Rosslyn Chapel

27 September 2014

My cousin, Vickie, visited in September and gave us another chance to try out our tour guiding skills...

A new place we visited just south of town was the Rosslyn Chapel of Da Vinci Code fame. It was originally built in 1456, but has had a troubled past (closed in 1571 when assets were seized during the Reformation, sacked in 1650, restored and services began again in 1862). It's so amazing to think that this chapel has been here during all the European migration to the New World!

I love flying buttresses so I love this little chapel!

The original plans called for a larger church, but the finished product is much smaller and the unfinished portion is clearly visible. Eventually, they added a small entrance in the unfinished portion.

Original plans (shape of a cross)

View of the chapel as it stands now.

The unfinished portion of the church - you can clearly see that they intended something bigger. The edges of the structure have unfinished walls, but they added the entrance portion later. 

I don't have any photos of the inside (no photos allowed), but there were some interesting features, including:

• An angel playing the bagpipes - oldest depiction of the bagpipe - they were first used in the mid-1400s
• A beautifully carved column - This column was allegedly carved by an apprentice carver inspired by a dream. When the master returned and saw the carving, he supposedly killed the apprentice in a rage
• Mistake or Message? In a stone carving of the 7 Sins and 7 Virtues, Greed and Charity are swapped, with Greed amongst the virtues and Charity now a sin. 
• A crypt that featured in the Da Vinci Code - although it looks a little different and less exciting without Tom Hanks!

One of the saddest things is that in the 1950s they tried to protect the delicate painted internal sculpted features by applying a protective coating to everything. However, they haven't been able to successfully remove it, so all the internal features are less detailed and unpainted. The features are still beautiful and I can only imagine how stunning the chapel would have been prior to the 'saving' of the delicate features...

A few more photos of the beautiful outside of the chapel.

The flying buttresses were beautiful in person, but hard to photograph because they blend in with the stone behind it. 

Dog friendly!

There is a little graveyard just down the hill from the chapel.
It was beautiful and green with storm clouds in the background. 

The chapel is located next to a very beautiful natural area complete with hiking paths, stone walls, and a stream - very beautiful in the fall!

When the wall was built, there was clearly a need for this little pass through.
The tree couldn't have been blocking it, so it just reinforces how old things are. 

No trip is complete without a stop for a pint!
We were happy to be a bit early for the bus :)

A cocktail party education

14 Feb 2015

A cocktail party can be a very international educational experience (and much more fun than sitting in a classroom!). Things I learned at a cocktail party:

1) Making cocktails is messy business
Making mixed drinks (pouring, using a shaker, etc.) is not as easy as it looks when the bartenders do it (my drink-coated table and floor will attest to this!). We had milk punch (alcoholic milkshake) and brambles (a fun, British drink) - we got the hang of it eventually!

2) Party games are different across the ocean
I went to a well-respected party school for college (Go UW-Madison!) and thought I had a good handle on party games. However, I learned two new games. One is distinctly British and the other is too much fun not to share:

Save the Queen:
Using a British coin (which has a picture of the Queen on it), you have to try and get the coin into someone else's drink. If they are holding the drink, you can slip it in. Otherwise, you have to throw the coin in. If you succeed, you exclaim 'Save the Queen!' (because she's drowning!) and they have to finish their drink. Of course, beware that you don't accidentally swallow the Queen in your haste to save her from her watery fate...

Paper/Guessing Game:
Using whatever theme you want (anything from all nouns to famous people or Valentine's Day), each player fills out three slips of paper with appropriate (or inappropriate!) words. Then the game is played using teams and three rounds. In the first round, each person gets 1 minute to try and get their team to guess as many of the words as possible by describing them in any way, but without using the word on the paper (a la Balderdash). When the minute runs out, the other team gets 1 minute and it goes back and forth until all the words have been guessed. At this point, everyone on both teams has heard all the possible words. You would think that would make the following two rounds easier...
In round 2, the format is the same, but you only get a single word descriptor. Finally, round 3 is miming only.

3) Names for Disney heroes/villains are not the same across languages
This difference is apparent mostly when trying to use the name in a party game with people from at least 5 different countries! Our particular example was Cruella vs Crudelia. I looked up another example as well as my homework.

• English: Huey, Dewey, Louie
• Finnish: Tupu, Hupu, Lupu
• Swedish: Knatte, Fnatte, Tjatte
• Danish: Rip, Rap, Rup
• Norwegian: Ole, Dole, Doffen

4) Innocent handwriting misinterpretations can lead to hilarity.
I'll leave you to invent a definition for 'spankles'!

Cheers!