A Sabbatical Journey and Journal


Via Auto, Train, Plane & Ferry
Travel is glamorous only in retrospect (Paul Theroux)


The journey begins at the end of August. I stay in London for a day and then take the train to Wales and board a ferry to Dublin Ireland.



I suppose the notion is to experience the "getting there" as well as the "there."


Dublin, Ireland, the Book of Kells, Trinity College and a rental car will get daughter, Makaila and me around the country. And around Northern Ireland. A short flight to Edinburgh, Scotland and another rental car will help us see Scotland. 



One Stop will certainly be the Rossyn Chapel. Members of our church recommended that I stop and by the look of it, I will not miss it.


Around Scotland for castles and cathedrals and some of the Highlands. Makaila leaves after two weeks and I fly to Copenhagen.


I have never been there and since I'll be in the neighborhood ......

My friends in Germany have asked that I stop by and I'll do so via the train to Aachen, Germany to see the great cathedral there.

The prospective new Young Ambassadors (2019/2020) will be gathering with their parents in Unna, Germany in mid September and I have been asked to speak with them about the program in Ohio. They will be in Ohio next July.

Onward to Cherbourg, France via train and the nearby Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Battle of Hastings of 1066...a crucial event in the history of England.


Nearby is Normandy and the beaches. I will stop. 

Mont St. Michele....(below)


And San-Malo...the setting of "All the Light You Cannot See."

A ferry from Cherbourg, France will take me back to England and a side trip to Reading, England via the train where my brother informs me that our great grandfather ....9 generations back was baptized in St. Giles. Maybe he is buried there...in any case....a pilgrimage of sorts.


Finally a stop for a couple days in Windsor, England with plans to see Windsor Castle and Saint George's Chapel, scene of a recent Royal Wedding.


A day or so in London will give me time to see some more Christopher Wren churches and perhaps Ye Olde Mitre to toast my late friend Don who directed me there a few years ago.

The sacred, the touristy, the offbeat. 
Seeing things that are new to me and my daughter and visiting ministry colleagues in Germany and a couple familiar haunts in London. 
Time away.
I am grateful for the Sabbatical time. My church treats me well and I hope I repay that trust.
The journey is the goal.

Peace,  Bob

















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