To fly to Glasgow, we had to be ready to be picked up at our Reykjavik hotel at 4:30 am. It was about a two hour flight, and we arrived at about 10:30. We had booked one night at the airport Holiday Inn, which is right across the street from the airport. Again, we were able to check into our room right away. Then we took the airport shuttle bus into town. Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera with us! First was a stop for lunch. Right as we got off the bus was a Wagamama, a noodle shop that we were familiar with in Wellington, so we stopped there. Glasgow looks like a very 19th century city – big imposing buildings, mostly grey. But it was also very busy and full of young people (lots of universities). We walked up a number of streets to the Cathedral of St. Mungo, which dates from the 14th century. Next door was the Museum of Religious Art, which included art from around the world, not just Christian. It is a small museum, and the way it had everything grouped together was very anthropological and neutral. I expected something more weighted towards Christianity. We continued to walk around town and came to the Museum of Contemporary Art in an old building) and decided to go in. However, we were quickly bored and glad there had not been any admission charged. We found a pub to relax in and scope out our list of vegetarian restaurants. We asked the bartender where one place was and he went and googled it, while another patron looked it up on his phone. Finally, print out in hand we set off again and successfully found a very nice café with record shop (yes – vinyl) and had a very nice supper. We walked back to the central train station – glass enclosed and very Victorian – and got our bus back to the hotel. All in all, we felt that was just about the right amount of time for Glasgow.
Saturday morning, after finally getting a full night’s
sleep, we picked up our rental car and headed south, remembering to drive on
the left. The countryside was mostly a typical
mix of farm, woods, and hills, and the weather was pleasantly warm and mostly
sunny. At Carlisle, about 96 miles south
of Glasgow and just over the border with England, we thought we would have
enough time to take the scenic route around the coast line. Unfortunately, it was less scenic then we
expected because we were rarely close enough to see the coast. The weather on the west side of the mountains
was cloudier also. But it was still
interesting, and we got to our cottage - Top Bank - about 5 pm, which wasn’t bad. It is a very sweet apartment –
kitchen/dining/living room on the ground floor, and bedroom/bath above. The walls are very thick stone and plaster,
and there are lovely gardens and views. It is one of three set in an old farm building. The large main farmhouse is across the courtyard.
We had time to go out grocery shopping and get back before dark and get
all set up nicely.
Sunday morning we went into the town of Kendal. We are staying in the village of Crosthwaite
which is 
about 5 miles from anywhere. The little roads are better marked with village names than I expected,
so if you know where you’re going, it’s not bad. They are very narrow two lanes though, and we
keep brushing the bushes every time a car goes by. There are also lots of motorcyclists out for
a spin on a Sunday, and we were going way too slow for them. If I can, I like to find a place to pull over
and let all the cars by. Kendal turns
out to be full of one way streets and pedestrian malls, so it was very hard to
figure out how to get back to our proper road. Anyway, we went in on Sunday to go to the Quaker Meeting House for
worship. Kendal was an early Quaker
meeting and the current building was built in 1816 to accommodate 850
worshippers. There were about 24 there
on Sunday, including us visitors. However,
we were told that 16-17 people had gone over to a different meeting that
day. It was a very nice meeting for
worship, and we talked with a number of people afterwards, and had our
traveling letter signed.
After lunch we went to one of the oldest meeting houses in
the area – Brigflatts – a few miles to the east. We parked on the 2 lane road and walked down
a narrow lane to reach the Meeting House, built in 1675. It is a cozy little place and still has an
active meeting. There were a number of
people around, but they turned out to be hikers. We did find the caretaker, a woman named
Tess, who showed us around. There is
quite a Quaker compound there with the caretaker’s house and school rooms and a
lovely old burial ground. There is a farm house next door where George Fox
stayed in 1652. The weather, by the way, has been lovely and warm, a bit breezy, with fluffy little clouds.
Tess gave us directions to Firbank Fell, a hilltop a couple
of miles away where George Fox first preached to a multitude of seekers. It quite astonishes me that there were 1,000
people who walked up to this hilltop to hear him preach. There is a great rock on which he supposedly stood. If it was as windy as the day we were there,
he would have to have had a good voice!
We drove there up a narrow one lane country lane, and had to stop for a
while to let a herd of milk cows go by.
The boy moving them along from the rear was driving a dirt bike. He assured us that we were on the right track
for Fox’s Pulpit. 
When we got back home
in the evening, we walked the hundred yards or so down the road to the Punchbowl Inn to try it out for a
drink. It had less of a view than we do,
and was a little fancy for our tastes.
It seemed to do a fair trade; however, I can’t see how anybody finds
these places. There are no signs on the
main roads advertising their presence.
Monday we returned to Kendal and the Quaker Meeting House to
view the Quaker Tapestry. 
This is a
project that began with one woman in 1981 with her Sunday school class to
illustrate Quaker history through embroidery panels app. two feet square. There are now 77 panels on display picturing
notable people, events, places, ideas, causes, etc. They have been created by many different
groups, mostly in the UK, but also around the world, through 1996. They are not sewn together into one tapestry,
but displayed side by side in two rows. 
I was also impressed with the number of visitors. The half of the building devoted to the
tapestry gives a good idea of what the original meeting house must have looked
like – very high ceiling with some bleacher like seating along the walls. It probably also had a balcony to begin
with. There is an impressive wood paneling
which was lowered to divide the room in half.
In the old days, this was done so that the women could run their own
business meeting separate from the men.
Partly this was done because the women were mostly in charge of the care
of the membership and the men with the upkeep of the buildings, and probably
partly so the women could speak and be heard more easily without men
present. The caretakers were a couple
from California who have been coming over for a few weeks every year for four
years. They are given a flat; I don’t
know if they have to work every day at the Tapestry Centre, but it is
definitely more work than the Wellington Centre.
After a nice lunch at the Quaker café, we walked around Kendal, down the river to the old parish church,
which was started in the 13th
century. It is 5 aisles wide, making it
the third widest church in England. Next
to the church is Abbott Hall, a manor house which has been turned into the
Museum of Lakeland Life. Many of the
rooms were done up to look like Victorian street fronts, or mine shafts, or
farm rooms, plus lots of general information about the way people have lived in
the region. 
It also included a room
devoted to Arthur Ransome, the author of Swallows
and Amazons, with his writing desk, sketches and various memorabilia. The lake he wrote about is most likely
Coniston not Windemere, as I had thought.
There was a movie and a BBC production back in the 60s that were filmed
there. Finally, we did a little grocery
shopping and headed home. We have been pretty
good since we got the cottage about eating lunch out and cooking supper at
home, which makes for a more economical vacation.
This is a
project that began with one woman in 1981 with her Sunday school class to
illustrate Quaker history through embroidery panels app. two feet square. There are now 77 panels on display picturing
notable people, events, places, ideas, causes, etc. They have been created by many different
groups, mostly in the UK, but also around the world, through 1996. They are not sewn together into one tapestry,
but displayed side by side in two rows. 
I was also impressed with the number of visitors. The half of the building devoted to the
tapestry gives a good idea of what the original meeting house must have looked
like – very high ceiling with some bleacher like seating along the walls. It probably also had a balcony to begin
with. There is an impressive wood paneling
which was lowered to divide the room in half.
In the old days, this was done so that the women could run their own
business meeting separate from the men.
Partly this was done because the women were mostly in charge of the care
of the membership and the men with the upkeep of the buildings, and probably
partly so the women could speak and be heard more easily without men
present. The caretakers were a couple
from California who have been coming over for a few weeks every year for four
years. They are given a flat; I don’t
know if they have to work every day at the Tapestry Centre, but it is
definitely more work than the Wellington Centre.
After a nice lunch at the Quaker café, we walked around Kendal, down the river to the old parish church,
which was started in the 13th
century. It is 5 aisles wide, making it
the third widest church in England. Next
to the church is Abbott Hall, a manor house which has been turned into the
Museum of Lakeland Life. Many of the
rooms were done up to look like Victorian street fronts, or mine shafts, or
farm rooms, plus lots of general information about the way people have lived in
the region. 
It also included a room
devoted to Arthur Ransome, the author of Swallows
and Amazons, with his writing desk, sketches and various memorabilia. The lake he wrote about is most likely
Coniston not Windemere, as I had thought.
There was a movie and a BBC production back in the 60s that were filmed
there. Finally, we did a little grocery
shopping and headed home. We have been pretty
good since we got the cottage about eating lunch out and cooking supper at
home, which makes for a more economical vacation.
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