the Scottish soldiers gear, and we saw uniforms and machinery that had been used during wartime!  We saw our first KILT yesterday!!  I cant imagine these men having to go to war wearing them… wasn’t it hard to fight in a skirt? Didn’t their legs get cold? However difficult it may have been for them to battle in (and that is just my speculation) , the kilts were absolutely beautiful and the tradition of the Scottish uniform is marvelous to see!

After lunch in the town of Stirling, we headed to the Dobbie Hall for our concert that night in Larbert, Scotland.  This was an older, smaller venue, seating about 400 people, but it allowed for more of an intimate atmosphere with the audience.  Most of the people there, as was the case in N. Ireland are HUGE Gaither fans (they all pronounce it “Gether” lol), so they were familiar with us through the DVDs.  They seemed excited from the get-go, and by the end of the night they stood and clapped for more.. J  There was another family performing last night. The Gardiners.  They are from Peterhead Scotland, and are a mother, father and 2 children.. They were fantastic!  Beautiful tight family harmony performed southern gospel style! We are singing with them again tomorrow night.

When we were in the Faroe Islands last year, we were booked at a festival with a well-known Christian rock band in the UK called Superhero. We had a little time to get to know them and then on the way home from the Faroes ran into them again in Copenhagen airport…  Long story short, we became good friends and have kept in touch with them via email.  Well, two of the guys came to see us sing last night! Johnny and Tim, some super sweet guys surprised us at the concert and even stayed to eat.  They are coming to Eastern America in May, so check out their website (www.superhero.org.uk or www.myspace.com/superherouk) and if you like Christian rock, go see them!  They are very passionate about Jesus and are fun to know!

We finally wrapped up the concert about 11:00 last night (started at 8 and had an intermission) and headed over to the Pastor’s house for … you guessed it, Chinese take out (they say take away here)… Yummy!  Pastor Michael Rollo and his wife Diane along with their kids were an absolute joy to meet and wonderful people!  We had time to eat supper with them the night we got into town and we laughed and laughed for hours!  Then they took us to the shortest street in the UK… “Tollbooth Street’..  it was only                                 
 58 feet long! We’d call it an alley in the USA..lol…  But quite a cool experience!! 

We are nearing Peterhead now… and are looking forward to another fresh fish and chips supper tonight! MMMMM!!!  I will talk to you soon.. Thanks for reading, and keep us in your prayers!

Sonya and the I’s.  
        


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

60 sure sounds a nice then what we have here.Its rainy and VERY cold and a chance of snow and this is spring!

Anonymous said...

Nice to read about your adventures..God Bless...oh..still working on that Cheyenne Frontier Days thing...I think he liked the DVD... Daniel

johnron said...

great seeing you all last week. thanks for visiting bonnie scotland. thanks too for ministering to us in the power of the Holy Spirit. God's presence was in our midst - thanks for leading us there, it made the night extra special.
much love
johnron

Eunice Murray said...

Oh I can't tell you how great the concert was in Larbert...... absolutely fantastic. They are soooo talented!

I just wish I'd sat in a seat that would've allowed me to get up and jig around without getting in somebody's way!

I come from Port William, so travelled nearly three hours (with my daughter and two friends) to see them, got back at two in the morning but it was worth it!!! I almost started organising babysitters and the like to go to Peterhead and see them again but gave myself a good talking to and contented myself with the cd's and dvd.

I wish I'd asked them when they were coming back cos I'd go see them again in a heartbeat!!