Except in central London, most shops were closed on Sundays. Most people in Britain would go to church or visiting friends or staying at home for some cleanup work. Sundays are peaceful days.
This was the first day of my trip that I could wake up late. I have not planned going anywhere for today. After a quiet time in the hostel lounge, I searched the information bulletin board for somewhere to go. Eventually, I discovered there was a bus running from Edinburgh City Center, passing through the bus stop next to my hostel, to Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel is located in a village called Rosslin, around 10 km from the center of Edinburgh. I decided to go there.
Just round the corner, I found this Chinese take away shop established in Edinburgh 30 years ago. Like the shops, most bus routes do not provide service on Sundays in the UK. Even though some of them do provide service, the headway are greatly reduced. The bus going to Rosslyn Chapel was route 15A. From the route number, you can see that this was a auxiliary route of route 15. The only difference between the two routes is route 15A was diverted to serve Rosslyn Chapel while route 15 did not. And because of Dan Brown, Rosslyn Chapel became more and more famous nowadays. Both 15 and 15A used to stop service on Sundays. But now, 15A provides an hourly service on Sundays while its main route, route 15, remains no service. Apart from a longer waiting time, taking buses in the UK on Sundays is a pleasure as you would probably be the only passenger on board. But not on 15A. When the bus arrived my stop, it was nearly full! I can only found a aisle-facing seat near the entrance and passengers boarded the bus on the next stops needed to stand all the way to Rosslin.
The overall traveling time was just half and hour. The bus passes through the picturesque countryside of Edinburgh city. I bought a day ticket which cost only
As you can see from the picture above, nearly all people on the bus were going to Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslin is not the terminus of 15A. But after this stop, only 3 passengers remained on board.
There is a 3-minute walk from the bus stop to the chapel. Although the temperature was around 10 degrees, Scottish were enjoying their summer with their shorts.
Again, thanks to Dan Brown, the original Rosslyn Chapel car park was too small to handle the demand nowadays. A farmland was next to the chapel was converted to a temporary car park. There were many local tour visitng this chapel on that day.
And I found someone selling "Da Vinci" Horse Manure at 50p per bag. Can anyone tell me what it is?
The notice board outside Rosslyn Chapel showed the time of their Sunday Services. This chapel was still functioned as a place of worship.
The entrance fee of Rosslyn Chapel was
Inside the chapel, there were lots of cravings on the walls, pillars and ceiling. There were also may tinted windows.
Jesus rising to the heaven, I like this one!
This is the prayer request book. If you have anything to pray for, just write that down on the prayer request book and the priest will pray for you in the next prayer meeting.
Many items inside this chapel showed evidence of its connection to the Knight Templar, like the above two cravings.
The panel on the left showed the family tree of the founder of Rosslyn Chapel, Sir William St. Clair. And there is a basement inside this chapel. But this is not the one stored the secret scroll of the Knight Templar. The craving on the right was found on the basement. The people on the chair was believed to be Moses, sitting on the book of law. And the one standing on two rounded-shape items was King David and the skeleton was devil. Okay, let's talk about "Da Vinci Code". Thank you for Dan Brown, Rosslyn Chapel became more and more popular nowadays. It was true that there are quite a lot of evidence connecting the Rosslyn Chapel with the secretive Knight Templar. And also, there were lots of strange cravings with unknown meanings inside the chapel. I have never read the "code" or watched the movie. But I somehow knew the story a little bit. At the end of this novel, it said that there was a hidden chamber or basement underneath the red carpet at the center of the chapel. Inside the basement stored some secret scrolls belonged to the Knight Templar which revealed the screct that Mary Magdelene was Jesus' wife. This is the turth I found out in this visit: There were guided tour every hour in this chapel. I have recorded it using my digital camera. If you wanted to know more about Rosslyn Chapel and the "code", you can watch it. But I was not very good in western history. If there was something in the video you don't understand, please ask someone else.
Outside the chapel is a small garden.
I walked up the staircase of the cage and took some photos of the exterior of the chapel, the roof and the outside area.
After a long visit inside the chapel, I started feeling hungry and decided to go back to hostel for lunch. The exit of Rosslyn Chapel is a book shop selling all sorts of Bible-related items and souvenirs. They were earning lots of many from the Da Vinci Code hit for sure. But have they ever heard Jesus said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market (John 2:16)" ?
People in the UK were crazy about the "Da Vinci Code". And there were even many people trying to earn as many money as possible from this hit. Even the Rosslyn Hotel opened a restaurant in their permise called "The Grail Restaurant".
I took the same bus back to Bruntsfeild. The Tesco supermarket was opened on Sunday and I bought some British sausage for lunch. I also got a cup of free goats milk from the fridge's shared food area.
After the late lunch, I went out to have a walk around. Outside the hostel, there is a golf course. People were enjoying playing golf there, enjoying the early summer sunshine. It was about 5pm already.
I walked and walked and finally reached Queen's Street, the center of Edinburgh. Edinburgh castle was just on top of the hill on the other side of the valley. I walked to the railway station to check the timetable for tomorrow. I will be leaving Scotland, heading to Blaenau Ffestiniog tomorrow. Staff in railway stations are very helpful. But I got a little problem when I arrived there. The staff in the help deck is a young man. The problem is not because of he is not willing to help me. Indeed, he is very helful. But the problem is I did not know how to read or spell "Blaenau Ffestiniog". So I told him I wanted to go to Wales, to a station with name formed by two word. The first word began with the letter B and the second began with a double F. However, the computer software is so smart and he can manged to find out the station and printed a copy of the timetable. Before I left the ticket office, I asked if he can read the station name again so that I can learn it. But he said he was not good in Welsh and didn't know how to read it!
It was already 6pm but some shops still opened. I walked around some bookshops. Not surprisingly, "Da Vinci Code" was the number 1 best seller.
I took bus back to hostel with my day ticket and had a early sleep after my dinner. I needed to wake up early next morning again. |
2.30p.
