Scottish Hats

How about these looks?

Saint Giles Cathedral Vibrates

Along Edinburgh's Royal Mile sits St. Giles Cathedral, home to the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's chivalric company of knights headed by the Queen. Sounds like something out of The DaVinci Code but these are all knights of the modern era and Queen Elizabeth II.

During our visit the organ was being played - filling the Cathedral with sound and vibration. The music was modern and the pipe organ is too. There was a passage under the instrument that allowed you to feel the music as it was played - literally made you vibrate.

The light was beautiful as it streamed through the stained glass windows (between rain storms) as you can see in this portrait of Stephen.

New Lanark for a New Millennium

There is a world heritage sight in Scotland called New Lanark which was setup in the late 1800s as an idealised community for cotton mill workers. The founder, Robert Owen - here's what their website states about Owen:

Many ideas expressed by Robert Owen (1771-1858) remain amazingly relevant and topical today. The international cultural influence of his campaign for a better and fairer society is one of the criteria by which New Lanark was assessed by UNESCO as being worthy of World Heritage Status.

Robert Owen often talked of the new Millennium; a time, he hoped, when society would be greatly improved. When he opened the Institute for the Formation of Character on New Year’s Day 1816, he gave an Address to the Inhabitants of New Lanark, in which he outlined his hopes for the Millennium, his plans, and his notion that education was the means of achieving a better and fairer society.

Stephen was tripping out on happy talk as you can see from his New Millennium orange outfit.

It is a beautiful location nestled in near an Ithaca-like gorge nestled in a lush valley between Glasgow and Edinburgh.